The Hobbyist and the Professional

I first coined this term in February 2006 in a paper titled “Overcoming the Challenges of Establishing Service and Support Channels” for the conference “Implementing Open Source for Optimal Business Performance” View Paper.

I must have referenced this several times, time to give this topic it’s due notice. In summary it targets three areas:

  • the lack of appropriate database design in open source projects
  • the lack of coding standards
  • the lack of sound programming principles

Here are the bullet points from the slide in a presentation.

Hobbyist

  • Download-able software and examples
  • Online tutorials
  • Books like Learn in 24 hours/For Dummies

Professional

  • Formal Qualifications
  • Grounding in sound programming practices
  • Understanding of SDLC principles
  • Worked in team environment

Middle Ground Developer

  • Time to skill verses output productivity
  • Depends on environment and requirements
Tagged with: Databases General Open Source

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