2 weeks ago I co-hosted a Webinar with one of our users – Bill Mar, Director of Engineering Services from SmithMicro Software. SmithMicro provides the backbone of our digital life by connecting different digital devices together. In his role, Bill works in the Wireless Business unit working on Voice-related services, e.g.: VoiceSMS or Visual Voicemail – services that we’ve all become used to since we run around with smart phones such as the iPhone or Blackberry.

Bill talked about how SmithMicro had to move towards Proactive Performance Management as the company and the user base started to grow. In his presentation he made an interesting but bold statement: Developers Think Functionality – But Less About Scalability.

As I used to be a developer for many years (and still today, as dynaTrace still allows me to do a little coding on certain features) I had to think about this statement and didn’t know in the beginning whether I should agree with him from the perspective of my current role within dynaTrace or whether I should be offended from the perspective of a developer who just likes to code new features. In the end I agreed with him – especially after listening to all he had to say about his day-to-day challenges as Directory of Engineering Services.

In this blog I summarize what was said on the webinar. Bill gave some great insight into what they did in order to become more proactive with performance management. He shared recommendations and their Best Practices that have worked for his team. He really told some great stories and had some great analogies. The bold statement I mentioned in the beginning is just a teaser

This should hardly be a surprise.  Given that scalability matters little if it doesn't function as required, correct functionality is more important that scalability.  In my experience, most developers don't even have time to get the functionality correct (usually mainly because of poor requirements) let alone start thinking about scalability and performance.  The more junior the developer, the less they should think about performance and scalability.  That's where more senior team members should be guiding them.

In most projects dead lines are defined first and then they think who will do these task, and most often deadline is define with just the base functionality in mind with zero preference/scope of any scalability[some time even enhancements are not considered].

Later when there is a real need of scalability, they will ask the developers why doesn't your system scale? ;) [common don't you know why??? I have hardcoded everything to meet your dead line!]

There are many cases where the technical architects have considered all aspects of scalability and do a great job but sadly that system never needs any further enhancements which can mase of that scalability.

Developers surely concentrate on funcitonality with some scalability and flexbility in mind, and the degree of that scalability is mostly dependent on parameters like Deadlines, technical expertize, etc.

Just couldnt agree more with the statement.!!!!