The Boy Next Door

TheBoyNextDoor represents management's lack of respect for the art of software development. Sometimes management use people like their "friend's son" as a reference in a serious discussion, or as a second opinion. And they believe it is sufficient evidence that a programmer is doing something wrong.

In general, TheBoyNextDoor represent the belief that software development is about hacking and that code is all that goes into it. It is the same problem you'll discover when you talk to a CowboyCoder about product development. They tend to believe that _the code is the product_. They also tend to believe that writing 100 LOC only will cost the company the effort spent writing the 100 LOC. It is in fact a widespread misconception among management that code is for free. People thinking like this forget that in a product 100 LOC spawn of into far more activities than just _writing the code_. Documentation, support, educational efforts, marketing material, sales material, etc. cost far more than the actuall 100 LOC. Still, the argument is that TheBoyNextDoor would finish this in a couple of days and he told me that there are tools on the internet that can do that for you automatically.

On the other hand, if TheBoyNextDoor happen to be a full blooded professional programmer, I guess you are out of luck. Know the difference.

-- NiclasOlofsson