Prompt Question:

Should all literate people understand how to program? If so, how much programming should they understand? What are language standards? At this point in your study of programming, what do they mean to you?

Prompt Response:

The short answer is yes because one of the biggest challenges facing our modern-day society and in the workplace is the difficulty of reaching compromises and being an unpleasant person to work with by being unaccommodating. The root of this very issue can be traced back to a lack of knowledge of each other’s work. So, in hindsight, should everyone know how to program? Yes. However, do they have to be an expert at it? No, not really. The reason being is that we need to create an environment that enhances collaboration between the business-minded workforce to technical-minded software developers. The best way to achieve this is by creating a bridge between the two business divisions by helping narrow it down to their own specific needs while also helping both sides to retain a degree of understanding of each other’s work. This will benefit both sides because it allows the developers to narrow down precisely to what the business people want in their desired application—taking the guessing game out of the equation and eliminating unnecessary and costly assumptions.

Granted, business people do not need to understand everything about coding, but they should generally know how it works. They should also know the different implementation methods and how long such implementation may take. This way, they know precisely how to position their business proposals and ideas to the developers without causing unnecessary headaches and troubles. Of course, this goes hand-in-hand with effective communication, and the worst possible way of communicating is by leaving people hanging and being vague with your initial instructions. It is much easier to get something done right the first time around than trying to speed things through and trying to patch it later in the developmental life cycle.

For example, in my previous line of work, I had to work with database developers and front-end web developers. So how I proceeded with bringing up an idea is to learn how it is done and try to get a general idea of how long this may take so that I can set a more reasonable timeframe for these development projects. According to the feedback that I have received over the past couple of years, they appreciated my approach because it keeps everyone engaged. No one is trying to throw anyone under the bus as we all work as a team, and it boosts morale significantly. With high morale and a collaborative mindset, things get done very quickly. Quite frankly speaking, after learning about the various programming languages this semester, I have come to appreciate the efforts of coders even more so than I have been before.