Are Software Developers A Distinct Group?

This is a terrifically loaded question. Unequivocally, the answer is YES. However, I ask this question in terms of a company that employees its own software development team.

In previous positions, the software developers (even the entire IT organization) were treated as a distinct group from the rest of the company. It's not like we were treated as pariahs, but we were not "included" in the rest of the company. We were even physically segregated from the different business units. Projects were brought to us by translators, I mean analysts, and a lot of effort was put into figuring out which business units were responsible for our cost.

I firmly believe this is the wrong approach. In my opinion, software developers (including all of IT) are another business unit within a company, much like a finance department or customer support group. We as software developers bring a distinct skill set and sometimes require different equipment, but we are most effective when we are integrated with the "business" units of a company.

This belief comes with a few tenets that must be in place. First, software developers must view themselves as part of the overall company. All too often, software developers want to be viewed as the lone heroic hacker solving the world's problems from their hovel of a workstation. This approach explicitly segregates the software developer from the rest of the company (if not the rest of the world), and makes it extremely difficult for the developer to create software that truly adds value to the company. If a developer doesn't know the business that his/her company is in, he/she can't find creative ways to create value or solve problems.

The other tenet that must be in place is that the company must see software developers (including all of IT) as a strategic advantage in the marketplace. Having an in-house IT staff makes it easier for a company to flex and change with changing markets. Internal IT staffs allow a company to more easily automate business processes or aggressively add new features that competitors can't. Without this perception of an internal IT staff, companies won't fully utilize the talent they have and they will waste a lot of energy figuring out how to expense that part of the organization.

A company that views its IT staff as a competitive advantage, and hires talented people that can do more than pound out code, will quickly differentiate itself in its chosen market. I think Clearent has done this.