Teams that play together, stay together. It is all about the relationship people have with one another. We all have different strengths and weaknesses and essentially it is about knowing each other well enough to compensate for one and other, know what people can and cannot do, and create unity through this diversity and iteratively build on competencies. That is how great teams are built, and great things are made.
Articles like this in essence create a divide in thinking (them/us, execs/techs, etc.), which maybe reflective of some big work places where people work with strangers, but which do not have to exist (especially in smaller businesses).
Think of the early days of many of the great companies today. They often had people with diverse talents, and created great things because of harmony rather than divide.
There are generally problems between tech and business people and two or three person startups as well. The biggest cause of this in my experience is a business person expecting a technical founder to be a wizard who can defy the laws of physics to make a crazy idea happen.
Business Guys...please try to do a little research. You don't need to know how to implement a solution to a problem, but 15 minutes on Google will usually tell you what's possible and what isn't. There is nothing I hate more than the implied "Well if you're not good enough to figure this out just say so".
There is nothing I love more than coming up with a truly innovative solution to a problem, but it just isn't possible every day. There is a difference between lack of ability and an improbable solution.
Hearing "maybe you're just not good enough to figure this out" is a sign you're working with a passive aggressive personality. In my experience, it's also said by the person who's been touting the technical person's skills to other people as "the person who's going to solve all our problems". They're setting you up for failure, because not only are their tasks often impossible to deliver on, they use it to threaten to bring someone else in.
Ok two of those remarks can be said about engineers too.
4. Failure to Show Respect. Business execs show little respect to developers because they think they know what is the clear path to the next million dollar. They also do not want to hear complaints and simply want to see that new breakthrough feature appear on screen 5 minutes ago. Engineers on the other hand pretend to listen to execs but they are only hearing blah blah blah...They think business execs are idea guys who talk a lot and think their plan to reach that million dollar makes no sense and they are here just to drive the company to the deadpool (In most case they do)
1. Failure to be humble. My friend, my friend. Developers are usually quite, and they can pretend to listen, but that does not mean they give a rat's behind about what you are saying or even think you are worthy of their time for that matter (I mean this inside the office), hence they say "yes" just so you can get out their way. Not talking does not mean, Humble. Engineers can brag too and in fact they do. I asked a CTO last week "I heard you launched an open source project last week and got x downloads"? That was it. The guy who did not even know my name after 3 weeks, sat there for 20 minutes telling me about this project.
The Fact of the matter is that as individuals we usually think people who are different are less this or that than we are. This problem goes beyond engineers and business execs. It is the same between PHP guys and Ruby advocates, Young and Old, Nations etc...
We should simply learn how to accept differences in and outside the office and be open to learn what others have to offer instead of going to through life with a "I got to defend my position" attitude.
Articles like this in essence create a divide in thinking (them/us, execs/techs, etc.), which maybe reflective of some big work places where people work with strangers, but which do not have to exist (especially in smaller businesses).
Think of the early days of many of the great companies today. They often had people with diverse talents, and created great things because of harmony rather than divide.