Caring about what you are building is a crucial need to build software or anything in life for that matter, as it drives you to create something that not only fits the minimum required checkboxes but also will guide you to think outside of the box and bring something over and beyond those minimum requirements. Software developers sometimes become very attached to the work they do, especially when they care about the work a lot. This drives them to think of scenarios that maybe have slipped the mind of the person setting the requirements. It can guide you through adding extra functionality that makes the product even more extraordinary than it was before or drives you to build it in such a way that it not only works in the right now but is also built to scale in the future. Overall, it makes you deliver better work, software or products consistently.

One thing to keep in mind when people care about what they build and they are putting in 150% to make that software, in the case of software developers, as near to perfect as possible is to keep them motivated. People will move mountains if they are motivated, as well as give blood, sweat and tears to make sure that what they are working on is as good as they can make it. In the past, I have experienced this. Building a feature that will replace the current functionality and spent hours after work perfecting every part of the system that was built. Making sure that visually it looks like the most beautiful thing that anyone has ever seen (In my mind at least) and just overall putting in the effort of two people I felt at the time. One of the things that helped me to keep caring about what I am building is to hear that all the effort and extra attention to detail is appreciated. Nobody wants to do work and then get no recognition for it. How people can be shown that their effort is appreciated is a topic on its own, but it differs for everyone.

In the end, we all want to make some sort of difference in the world or just even in our small group of people that are important to us. Making a difference or believing that what you are building is something that will make an impact in any way, shape or form motivates people to care about what they are building and go that extra mile. Caring about what you build becomes a very personal thing that can motivate you through even the toughest times, no matter how big the obstacles become. You will work through most obstacles and will see them as messy steppingstones to the goal, which is a piece of software that will change the lives of someone or change how people view a certain matter/challenge.

One big thing to consider as well when looking at what is needed to help sustain healthy care for what you are building is the amount of support the person that is performing the action is getting when attempting this adventure toward the end goal or dream. This is one thing that can play almost the biggest role in this topic because if you do not feel supported enough to build the project that you are working on, you will lose interest somewhere down the line of development. Some people need more support to stay caring for their projects, and other need less support. All developers are different in the way we go about getting the work done, but ALL of them need support in some shape or form. I think this is especially necessary for people just entering the software development industry because it can be an overwhelming experience, and they need a lot of guidance. Nobody can always know everything, and one lesson that I have learned in my years as a software developer is that even the most experienced developers need to google sometimes. Technology is something that is evolving very fast, and it takes a lot of effort and time to keep up to date with everything, which is sometimes too fast to keep track of if you are working with a large number of different languages.

That is why I would say mentoring is the other side of the coin for support that people need to stay motivated and still care about what they are building. When you feel stuck and do not know how to build something but have the desire to do things better, then a good mentor will make a world of difference in the motivation his mentee has in what they are building. We all sometimes get discouraged when we get stuck or do not know how to do something, but if we know that we have someone that is invested in us and that just wants us to live up to our potential, we at that point, not know we have then it helps motivate us. In return, we will care about what we build and put much more effort into what we build. Not only for the mentor to show him that you are using what they have learned you but also for us to prove that we are proud of what we have created.

Also, something to look at is getting the right people to work on the project if you want them to care about the software they are building. If someone from the start is not invested in the project or does not have an interest in the project, it becomes more and more difficult for that person to care about what they are building as time goes on. If you have a natural love for the area that the project is covering, that helps to keep people from getting demotivated and then grow the care of the project. We all have different interests and different preferences, and if we can get the right people on a project with similar interests that are invested in the project also, then people will more likely care about what they are building. They will also help to keep each other invested, and this ties in with the support people need. There are cases where people do not care, and then after a while, they become attached and they start caring more and more, but from my experience, that is only possible if the whole team is supportive.

Let’s look at the results that we get when caring about the project we are building. The first thing that can be seen is that people will work better together because they believe in the project and they want to see it succeed. This will sustain morale through long periods of time as well because if everyone is motivated by each other, the bad times get less bad in the long run. We also see that the quality of the project will go up as people will identify scenarios that may impact the project in a negative way. They have invested so much time and effort into it that pride starts to grow more and more. Pride is the result of a project that is done correctly. Correctly is not perfect but correctly means that everyone tried their best and supported each other to build the best possible version of something. Pride can turn negative as well, but that is another topic for another day.

There is also the other side of the coin when it comes to results for not caring about what you are building and how that impact the project. Nobody wants to intentionally build something bad just because they can. Usually, when people do not care, it is because of something much deeper that is wrong. It can be either that they do not feel supported or do not get enough support from their team or the other departments in the company, they may lack a good mentor to show them the ropes, it can be not really being interested in the subject of the project or it can be all the above. When someone does not care, this is my opinion. Then it must be investigated what led to this person not caring about what they are building.

We forget that there is usually a person behind the developer or tester that are sometimes struggling to motivate themselves on a project, and we need to find what is blocking them or demotivating them. We sometimes do great work and other times do not. We must try and strive to make great work times more often than in the other scenario.

Well done for reading this so far, and I am not going to make this any longer than it needs to be. It comes down to three major things that we need to keep in mind. Communication, Honesty and Trust. Trust is the hardest one to get because it takes time, but it’s something that helps us with getting the other two consistent. If we build these three things into every project, then you will see the care for the project go up, and they are the foundation for the things I mentioned above: Recognition, Fulfilment/Impact, Support, Mentoring and pride.

So first, start truly caring for each other, and then the care for the project will grow as time goes on.