Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#1

Post by ThePhysicist » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:04 PM UTC

As a software developer, which tasks do you find most annoying in your daily work? Which part of your job would you like to outsource to someone else if you could?

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#2

Post by velikos » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:24 PM UTC

Requirements churn

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#3

Post by taprun » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:26 PM UTC

Sitting in meetings that had nothing to do with me

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#4

Post by ThePhysicist » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:37 PM UTC

velikos wrote: post #2

Requirements churn

You mean e.g. requirements that change over time or requirements that get added during the project?

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#5

Post by jnpatel » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:44 PM UTC

Bikeshedding during code reviews

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#6

Post by what-no-tests » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 9:57 PM UTC

Building something (with great effort) then tearing it apart because the product team decided to go a different way.

Over and over again.

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#7

Post by infamouscow » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 10:00 PM UTC

Convincing software developers that networks disconnect, hardware fails, and data gets corrupted.

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#8

Post by datenwolf » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 10:02 PM UTC

> As a software developer, which tasks do you find most annoying in your daily work?

Having to tell others (contractors, collaborating 3rd parties, etc.) what they shall do and how to do it. We've got an issue tracker and a TODO list and tons of TODO/FIXME/XXX comments in our code base. How about working on those? Pick an issue in the tracker (or if you've found some TODO/FIXME/XXX that hasn't assigned a tracking ID, create a new own) and work on it! Oh, and please don't ask me for a pinned down specification for each and every detail; it takes me more time and work to write down such micromanaging specs, than it'd take me, to write the code myself.

You think meetings are productivity killers? At least you can zone out in those and mentally work problems. People asking to be micromanaged, that's what really grinds my gears.

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#9

Post by hga » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 10:49 PM UTC

Dealing with incompetent managers.

Re: Ask HN: What are the most annoying things in software development?

#10

Post by hanniabu » Tue, Aug 25, 2015, 11:10 PM UTC

jnpatel wrote: post #5

Bikeshedding during code reviews

What's bikeshedding?