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Why enterprise software is bloated

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Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#51

Post by Clubber »

adambyrtek wrote: post #39
ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

I know this is just an anecdote, but a good developer wouldn't ask the manager to approve every small refactoring or expect them to understand the importance of "one method in SuperFactory". They would have instead made a judgement call and taken the responsibility of doing the quick fix.

Yes, the general rule for me is if I see something completely whack on the ticket I'm working on, I'll clean it up as long as I know there won't be collateral damage. The problem comes when these systems become so complex and so old and the people working on them don't really know what changes will affect other systems down the chain.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#52

Post by jackling »

ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

For me the issue is rarely refactoring a single method, but trying to improve features given new tools and use cases. I'm always met with the same issue that it may cause regression and we would need to allocate more QA time. Really hampers improving old code.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#53

Post by mlac »

adambyrtek wrote: post #39
ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

I know this is just an anecdote, but a good developer wouldn't ask the manager to approve every small refactoring or expect them to understand the importance of "one method in SuperFactory". They would have instead made a judgement call and taken the responsibility of doing the quick fix.

Or throw it on the backlog to track it…

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#55

Post by watwut »

ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

I think that issue here is that manager is approving method refactoring in SuperFactory. And I mean, I work on dysfunctional enterprise company software. My point here is that this is not how things get bad, because this is not how things work, at least where I have seen.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#56

Post by lasereyes136 »

adambyrtek wrote: post #39
ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

I know this is just an anecdote, but a good developer wouldn't ask the manager to approve every small refactoring or expect them to understand the importance of "one method in SuperFactory". They would have instead made a judgement call and taken the responsibility of doing the quick fix.

While I agree with you, some managers micromanage and freak out for any change that isn't directly related to doing or fixing X. They will reject the change and it becomes painful to keep working like that because they hold it against you. Toxic workplaces exist.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#57

Post by browningstreet »

Working in enterprise software: very curious how many entrenched enterprise solutions don’t have enterprise features (SSO, etc) and look/feel 20 years old. Spend a lot of time migrating to replacement platforms that do. Entrenched players do nothing to upgrade basic enterprise feature set. Rinse, repeat.

Every customer replacing the legacy solutions is doing the work that the legacy org won’t do. The purpose of a solution is to build once the thing all your customers need. This dynamic is the exact inverse of that.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#58

Post by tonyedgecombe »

Back when I was consulting it always surprised me how broadly similarly sized firms would have massive differences in the size of their IT departments. One company might have 100 developers then you would go down the road to their competitor to find they only needed 10.

Needless to say more staff seemed to correlate with more bloat.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#59

Post by andrewl »

adambyrtek wrote: post #39
ihateolives wrote: post #32

In a lot of companies, feature development trumps optimizing, refactoring or removal of legacy code. Dev: Hey Steve, I'm working on issue #4546, but it just occured to me that that if I could just refactor that one method in SuperFactory it'd make code much cleaner and easier to reuse. Just a quick fix! Manager: No. Work on #4546. Dev: Sure, #4546 will be done soon, but it'd be really easy fix, it just occurred to me…

I know this is just an anecdote, but a good developer wouldn't ask the manager to approve every small refactoring or expect them to understand the importance of "one method in SuperFactory". They would have instead made a judgement call and taken the responsibility of doing the quick fix.

You could be a good developer with a manager who gets angry if it’s discovered you took that kind of initiative.

Re: Why enterprise software is bloated

#60

Post by BeefWellington »

doubled112 wrote: post #42
ihateolives wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The 10 buttons are easy. Yes, until you reach the 9th buttonhole, but you've already used up all the buttons.

Status: CLOSED User error. Really though, where does the last button hole go? You count buttons - 10. You count holes - 10. You put the buttons in the holes - one is no longer 10.

Usually another thread is to blame.
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