So I know everyone here is all about private offices, how many developers actually have them. I am sort of half skeptical. I can believe that lead developers have them, but that's normally just one person in your average office.
That makes me wonder, how many developers have private offices. Which leads to the actual question: why should they have them?
In the management world, where concentration on a task is not an issue, offices are a means to represent status. They think "private office == more status, big private office == even more status, etc."
What most people fail to understand: Every time our concentration is broken, we create at least one bug and/or delay the deadline for another half-hour. Private offices is not a "nice to have" for developers but a must. This is not about status, this is about brain physics.
Working in an open space costs at least 30% productivity (I read that in a newspaper, start with this blog post if you want to know more). Worst part: This goes unnoticed. If you always work in such an environment, you'll never notice that it happens! Until you wonder why your neck is stiff, you feel tense/nervous all the time, etc.
If you want another productivity increase, take the telephones away, too. Unless you're doing production support, the next day is always soon enough.
To relax the team, supply free soft drinks. That costs $100-300/month for a team of 10 and makes sure they take regular breaks, drink enough (so they don't dehydrate).
The funny thing is: These aren't a bunch of myths but hard facts. Still, most companies ignore these simple, cheap ways to boost productivity. Well, except for the successful ones, of course (Google, Microsoft, etc).
See also:
The Master said: “A gentleman is easy to serve, and hard to please. Nought but what is right pleases him: he fits his behests to the man. The vulgar are hard to serve, and easy to please. What is wrong may yet please them: but of their men they expect all things.”
When I had a private office, I disliked my job for other reasons (I was actually happy with compensation, and was treated very well. The lack of smart co-workers bothered me, amongst a few other things). Now I do not even have a cube, but I am happy and productive (I bought myself excellent noise-cancelling headphones for only $150, which is cheaper than paying a union-backed worker to change one light-bulb in a union-controlled building).
Instead of having luxury at work, I would rather take more $ home. Keeping my programming tools sharp is good for my salary, but I understand that a job is a job and dirty/dull work is not always avoidable.
More development managers should wear programmer's shoes, but also more programmers should have a better business sense - for instance think about how much $ just went into project X, and in the hindsight decide whether they should have bought someone else's tool instead. Just an example, and I can find many more.
Many talented developers live in a business bubble where they want to work on fun projects all year long. Street-smart developers also understand that money makes the world go round, and good customer base=everything, and sales, support, & other folks at the company matter plenty.
So, a street-smart developer will over time move to a pasture that is as green as possible, start her/his own business perhaps. An idealistic developer will ask questions on forums about how life should work, and/or will write a blog entry about how managers suck, and programmers rock, and the world is no fair to us, poor programmers.
And in the long run we are all dead, so make sure to spend your weekends wisely, such as getting drunk, having lots of sex, hiking, hitting the beach, and do not forget about ping-pong. Your list may vary. After a nice weekend work-out, your euphoria may last till Wednesday, at which point you have only 3 days of suffering without a private office left.
EDIT: When scrumming, having no walls and being able to group the new team geographically is a big plus.
