How to deal with developers that go much faster than others?

Question

I recently started working at a company where the development team is very large. A few team members go a lot faster than the others, which pressures the team to speed up. The few that do everything really quick are already on the team for more than three years and know all the ins and outs. The vibe in general seems to be that these are the only &ldquo;senior&rdquo; team members although they aren&rsquo;t officially in the lead. How should I deal with this situation?

jleyank · Accepted Answer

Use them to prototype ideas. Use them to code review the next tier to try and level them up. Reward their efforts as you're damned lucky to have them, as their success = team success = your success.Or, feel threatened by them, drive them away and then complain you need more developers. A bigger group of no-troublemakers looks good and you profit from the larger empire.

edmundsauto · Answer

Is their work quality high? Can you dig into how they work faster and leverage them to speed up others? Can you put them on a tiger team, or split their responsibilities so they can move at their fast pace w/o disturbing the team?
What exactly is the problem, do the high performers feel entitled to more compensation?
Being a senior developer is not about velocity, it's about making other people better. If they aren't doing this - if they are only doing their own work - they aren't senior.

MattGaiser · Answer

Is there a problem?This is a pretty normal occurrence. Code base knowledge does matter.

savant_penguin · Answer

What is the specific problem you are trying to fix?