How To Not Fetch and Still Be A Good Dog?

6footblondwhiteguy asks: "Having just finished a major system design review at work, I have collected many of what I call GFAR (Go Fetch a Rock). These are pointless, time-wasting actions, proposed by the clueless executives invited to these reviews... e.g. 'This other project is using SUN servers, see if you can use theirs'. I instantly know the answer to each of the GFAR's: (not in this lifetime, no way, or sometime after the sun burns out). So, how do you avoid your boss's boss's boss's newest bright idea without either highlighting it's futility or arguing its merit in a public forum? Surely the Slashdot community has some wise architects that have strategies for deflecting these actions. I suspect the window of avoidance to be about one minute (before it's written down)."

Comments

Re:My solution...

[quintessent]

Or you might try explaining the real pros and cons as you see it and let the super-boss decide against it using the actual facts. These people are paid to run the company, you know. Usurping authority is probably not as helpful as helping them see a little more light.

I don't get it.

[Jon Peterson]

This is the second time we've had someone asking 'My boss is stupid, what can I do?'. Look, it's really simple.

1. Management's idea is either good or bad.
2. If it's bad, and you know why, you can explain that to management.
3. If it's good, but for some reason you don't want to do it, because, say, it involves language X that you think sucks or OS Y that you think sucks, then just f***ing grow up, eh?

Now, it may be that you explain why it's a bad idea, but management don't change their minds. This could be:

1. There are arguments supporting the idea that you do not understand (maybe they are financial or business related, not technical).
2. Management do not understand your (technical) arguments against the idea.
3. There are arguments supporting the idea that you have not been told about, because management does not think it relevant.

In case 1, that's kind of tough. If you are interested in other aspects of the business, then generally managers will be thrilled and will be happy to spend time explaining these things. but, if you don't care, then don't be surprised when someone says "OK, maybe the technology isn't ideal, but with this balance sheet, we ARE going down this route"

In case 2, that's also kind of tough. Try to find someone who is good at making technical issues comprehensible to managers. Every team should have a person able to to do this. Find them and get them on your side.

In case 3, guess what, that's kind of tough. Maybe managment figure that it's not your job to care about non-technical aspects of the idea. Personally I don't like this approach - I always let the geeks see the profit/loss sheet even if I'm pretty certain they won't understand it. That way they might let me see the database schema, and I will understand that :).

So, this knee jerk "Whoa, my PHB is so dumb, he said this [...]" is really an attitude I expect from junior members of my team. Senior members can either shut up and code, or they can make a proper job of presenting a case supporting why the idea is so dumb.

Re:Speak the right language

[dubl-u]

Amen!

All businessfolk understand cost/benefit calculations. They also should all understand risk vs reward. If an idea is obviously dumb to you, then you should be able to explain it in one of those models. E.g.:

Using the other team's servers would create a common failure point and an opportunity for one project to interfere with another. Although this would save us $100,000, we estimate that this would take our uptime from four nines to three, which is outside your requirements for the project.

Also, you should work on changing your attitude. They think their questions are all smart and reasonable. That's because they know different things than you. If you take the time to help educate them, then they will ask better questions next time. Your goal should be to leave them feeling like smart people who just happened to be missing a fact, rather than pathetic assholes who are lucky they have you around.