Give developers autonomy
jonblack.org
jonblack.org
Most stuff people make for free and give away is unfinished, and largely unusable. Yes, there are outstanding projects completed by outstanding people to a very high standard, but that is truly exceptional.
Give developers responsibility, let them take control, and how many products will actually get finished before they move on to the next shiny thing that attracts their attention? How many developers are willing to do the 90% of schlepping after the 10% of cool, fun stuff?
Genuine question. I have some outstanding programmers who work for me, and they still need motivating to complete the transfer of information to the documentation and training teams. They certainly don't write the documentation and training manuals themselves, and they still won't transfer the information.
They don't need motivation to do this interesting bits, but there's more to a successful product than gorgeous design and cool code.
The point I was trying to make was that giving developers more control over what they work on better suits the problems they are trying to solve and allows the business to harness some of the passion developers have.
You're certainly right that there are aspects that never appeal. It's not a black-and-white case of "more autonomy = more results", but in some areas can be rewarding for both developer and business.