The art of interrupting software engineers

Post by perlgeek » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 1:41 PM UTC

systemtest wrote: post #136

tbrock wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your team needs excellent JIRA hygiene for that to actually work. I’ve been on and managed teams where it’s expected and demanded and others where it was an afterthought.

Our JIRA board is being gamed for management. Our sprint burndown chart always looked terrible because management changed things around mid-sprint by adding issues or swapping them around. So we have a fake JIRA board that has a perfect linear downwards progression because we keep changing the story points. For actually tracking the progression of the sprint we have a secret Slack channel that management can't see. T…

Post by brianzelip » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 1:58 PM UTC

Post by DoreenMichele » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:05 PM UTC

jasim wrote: post #107

DoreenMichele wrote: post #56

I honestly can't tell if this is a terrible practice or just the worst possible way to describe it for the HN crowd. People who end up in manager roles tend to be people persons and some use very touchy-feely language. I'm personally put off by all the references to his own anxiety as just one example. That doesn't necessarily mean he's actually a terrible manager. Part of his job is to make sure things get delivered…

I've also seen that programmers who're not really good at the job, but don't have qualms about playing politics often end up managing the teams they were unfit to work in in the first place. They were not necessarily better at people than others. The idea that programmers are not good with people is, in my observation, a self-perpetuating stereotype. Mostly because if you're writing code, you are on a maker's schedul…

Post by Ididntdothis » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:15 PM UTC

briandear wrote: post #172

Ididntdothis wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's how it used to be when I started in the 90s. My first projects were pretty much like "Here is the problem. Come back when you have questions" and me and others would often work for weeks without talking to management. Now it seems a lot of companies are doing more micromanagement. I also sometimes wonder if the younger programmers need more handholding these. When I started there were almost no people with for…

The problem is that a client is paying by the hour, so going away for “weeks” to guess and “work” costs literally thousands of dollars. With XP, there would be a problem that would require weeks of obscurity to solve: it would be broken down into a smaller piece. And, you’d be working with your pair on it with frequent interaction with the PM.

Post by bpyne » Tue, Jul 30, 2019, 2:30 PM UTC

mieseratte wrote: post #202

bpyne wrote: post #196

There are two times of the day to catch software engineers: the start and end of the day. Usually at the start of the day we haven't gotten our minds into "programming mode" yet. By the end of the day, mental fatigue is setting in. The team I joined - 4 developers and 1 manager - goes for a coffee walk in the morning. The manager waits for us to go through email and other communication that came in overnight. Then we…

> Usually at the start of the day we haven't gotten our minds into "programming mode" yet. By the end of the day, mental fatigue is setting in. See, to me, neither of those is a great idea. In the morning I'm coming in early before most folks so I can get a few hours of real work done without distraction. In the afternoon I'm mentally fried and ready to do anything other than office work. The best time to get me? Sch…