What to do with star developers who don't document their work? [closed]

Answer 1

Doesn't sound like much of a star programmer to me. All the good programmers know that code formatting and use of source control matters. Sounds like although he makes good progress by himself, he's obstructing the progress of the other team members, which might have a net negative effect on the work getting done. Talk to him, and if he refuses to change his practices, let him go.

Answer 2

There's a lot of folks here on the "no comments, so what?" bandwagon here. Literate code without comments is perfectly possible, but just because someone is smart and doesn't comment doesn't necessarily mean that they are writing literate code.

So let's clarify. You already said he doesn't document his code at all, either in comments or separate documents, and he doesn't use any source control. How about:

• Is his code understandable despite the lack of comments?
• Does your team use any kind of issue tracking (e.g. FogBugz, Bugzilla, etc) which he participates in?
• Is his code under test?
• Is there anyone else on the team who actually is at least somewhat familiar with how his code works?
• Is he willing to at least acknowledge that he could stand to make some changes in the way he works with the rest of the team?

If the answer to all of these questions is "no", you have a big problem. Just being smart doesn't necessarily make someone an asset. Do you have any guarantee that he won't leave your company tomorrow, or get hit by a bus? How screwed would you be if that happened? Is it worth the risk?

Answer 3

The CVS part is easy - an "accidental" hard drive failure will teach him a lesson for a life (make sure you have a backup though so you won't actually lose code)

Answer 4

Failing to document is a (very bad) way to ensure job security.

You can do several things to counter this:

• add documentation as a requirement for the personal performance reviews.
• don't accept software that isn't documented.
• have a word with the developer and find out why he doesn't document.
• Buy a cool documentation tool.

Answer 5

Talk to him?

If he really is a "star developer" he'll take note of what you say.

It may not change him overnight but it might be that he is just completely unaware that other people dont get it quite like he does.

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Edit:

It's probably a bit late to change now, but more information is needed in working out a solution. It's impossible for anyone here to actually suggest letting the guy go based on these points alone. If you've been telling the guy every day for the last year that he needs to change or he's out of here, then you can let him go. However, I see no evidence of that.

A brilliant developer can be taught to use source control, comment and document. If you spend the effort here then you truly will have a star developer.

Answer 6

If he really is that bright and you cannot change his ways, nor do you want to lose him but you still want your code to be documented and commented then my suggestion would be to let a less experienced developer do the documenting and commenting for him. Personally if I were a star developer I would feel prettiy foolish if someone else was made to comment my code and I would start to do it myself eventually. In the meantime while that does not happen the less experienced developer may learn a thing or two.