I came across a post on StackOverflow asking what "punishments" teams have in place for a developer who breaks the build. There are no shortages of responses with their castigations.
Yes, breaking the build and going on vacation (or even home for the night) is bad. I'm
talking about the occasional break that gets fixed right away, which is
what most of the replies in the StackOverflow post seem to be referring to.
On our team we have no such "punishment policy" no matter how unwritten or informal. I see no need, because we all know that breaking the build keeps the others on the team from updating or checking in (and that's all it does). That's plenty of motivation for us to be careful.
So where is the need for punishment? To me it smells of 8 year-olds on a playground pointing at each other singing: "nyaa, nyaa, nyaa-nyaa, nyaa... you broke the bui--ild."
If a member of the team is breaking the build regularly, then you either have a training issue or you should re-visit your hiring policies.
While it doesn't happen very often, I do occasionally break the build. I make mistakes like every other human. Do I need to be teased or chastised for that? It speaks of humiliation no matter how "in jest" the intention might be.
And for those wave files triggering on a build break... isn't this just more of that 8 year-old finger pointing?
I say grow up and ignore that red task tray icon for a couple minutes, it won't kill you, it'll turn green in a minute. Chances are you aren't ready to do an update or check-in anyway, so just let your fellow developer be human and do away with the childish admonishments.
I'm sure you can think of another way to have some fun.
