The Nerd Factor

Software projects are notorious for cost-overruns and never getting done. The culprit is not malice or even incompetence, but the unwitting NERD. You cannot tell a nerd by his or her looks. They come in all shapes and sizes, speak a hundred different languages, but have one thing in common: The Nerd Factor. John Chambers was 30 years a software developer and entrepreneur. Early on, he saw that certain people made a project more difficult. Most nerds, he discovered, are teachable. They can overcome the "nerd factor" in them. Most programmers and analysts, in his experience, are not nerds. For the small minority which do wreak havoc on any project, most require only a little education and become de-nerded (if that is a word). Only a tiny minority of the minority refuse to change. If you are in the software profession, or you hire, train, or pay those who are, you need to be able to spot the Nerd Factor and know what to do about it.