This debate is as old as time and until now, I’ve largely steered clear from it. Mostly because I could see good reasons for both sides of the argument.
That being said, I recently got back into coding after a two year break and I’m starting to see some clear benefits:
Our team is moving faster
As small issues and bugs come up from our customers, rather than distracting the engineering team from our top priorities, I take care of them. This is helping the team stay on task and meet our company objectives more reliably.
I’m saving myself time from doing boring administrative work
When I spot an issue, I have to document it, share it with the team, and then prioritize it. Most times, that issue sits in the backlog untouched because there’s always something more important to work on. In a number of these cases, I can get the issue fixed in less time.
The quality of our product has been improving
Working with really tight timelines means we often have to pass up on some of the niceties that help with overall quality. While the team is focused on implementing our high priority features, I can spend some of my time adding the nice touches we would otherwise not have time for.
Our team is moving faster
As small issues and bugs come up from our customers, rather than distracting the engineering team from our top priorities, I take care of them. This is helping the team stay on task and meet our company objectives more reliably.
I’m working closer with my colleagues.
When I review one of our engineers work, instead of pointing out all the things that need to be fixed, I can now jump in and help out. This once again saves us time from going back and forth but it also allows our engineers to focus on bigger more important challenges.
There’s always something new to learn
The development world moves at a rapid pace. I enjoying learning about all the new technologies and techniques people are experimenting with.
While I recognize there are some drawbacks with me spending my time coding, the benefits are well with it. Plus I enjoy doing it and it fills my bucket to code.