We clearly live in an age of specialism. I see this in my daily life, all too many people specialise in one field of work and struggle to adapt when the landscape changes.
I myself try to remain fairly general, only specialising when I really must. I try to learn concepts rather than details. For example, the concept of object orientation, inheritance, polymorphism. These are the basic foundations for most modern OO languages and are easily transferred between. Ergo, picking up a new language doesn't faze me, I can draw parallels with other OO languages, compare and contrast. Once I understand the differences, I also understand the similarities. Keeping myself a generalist serves me well. Solutions architecture and integration is all about generalising. Leave the detailing to someone else.
Anyway, back to my hack.. We clearly live in an age of specialism. Why did I say that, well, I observed over the course of two weeks, the road works being carried out right at my front gate. Firstly, two men with a great wagon and some signs and barriers show up, put up the signs and barriers and then leave. Bizarre, there is no hole, no indication of work in progress, yet there is plenty of signage and barriers.
Within a few more hours, two men in a great big waggon (too big for their use) carryings shovels turn up. They proceed to dig two holes at either side of the road creating piles of rubble at the side of the holes and then leave.
The next day, another two men (that is 6 men now) turn up with another great big wagon transporting some blue pipe. They proceed to too and fro in the holes until they must have laid the pipework. They leave with the holes still exposed and the piles of rubble and barriers still intact.
A whole six days pass with no activity, until finally another wagon shows up, clears up the rubble onto the back of another wagon, leaving the holes exposed they drive away.
The next day, another wagon turns up with some sandstone crush hardcore on the back. They proceed to shovel it into the hole until it reaches nearly the top, then they leave. Within another few hours, another wagon turns up with a whacker plate to compress the hardcore, they then proceed to shovel some tarmac over the top, compress it and then leave.The next day, another wagon, a different two men turn up with some more tarmac, they proceed to shovel it on top, compress it. At this point, I am curious. We have seen eight different men in four gangs of two people for two simple holes and pipework repair no bigger than two feet by two feet. So I decide to ask, how come it takes so many of you guys to perform a simple repair. Their response, well, I was amazed. Apparently, putting up signs is one qualification, digging a hole is a different qualification, repairing a pipe is a different qualification again and you guessed it, laying tarmac is another qualification. Four qualifications for one simple job.
So, how is this relevant in the world of IT?
Well, it brings me to my last role where a team of capable developers made distinctions between a SharePoint developer and a DotNet developer and a Database Developer. Each role carries its own specialisms and its own qualifications. I am equally bemused by this, how is it possible for a team of specialists to function correctly, surely this isn't right. A good developer should have a foot in all camps, should be aware of the infrastructure, should be aware of the various development specialisms, should be capable of switching between specialisms. Certainly the good developers there did, unfortunately most of the good ones were contractors and therefore expensive.
We live in a world where business is making big demands of IT yet we have developers who are incapable of putting together the pieces and delivering something c-o-h-e-r-e-n-t. and joined up. This is a massive failing in the education of these developers. Surely the focus should be on "working software" over technology or specialisms. I'm sure the current economic climate will force a degree of streamlining and I am confident that people with the capability to put solutions together from a wide range of technologies, consultants and developers who live in the "real" world, rather than some idealistic fantasy world where all development is greenfield will fare better than those who specialise.