The shittiest project I ever worked on • Hacker News Board

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#131

Post by PeterisP » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:05 PM UTC

gcb0 wrote: post #30

The reason the fee was there was to pay for the 0800 thing. Some executive rightly saw that paying you to render that useless would free them of that service and the need for the fee (which i bet was not turning a profit) But, since big companies run on cargo cult... that happened.

In pretty much any business, and extremely so in real estate, referral fees are many orders of magnitude larger than paying for a free phone line.

I'm not working in real estate, but I'd guess that each referral would earn them at least something like $100 or much more - so forcing the "customer" (not really their customer since they don't sell anything to them, but only to the realtors) to call is the correct business decision.

The only WTF question is why they initiated a project that they don't want to use.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#132

Post by GFischer » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:14 PM UTC

benjamta wrote: post #100

nekopa wrote: post #11

I never cease to be amazed that the more things change, the more they stay the same. If you removed the dates from this story, you'd be hard pressed to fix when this happened. (Except the static HTML idea is a bit of a give away, no web developer would ever dare suggest a static page in our brave new world of Web X.0)

So true. Before leaving to focus on more interesting things I've spent a chunk of my career working developing software services for some big insurers. This tale from 1995 could easily be a story of the challenges we faced in 2012/13. Data managed in spreadsheets, layer upon layer of disconnected management, no engagement with users, very little willingness to understand software development. More spreadsheets...

I currently work for an insurance company.

Warren Buffet was spot on when he said (after investing in insurance companies): “Invest in businesses that any idiot can run because, sooner or later, one will.”

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#133

Post by Agathos » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:17 PM UTC

redact207 wrote: post #12

Although it's a fun read, it's a classic example of diving into coding without giving a project it's due diligence. There's nothing that's derailed my projects more consistently when I started out as not understanding the user's needs. They'll never tell you what they want, only what they don't want after you deliver something. I think that's the key difference to an experienced dev/BA. One who can actually sit with…

> Although it's a fun read, it's a classic example of diving into coding without giving a project it's due diligence.

The formation of this sentence seems odd to me. Why can't we say it's a fun read because it's a classic example etc.?

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#134

Post by iamjealous » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:22 PM UTC

wow! I am jealous. If that is the shittiest project he ever worked on, he really has not too much to complain about.

Add to this that this was back in 1995. Companies had no clue what the internet was nor what they wanted to do with it, so this kind of clueless behaviour what the customer wanted was pretty much standard for most companies up to at least 1998 - 1999.

The guy has either been tremendously lucky, or he has not worked in too many different projects / companies for the last 18 years....

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#135

Post by zeckalpha » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:23 PM UTC

nekopa wrote: post #35

steholmes wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it was a joke.

Bingo. A surprising number of modern web problems can be solved via static pages - speed, usability, scalability etc. I remember finally turning down one project after failing to convince the small businessman that his site didn't need an unskippable flash intro with techno music. Edit: I think that nowadays web 2.0 needs have been replaced with 'BIG Data'. I have a current client whose data set is less than 30 MB, b…

If Excel can't open it...

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#136

Post by cygwin98 » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:25 PM UTC

eitally wrote: post #113

redact207 wrote: post #12

Although it's a fun read, it's a classic example of diving into coding without giving a project it's due diligence. There's nothing that's derailed my projects more consistently when I started out as not understanding the user's needs. They'll never tell you what they want, only what they don't want after you deliver something. I think that's the key difference to an experienced dev/BA. One who can actually sit with…

The flip side of this is that when stakeholders/customers don't know what they really want or need, you can labor in the "requirements phase" for months. My team spent 900 hours last year just getting a functional spec and high level SRS together for a project that hasn't happened yet. Why hasn't it happened? Because at the end of the 900 hours, we presented our estimate (about 1100hrs) to the customer and he balked…

If you billed those 900 hours for doing RFP for the customer, it doesn't sound too bad.

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#137

Post by lazyant » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:32 PM UTC

josephagoss wrote: post #48

paulhauggis wrote: post #40

The shittiest project I ever worked on was a php project that was converted from another language (I don't remember which one). This doesn't sound bad, except they used software to automatically convert it. The PHP code had no comments, minimal white space, and the variables were all hex. My job was to fix bugs. I worked there for about a week before I quit in frustration.

How can someone suggest auto convert into another language like that? In the long run it would be cheaper rebuilding the entire thing.

Joel will have a word with you now

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#138

Post by drone » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:50 PM UTC

adamconroy wrote: post #50

fusiongyro wrote: post #22

> In 1995 I quit my regular job as senior web engineer You had the job title "senior web engineer" when the web was 4 years old. That's pretty cool.

Sorry if it reduces self-esteem, but we (software developers) are not engineers. I've been brainwashed for many years by my brother, who is a Phd civil engineer, that professions that hijack the term engineer are kidding themselves. I know it sounds cool, and my current title is 'Senior Software Engineer', but it is all a scam.

Alas, here in Texas, it's illegal[1] to call yourself a Software Engineer without a PE certification. The decision came out in 1998/99, and you should've seen everyone scramble to change their business cards.

You can't even design an embedded electronics device for a 3rd party (for a company you work for, is ok - industrial exemption) or write software for the same without a PE.

[1] http://sce.uhcl.edu/helm/SWEBOK_IEEE/papers/10%20reprint%205...

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#139

Post by misterdai » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 1:54 PM UTC

Interesting read. However, I helped build a web based system for the management of a bowel cancer screening programme. Considering what would be sent back on the testkits and processed into the system... it's the shittiest project I've ever worked on, but not for the same reasons :P

Re: The shittiest project I ever worked on

#140

Post by LargeWu » Wed, Sep 25, 2013, 2:13 PM UTC

Sounds about right.

I worked at Prudential about 10 years ago, as a FTE. Our small division mainly ran on a bunch of custom Access reporting applications. It wasn't quite cutting it, because Access, so it was decided that we would build a portal on the company's intranet. The only problem was that we, as accidental web developers, were not allowed to run development web servers on our dev machines, because they were locked down by corporate. We had to use an extra PC that, by some miracle, had IIS, and develop against that remotely. Good times.