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.
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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