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Wizards, Gurus and Saints


By Ben Lieberman
February 1, 2001 —  (Page 1 of 3)
Software development is a strange business. Often the success or failure of a development effort hinges on the talents and support of a few key individuals in an organization-usually the highest paid and most highly sought after individuals. These "indispensable" people seem to fall into three broad categories: Wizards, Gurus and Saints (WGS). As will become apparent, these roles will often need to change to permit a transition from entrepreneurial efforts to a well-managed firm.

A Wizardis the individual on a project who is aware of all the magical incantations that are necessary to get a particular section of the system to operate properly. No one would think of working on this particular part of the system without consultation with the Wizard. Wizards are typically very talented people whose desire to complete a project can assist the entire team in overcoming many initial obstacles.

While there is no question that many projects have died on the vine due to slow market emergence, once a product has moved into maintenance, the company needs a reduced dependency on Wizards. Wizards have the notorious reputation of performing their magic for the highest bidder, thereby taking with them critical system knowledge.

The second key individual in an emerging organization is theGuru. These people have the understanding of why the software was initially created. Just as a Wizard would always be consulted on a matter of code, the Guru would always be consulted about requirements. The "wisdom" of the company, normally represented by the requirement base presented to development, is again captured primarily in the head of one or a few core individuals.

There is little time in an initial development effort to record all requirement changes. Often the only way to capture all of these changes is to hold them in your head, which is quite flexible but rather difficult for others to access. Thus, like Wizards, Gurus will be petitioned by many disciples. Since much if not all of the system understanding is captured in the Guru's head, when they are promoted or hit by a large moving van there is little probability that anyone else will take over the Guru's role.

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