Jay Kimble has posted a very thoughtful article that you should read before you continue [Find It Here].  I have been thinking about some of these same things myself lately and particularly echo the sediments of his "fanboy" point.  If there is one thing that I've learned in life, let alone in my career as a developer, it would be that there is no one solution to every problem.  There is no silver bullet to take care of every possible scenario.  Unfortunately, "Best Practices" are often packaged and presented in this fashion by zealous fanboys.  Saying that you should...

I wrote a post some time ago about the key characteristics I believe every Senior Developer should have.  I'm not going to rehash it here so if you haven't read it please do.  I wrote that back when I was still a Senior Developer (before I crossed over to the dark-side of management).  I believe that as a manager my list would probably be amended some now, but that's a post for another time.  What I want to talk about is related to a comment that DeanG left recently on the original post:  "Great stuff, but is this any different...

[NOTE:  This was originally posted at DevAuthority.com on 8/11/2005.]I was told once by a good friend of mine that a senior developer is one who has a firm grasp on the basics and the ability to find any answer they are faced with.  I have always agreed with this assessment, but I would also like to propose a list of characteristics any  senior developer should exhibit.1.      A Senior Developer needs to be a leader.  Anyone assuming the role of senior developer must usually wear the hat of team lead.  If you aren’t a natural...