Is rotating the lead developer a good or bad idea?

Posted by NickC on Programmers See other posts from Programmers or by NickC
Published on 2011-03-02T04:35:52Z Indexed on 2012/08/27 21:55 UTC
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I work on a team that has been flat organizationally since it's creation several months ago. My manager is non-technical and this means that our whole team is responsible for decision-making.

My manager is beginning to realize that there are several benefits to having a lead developer, both for his sake (a single point of contact and single responsible party for tasks) and ours (dispute resolution, organized technical guidance, etc.).

Because the team has been flat, one concern is that picking one lead developer may discourage the others. A non-developer suggested to my manager that rotating the lead developer is a possible way to avoid this issue. One developer would be lead one month, another the next, and so on.

Is this a good idea? Why or why not?

Keep in mind that this means all developers — All developers are good, but not necessarily equally suited to leadership.

And if it is not, how do I recommend that we avoid this approach without seeming like it's merely for selfish reasons?

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