Forget Rock Star and Ninja – How About Warewolf? Ross | July 23rd, 2008
The labels “rock star” and “ninja” are overused in software development. After all, even the late Chris Farley was a ninja but he couldn’t even spell CSS.
I’m suggesting a new label: warewolf.
Hear me out. At the start of a complicated project, a developer usually starts out clean shaven and proper. Here is Chad, our lead software engineer, at the start of a long project.
After a few weeks, we start to see Chad change. At first, just a little. He grows some more facial hair and becomes a little more grouchy. After 6 weeks of long days, it’s apparent that the transformation is well on its way, as evident in the following photo (taken 6 weeks into our massive push to launch into private beta in March 2008).
And at around 8 weeks, the transformation is complete. Here’s Chad after 8 weeks:
As you can imagine, after 8 weeks, we typically decide that the product is ready to launch so that Chad can shave and return to normal. We’re pretty good at keeping our major development cycles under 8 weeks.
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3 Comments
NICE. When Chad is Wii team leader, his team can be called Warewolf.
/*Fell off chair laughing*/
This explains better why people looked so intimidated when entering my cubicle at the old job… hopefully…
LOL! Reminds me of me when there’s a RUSH job to do… only less hair. Thanks for the laugh!
[...] hardware architecture changes. It was a brutal period for our entire team. Many 20 hour days (especially for Chad), numerous all-nighters, and tons of [...]