Yeah... that post hit really hard. I got to quit my job or I will go crazy.
Dependencies - Check
Jane Doe - Check
Town Hero - Hey look! It's me!
Carcinogenic Prototype - Yeah sure, that's the one Jane Doe is maintaining!
Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
21–30 of 56 posts
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#22The 'it depends' answers are good and I would not cite them as evidence of a problem. You employee people who understand what they are talking about and who also understand the importance of an accurate answer. They are probably very good engineers. How does X close a TCP connection... it depends on the operating system in question. What cipher does my browser use when talking to X website... it depends on what ciphe…
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Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#23The 'it depends' answers are good and I would not cite them as evidence of a problem. You employee people who understand what they are talking about and who also understand the importance of an accurate answer. They are probably very good engineers. How does X close a TCP connection... it depends on the operating system in question. What cipher does my browser use when talking to X website... it depends on what ciphe…
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Replace answering "it depends" with actually providing the process to get you the answer.
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#24The 'it depends' answers are good and I would not cite them as evidence of a problem. You employee people who understand what they are talking about and who also understand the importance of an accurate answer. They are probably very good engineers. How does X close a TCP connection... it depends on the operating system in question. What cipher does my browser use when talking to X website... it depends on what ciphe…
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The post was deleted, but it implied that all software closes TCP with a FIN. Some software sends a RST, no FIN.
The issue is that the answer is relative. There are no absolutes. So yes, it does depend and yes there is always an explanation as to why it depends. Just because something works this way on this system does not mean it works the same way on that one.
To believe that something is the same everywhere on every system for every user is foolish at best and reckless at worst. And, people who think that (typically non-technologists) think that they have the answer as well... let's rewrite it to be the same everywhere. This is when all the engineers dust off their resumes and bail.
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#25I disagree a bit with these points. Sure, ideally you'd avoid all of these issues and having these issues several years into a product is certainly bad. But when a new product is just getting off the ground, there is a hefty cost to Doing It Right. I think many successful products would never have launched if a scary number of corners weren't cut to get version 1.0 out the door.
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#26The 'it depends' answers are good and I would not cite them as evidence of a problem. You employee people who understand what they are talking about and who also understand the importance of an accurate answer. They are probably very good engineers. How does X close a TCP connection... it depends on the operating system in question. What cipher does my browser use when talking to X website... it depends on what ciphe…
The 'it depends' answers are good and I would not cite them as evidence of a problem.
They might be the best answers you could get in that company, but it would be better still to get:
"Use this library feature"
"Ok; are there any weird exceptions?"
"No, this is it. We rolled all that company's accounts into this system when we merged, all old accounts in when we upgraded, and planned and designed this to be good enough for the high risk accounts too. There's only a handful of other accounts kept separately and there is no way to verify those from here, by design."
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#27Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, this definitely feels like a permanent addition to the lexicon. It crisply describes at least two systems I'm maintaining currently.
If it gets canonized, I'd much prefer "cancerous prototype" because it's easier to say.
"There is nothing more permanent than a temporary solution".
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#28I am new to the industry and have only really had limited experience. Is it more fair to call these symptoms of dysfunction or business as usual. How do you begin to avoid these problems?
You find another job ASAP. Organizational and culture problems will not be fixed by one new employee. What happens is the competent people bail, leaving behind the less talented and/or less motivated which creates a positive feedback cycle.
> What happens is the competent people bail, leaving behind the less talented and/or less motivated which creates a positive feedback cycle.
Well described here:
http://brucefwebster.com/2008/04/11/the-wetware-crisis-the-d...
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#29It was a neat prototype, you know. A few loose ends here and there, but a solid proof of concept. Executives loved it. Could see the $_$ in their eyes. So they had us plug the holes and get it to production as fast as possible. Time to market, that sort of things. I recall John didn't like it. Caused quite a stir. But who was he to decide anyway?
[…]
Yeah, that became quite the thing. Lots of new features. Funny thing is, they used to come fast. Not so much lately. Did ask why —were simple features—, but all I got was some bullshit about about "technical debt". Don't give a crap is what they do. No matter, we're entering cash cow mode now. Champaign?
[…]
I'd like to, but John left (something about a "big ball of mud"), and Bob got promoted… That leaves Jane and Sally. Still many glitches to fix, but they will do —not like I have a choice. Besides, they know the billing subsystem inside out, and women are good at cleaning things up, right? Wait, I didn't —are you recording this?
[…]
Phew, that was a close call. Jane warned IT about that OS update, but they kept talking about this "security update". Four days without revenue! Jane and Sally were no good, even Bob couldn't see what was wrong. Had to call John back, you know. Fixed the problem in a pinch. I hear HR made an offer, but I guess there was no changing his mind. Oh well, at least things are back to normal.
[…]
Dunno why, but this systems scares me a little bit.
Re: Symptoms of Dysfunction in Software Teams
#30Yeah... that post hit really hard. I got to quit my job or I will go crazy. Dependencies - Check Jane Doe - Check Town Hero - Hey look! It's me! Carcinogenic Prototype - Yeah sure, that's the one Jane Doe is maintaining!
The hero is negligent in their duties and intentionally leave an app is a poor state to promote their importance. Are you sure you are the hero?