Slashdot Mirror
Politics-Oriented Software Development
thelesserbean writes "Up at K5 there's a tongue-in-cheek look at the dirty world of software development's inside politics. Presented as a guide, it is actually full of useful advice and lessons learned the hard way. For instance, in the 'Ass-Covering' section, we read: 'The chief difficulty is reaching a satisfactory compromise between ass-covering and not appearing too negative. (...) The emails you sent will be used in evidence against you. Keep a professional tone: before sending any sensitive email take a moment to think how it would look at an industrial tribunal.'"
One of the very first posts for this story at kuro5in was "Oh man, I bet slashdot is going to pick this up".
Now, if you're a sadist like me, that is probably *not* a good question to ask yourself. Or, at least, I can think of all sorts of stuff to write in my emails that would be friggin' hilarious to hear publicly recited by a no-smiles lawyer at an important tribunal.
When things get complex, multiply by the complex conjugate.
Developers! Developers! Developers!
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
Obviously, the solution: be smart and identify problems early, and solve them early, but publicly identify and show the problem at the last minute, go back to your cube, read slashdot for 3 hours, and then check in the new code and claim your raise/vacation time/complimentary release t-shirt.
The truly machiavellian add problems which will be easy for the creator to solve later, don't say anything about them, wait till last minute, or bet yet when the customers are screaming and fix the problem quickly and get the credit for being a hero.
Yah as if management ever read the code. As long as the young guns act slave-ish for the first decade out of school, management will love them.
I learned the hard way that telling management to get their own fucking coffee made me public enemy #1. Good developer vs bad developer only lie in between how well you handle firedrills and fetch coffee.
"Politics-Oriented Software Development"
I work in the toilet-paper industry doing software development. I know all about ass-covering.
Politics-Oriented Software? Oh... I thought it was about the developement of something like Campaign 84 for the Colecovision...
Circumcision is child abuse.
"The next manager wrote me up for insubordination when he found out that I was documenting his actions when he explicitly told me not too."
If a manager asked that of me, I'd ask for it in writing.
Fix: Report the problem early, but don't shout about it. Whisper it. Make the information get lost in the early phase. Phrase it as "There is a risk of... but this problem should be taken care of in a later phase of the project", or "We have to take * into consideration as well". Then it's "I said it would fail! Why didn't you listen?" Then even if you can't fix it on time, the manager who neglected the memo and assigned you other, less important work is to take the blame.
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The article may be tongue in cheek, but it is bang on right about one thing: You might be doing incremental development but the senior management still want a 'clean' project. The system will be delivered end Q4 and no later. Yessir Mr. Big Customer, you have our word on it (without asking the development department if it's possible).
After that, they hurry down to the development departments and after some panicky discussion and massaging of the project sheet, decide that Release 2 will happen 9am Nov. 15th. So yes, you do end up de-scoping during development. I have deliberately targeted sections for de-scoping and I am sometimes deliberately vague about will be delivered (rather than adding 40% contingency). For example, administrative functions will be delivered (but they might not have the gleaming front-end that they expected). And anyway, I get lumbered with a development team cobbled at the last minute (gotta save costs!) from half the losers in the company and a prima-donna who just sneers at the usefulness of unit testing and documentation.
Managers have surprisingly little power to get the best people for the job. When a board level manager decides that all sourcing will be now be internal, instead of the shit-hot guy I interviewed the day before, I now have to persuade a luke-warm candidate who really didn't want to move, to relocate 800km. Senior managers so often think people are like PCs. Roll 'em in, plug 'em at the desk, they start being productive that morning! Project finished (well,sort of)? Roll 'em out, there's another desk waiting.
Did he inhale?
I knew one programmer who had a boss who was continually giving conflicting orders and trying to add useless projects to his workload.
So he went out and bought a tape recorder and took it to the office.
Whenever his boss came in to his office, he'd turn the tape recorder on and hold the microphone up for his boss to speak into.
His boss would get pissed off and turn around and leave.