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When Developers Leave — Where Does the Knowledge Go?
Knowledge is powerful, without it, development is difficult
We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge. John Naisbitt
The big resignation has seen developers leave companies in greater numbers, and suddenly companies are worried that the knowledge left with those developers might be useful.
Knowledge of a culture, relationships, project, and code is unique and not something you can rehire or replace easily.
For years, companies never worried about the knowledge developers had; this article says IT leaders are concerned about knowledge loss. It doesn’t say many of the developers leaving are concerned about lack of knowledge in IT leadership, which is why they left :-)
What's the problem?
The article makes some interesting points with a few interesting quotes
“More than seven in 10 (71%) of respondents said they agree that the Great Resignation is contributing to organizational knowledge loss, and 64% feel that their organization has experienced loss of knowledge due to people leaving the company”
With fewer developers resigning, there were developers who had knowledge of a project, processes, or technology. When many developers leave, you end up with no developers to take over.
Like when ants rebel in a bug's life and the grasshoppers (IT leaders) finally understand they need the ants and should stop bullying them.
“Chris Plescia, chief technology evangelist at Aware, pointed out that when an employee leaves, you lose not only the documented knowledge of the ecosystem, but also the undocumented or tribal knowledge that has been handed down over the years.”
This is the first time I have seen knowledge management mentioned, but I have often wondered why…
