Team Of One

The programmer that no one can work with, no one understands, and no one can approach, and yet their code seems to work and requires very little maintenance.

I have known such individuals before, they are usually found where regular teams are workable, everyone understands them, and they are very approachable, sociable and fit the corporate model to the T, and yet their code never seems to work, takes forever to be completed and when it is supposedly complete, requires a lot of maintenance. Some managers have found that overlooking conformity and recognizing that results may be more important, especially when doing so can get them out of trouble, Even if it means that they have to deal with the TeamOfOne.

Or . . . .

The lone programmer in a company. Can have good social skills, but still gets locked in the closet to program the system.

Usually not found in software industry. This is found in manufacturing or other fields where a programmer is both necessary, and not part of the core business. A GuruProgrammer? by default, all projects have a TruckNumber of 1.

Underpaid and unappreciated, the managers and supervisors do not understand what the developer does, nor the importance or scope that their contributions have on the workplace as a whole. Plants have been known to shutdown at the leaving of this team of one, since there are 0 technical employees to take over immediately.

Been there, done that, in Monsanto, back in 2005. No Plants closed though :) Amusingly enough, my pet systems continue to run to this date. Unfortunately, the absurds in bureaucracy forced me to deploy them in a way they would mostly take care of themselves. Oh, if I weren't so naive!