What “Essentials” Does IT Give Developers?

Back when I was looking for ideas for the 20 Things in 20 Minutes article, a developer suggested that the CIO use those 20 minutes to sign off on an upgrade to all programmer PCs. And plenty of people shouted, “Huzzah!” right behind him.

I confess that I was a little surprised, because my perception has always been that developers always get the newest, fastest computers; compilers are, after all, pretty demanding applications.

Apparently, I was wrong—at least if I listened to developers’ opinions.

So I was particularly interested to read a blog post, my bill of rights as a programmer, which lists at least one programmer’s requirements before starting a new job. One of these is “Every Programmer shall have a fast PC,” but the list also includes “Every programmer shall have a high back[ed] comfortable chair” and “Every programmer shall be allowed to attend a developers conference once a year.”

How many of these ten “requirements” does your company fulfill for its development staff?