I read Peopleware early in my career and revisit it every few years. Yesterday I wrote about what they meant about 10x programmers, and while doing that, I looked for this excerpt, which I think about all of the time (emphasis mine).

One of the upper managers buttonholed me to request that I assess […] his project staff. He was particularly curious about one woman. It was obvious he had his doubts about her: “I don’t quite see what she adds to a project; she’s not a great developer or tester or much of anything.”

With a little investigation, I turned up this intriguing fact: During her 12 years at the company, the woman in question had never worked on a project that had been anything other than a huge success. It wasn’t obvious what she was adding, but projects always succeeded when she was around. After watching her in class for a week and talking to some of her co-workers, I came to the conclusion that she was a superb catalyst. Teams naturally jelled better when she was there. She helped people communicate with each other and get along. Projects were more fun when she was part of them.

– Peopleware

They go on to say “The catalyst is important because the project is always in a state of flux. Someone who can help a project to jell is worth two people who just do work.”

I don’t know who she was, but this programmer was one of the most influential role models of my career. I constantly ask myself what would she do. My post about How Senior Software Developers Think is my take on it, but it’s much more than that. Coding is certainly an important part of being a software engineer, but most projects can technically be done by a wide range of coders. The other skills, the work that makes the project succeed, are a lot more rare in my experience.