Talk:Lead programmer

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Refrain from vandalism. Content you removed did not relate to mechanical engineering; chartered engineer status is a real thing, as is the British Computer Society - not "gibberish". Possibility was deleted by an insecure, unqualified developer who does not hold a degree. Leadengineer101 16:40, 20 October 2020 (UTC)[reply]

Something about lead developers in open source projects would be a good addition Htaccess 16:22, 28 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I question the use of Donald Knuth as a lead programmer. It is true that he is a great programmer, and has lead the development f projects, but I don't know that he has had much by way of team development. The time he spent writing TeX probably doesn't really count as a typical lead programmer role imho. --RobEDawson (talk) 03:12, 19 December 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I concur, this is a silly reference. 82.69.0.198 (talk) 05:07, 4 April 2010 (UTC)[reply]

In the previous edit of this entry the following line was used: "This cultural identification is valuable, since subordinate programmers will tend to not take direction from someone perceived as lacking in technical skills."

Can anyone tell me how this isn't biased against programers or why this has existed since 2007? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ckedward (talk • contribs)

I think the word "subordinate" here means "subordinate to the lead programmer", or, in other words, any other programmer on the project. I don't think it's biased.

Please sign your posts with 3 or 4 tildes (~~~~). Four is preferred, since it also adds a timestamp. — Frεcklεfσσt | Talk 17:51, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I fail to see the bias here. It may not be brilliant prose, but it was contextually correct. How does the word "subordinate" produce bias? —  HELLKNOWZ  ▎TALK 18:02, 19 January 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I also think "subordinate" is correct. The very term "lead" indicates there's some kind of hierarchy. Some lead, some follow. Arjant (talk) 13:06, 20 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Should senior developer forward to this article? --82.136.210.153 (talk) 10:34, 23 October 2014 (UTC)[reply]

-- I've been thinking about this. There is some overlap between Senior Developers and Lead Programmers.

A Senior Developer is a strong programmer capable of completing difficult tasks, and is more productive than a mid-level programmer.

A Senior Developer might not lead other programmers. Certainly, a Lead is usually a Senior Developer.

And to muddle the waters a little bit, sometimes Lead Programmers lead a product and not a team. With the architect, you have your system builder, whereas with a lead, they are usually inheriting a system; sometimes the architect performs the managerial responsibilities of the Lead Programmer, in this "Product Lead" model. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.56.53.110 (talk) 17:10, 19 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

https://www.salary.com/tools/salary-calculator/software-engineer-iii-job-description Software Engineer III(Senior) designs and develops software applications. Performs coding, debugging, testing and troubleshooting throughout the application development process. Being a Software Engineer III may direct a few junior level software engineers. Requires a bachelor's degree. Additionally, Software Engineer III typically reports to a manager. The Software Engineer III contributes to moderately complex aspects of a project. Work is generally independent and collaborative in nature. To be a Software Engineer III typically requires 4 to 7 years of related experience.

https://www.salary.com/tools/salary-calculator/software-engineer-iv-job-description Software Engineer IV(Lead) designs and develops software applications. Performs coding, debugging, testing and troubleshooting throughout the application development process. Being a Software Engineer IV requires a bachelor's degree. Typically reports to a manager. Software Engineer IV is a specialist on complex technical and business matters. Work is highly independent. May assume a team lead role for the work group. To be a Software Engineer IV typically requires 7+ years of related experience. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 73.56.53.110 (talk) 02:50, 21 March 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I find issue with this sentence: "In a true Agile approach, the lead programmer collaborates with a separate position of scrum master,..."

If we are talking "true Agile", let's remember that Scrum (1995 [0]) predates Agile (2001 [1]), and is only one re-interpretation of Agile [2] (to make it ride on the increasing popularity of "Agile"?), and certainly does not qualify as "true Agile". Eg. a Kanban team won't even have a Scrum Master *activity* or *role*, let alone a full-time position. So while it can be debated if Scrum is Agile or not, "true Agile" might not have a Scrum Master at all, so a lead programmer would not be able to collaborate with them.

I'll tune the wording to say that this works in "Scrum" with the reasoning outlined above.

[0]https://www.scrum.org/resources/blog/scrum-brief-history-long-lived-hype [1]https://agilemanifesto.org/history.html [2]https://agilemanifesto.org/principles.html ~2025-30969-00 (talk) 04:17, 5 November 2025 (UTC)[reply]