[passivegains]

programmers ("developers," if you prefer) have trouble with "second order" thinking. we integrate X technology in Y way, maybe with some Z optimization, and that'll solve the problem.

okay, but, like... will it?

is there new maintenance stuff you've completely ignored? (I've noticed this is more common when maintenance is someone else's job.) is it completely new and none of us know about it so we get blindsided unless everything goes exactly right every time? do we get visibility into what it's doing? can we fix it when (not if, when) it breaks? can everyone work on it or is it impossible for anyone but the person who set it up? they're good at thinking up things that should fix the problem but less good at things that will.

I'm a fan of cross-functional feature teams because others in the software engineering ecosystem like QA, systems people, ops, etc. tend not to have this problem. programmers are accountable to the other stakeholders up front, bad ideas are handled in real time, and- this is the most important part- everyone learns. (I won't say all systems people are cantankerous bastards... but the mistakes they've harangued me for are usually the mistakes I don't make twice.)