Software Developer Pattern: Worker Bee

Second in a series of patterns describing software developers. The original treatise included the Enthusiast pattern.

Worker Bee (Drone; Cog)
Worker bees are willing (more or less) and able (more or less) to implement the code assigned to them in the manner in which they've been told (more or less). They usually do not exhibit a strong passion for software development, a keen design sense or a drive for process improvement.

Motivation
Worker bees are really just hoping to get through the day so that they can go home and do whatever it is that really interests them: spend time with the family, watch TV, roller-disco, whatever. Their motivation for showing up at work every day to develop software is usually something basic like the need to support their family and hobbies, or "I dunno, the pay's good", or something equally gripping.

Applicability
Worker bees are best suited to an environments that other developers might find stifling. For instance, if the development process and procedures is onerous and ineffective, this will not bother the worker bee, who, frankly doesn't care that much as long as you continue to sign the cheques. They are relatively reliable employees who are less likely to move around as more interesting and lucrative opportunities open up elsewhere.

Because they tend to follow the path of least resistance, Worker Bees have a tendency to deliver code of average quality or sometimes lower-than-average. This can be mitigated by regular contact, supervision, code review or simply accepted: not every project and task requires a stellar codebase.

Worker bees are also good maintenance programmers, because, again, they're not looking for fulfillment from their job, so won't mind so much being stuck fixing bugs in other people's lousy designs.

Some organizations believe that development teams should be like factory lines, with a large number of relatively low-skill workers supervised carefully by one or more foreman-types. These organizations are looking for worker bees, and if you hire someone else to fill that role, they'll probably just get frustrated and move on.

Collaboration
Some worker bees are willing to engage and be engaged; these benefit greatly from an Enthusiast, whose enthusiasm and energy may rub off over time. A sheepdog is a perfect fit for worker bees, as long as you don't mind mixing a metaphor. Sheepdogs are happiest when they have a team to shepherd through daily obstacles, and worker bees can thrive in that nurturing environment.

Pairing worker bees with architecture astronauts can be disasterous. Worker bees will happily implement the most wildly outrageous ideas that the astronauts generate without once stopping to question the sanity or applicability of the idea. On the other hand, if you have a highly-placed architecture astronaut whose energy you're trying to divert, sacrificing a worker bee to the task such that the remainder of the team can focus on doing the real work can be effective.

Consequences
A well-channeled worker bee can regularly turn in reasonable (if unexceptional) code in an environment that would drive most developers to distraction. A misdirected worker bee can plant unintentional timebombs through your codebase, or waste the time of other team members.

Sample Conversations

• "You'd like an abstraction layer over the database so that we could swap it out for a cache, a filesystem, a content repository or a filing cabinet? Sure, I'll get started on that right away."
• "No, that's ok, I don't need to know how this feature will be used."
• "The last development book/website I read? Well, there was this one book in college that I liked..."
  

Well-Known Examples
You've worked with these people before, I know you have. Worker bees, as a general rule, don't make it to Well-Known.

Related Patterns

• Cargo Cultist: Although enthusiastic, cargo cultists remain just as oblivious to the rationale behind the practices they follow.
• Consultant: Same basic motivation, but better at self-promotion, sometimes better at coding, and radically more expensive.