For the final few posts in the Development Project Archetypes we’ll focus on developers.

An incestuous cousin to the Front of the Magazine Architect, this developer is easily distracted by any new technology. Not only will he want to talk about it endlessly, the ‘Oooo…Shiny!’ Developer will simply add the technology to the project without telling anyone. You will find, scattered through the code base, a number of different techniques, tools or frameworks that are used one time and then abandoned. While adding to your technical debt, the ‘Oooo…Shiny!’ Developer is working feverishly to keep adding new entries to the “Experience Using” section of his resume.

Sometimes it is easy enough to counter his predilection for new and shiny simply by placing a pretty glass bead on their keyboard every morning. When that fails, it’s time to up the priority of the code reviews for The “Oooo…Shiny!” Developer. And be merciless.