Resume Driven Development (RDD)

Resume Driven Development (RDD) is an extremely popular practice of chasing the latest tech fads, for the sake of putting them on the resume.

RDD is closely related to the Hype Driven Development. The cycle goes something like this:

1. Some piece of technology (let's call it "X") becomes popular for whatever reason. Often it may look promising at solving some hard problem, so it gets mentioned on popular blogs or popular social media accounts, and everyone starts talking about it.

2. Companies want to be trendy, so they put "X" on their job applications. Keep in mind that these front-facing decisions are often done by non-technical people, who may simply filter out all applications from developers who don't have this buzzword on their resume.

3. Developers wanting to keep their resumes up-to-date will use every opportunity to use this shiny new tech, without understanding or even caring about long-term implications. Many will even specialize as "X developers".

This doesn't necessarily mean that "X" is a bad technology, it may actually be good at solving a certain type of problem. The issue is that resume-driven developers don't care about understanding the problem and solving it in an optimal way. They care about applying the technology "X" in any context (when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail).

RDD is also closely related to the concept of Cargo-cult programming. People doing this will often believe that because some tech is trendy that "good things will come", without the need to understand what's going on.

There's also a nice, few-lines summary of RDD on rdd.io:

We value:

• Specific technologies over working solutions
• Hiring buzzwords over proven track records
• Creative job titles over technical experience
• Reacting to trends over more pragmatic options

See also:

• Cargo-cult programming

Ask me anything / Suggestions