Professional Engineering - Habits
- Do what you’re told. If you disagree, voice your concerns, and then, do what you’re told, even if you still disagree.
- Let people know what you’re doing, so they have an opportunity to correct you if you are going astray.
- Ask for permission if you are doing something unusual, or something that requires a significant amount of resources - including time.
- Be honest. If you make a mistake, admit it. Then, fix it.
- Don’t assign blame. No one wants it publicized that they made a mistake. They probably don’t illuminate your errors, either.
- Work within the code you’re given. Adhere to the architecture and practices, even if you don’t like them. If you radically change the way a system runs, it will likely be expensive to maintain, and difficult to understand.
- If you don’t understand what you are supposed to do, ask. ‘I didn’t know’ and ‘I thought’ are not valid excuses.
- Know who you work for. That person is the boss. They make the decisions with respect to what you must do. Clients, both internal and external must understand that your boss is in charge, not you. Don’t try to do more work than you are supposed to. It will cost someone something.
- Meet the specification fully. If you can’t, identify alternate solutions and get approval before deviating.
- Know how much time you have for a task, and finish in that time, or explain why you can’t and how you will handle it.
- Published material, of any form, is not a place for humor. Don’t put humor in your code, don’t use silly sample data, no matter how hilarious you think it is, don’t post funny images. If you send an email, it should be clear and concise. Posts in the defect/bug reporting, and in version control, should be strictly professional. Never forget that what you think is funny may not be funny to your coworkers, or your successors.
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