But We HAVE to Deploy It



  • Several months ago the Powers-That-Be decided this new feature of our application would be deployed tomorrow. Unfortunately, no amount of cajoling could get them to give us the requirements until about 8 days ago. For appearances sake, we've been putting in long hours for the last week to at least try and get some of it done. Naturally, we don't have a prayer of getting the features implemented, let alone testing anything.

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't. So here we are,  one day from deployment, not allowed to slip the deliverable, still coding away to get the main (forget ancillary) features implemented based upon our guesses as to what the thing should actually do, with no clue as to whether the new stuff will work, or if we broke the existing stuff.

    My boss decides that I should stop coding and attempt to do some regression testing. Of course, the old message format is incompatible with the new message format, so we need to set up parallel infrastructures to run the old production version and the new test version in development. Duplicate queues. Duplicate gui-installations. Duplicate server installations. Of course, we don't control most of those things.

    I gave my boss a list of things I need done by other teams and told him I need it done by 10 this morning to have a shot at running one or two scale tests today. The emails from the other teams just came back that they're busy but they'll try to get to it today or tomorrow at the latest.

    In spite of this my boss says the deployment is ON because they told us that we HAVE to deploy it. (completely untested code that still has build issues).

    It's gonna be a fun day :)



  • Are you making shit up? Please tell me you're making shit up...



  • Getting into conflicts with people who are doing shit wrong is one of my all time most favorite activities.

     



  •  I can't wait for tomorrow.



  • @Master Chief said:

    Getting into conflicts with people who are doing shit wrong is one of my all time most favorite activities.
    Even when those people are your bosses, being too clueless to recognize that they're the ones doing everything wrong, but who will inevitably find a way to somehow blame you when the whole sorry mess blows up in their faces?



  • @steenbergh said:

    Are you making shit up? Please tell me you're making shit up...

    Sadly, no.


  •  Reality is such a pesky thing.  Better to ignore it and forge onward!



  • @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

     



  • @twelve said:

    @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

    Boy, you are new; who goes back and fixes stuff? Once something is deployed, you don't fix it; you start on the next project, and address production problems in the background as they arise, which in management-speak is some thing completely different than fixing/cleaning-up code.



  • @snoofle said:

    @twelve said:

    @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

    Boy, you are new; who goes back and fixes stuff? Once something is deployed, you don't fix it; you start on the next project, and address production problems in the background as they arise, which in management-speak is some thing completely different than fixing/cleaning-up code.

     

    I am indeed new. Sadly I will be installing the VS add-in for TDWTF soon, as there are a lot of fun stories surrounding our undocumented main systems.

     



  • @snoofle said:

    @twelve said:

    @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

    Boy, you are new; who goes back and fixes stuff? Once something is deployed, you don't fix it; you start on the next project, and address production problems in the background as they arise, which in management-speak is some thing completely different than fixing/cleaning-up code.

    +infinity ... posted on my cube wall (referenced nearly daily):  Broken gets fixed; shoddy lasts forever.



  • @Anonymouse said:

    @Master Chief said:

    Getting into conflicts with people who are doing shit wrong is one of my all time most favorite activities.
    Even when those people are your bosses, being too clueless to recognize that they're the ones doing everything wrong, but who will inevitably find a way to somehow blame you when the whole sorry mess blows up in their faces?

     

    And CC everything to his superior, damn right.

     


  • ♿ (Parody)

    I don't see the WTF here. Don't you have to Deploy the app to find out what's in it?



  • @twelve said:

    I am indeed new. Sadly I will be installing the VS add-in for TDWTF soon, as there are a lot of fun stories surrounding our undocumented main systems.

     

     

     Could you please share the link for the add-in?

     

    Thanks!

     


     



  • @snoofle said:

    @twelve said:

    @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

    Boy, you are new; who goes back and fixes stuff? Once something is deployed, you don't fix it; you start on the next project, and address production problems in the background as they arise, which in management-speak is some thing completely different than fixing/cleaning-up code.

    I assume you've documented everything via email to CYA.


  • @tharpa said:

    @twelve said:

    I am indeed new. Sadly I will be installing the VS add-in for TDWTF soon, as there are a lot of fun stories surrounding our undocumented main systems.

     

     Could you please share the link for the add-in?

    You mean http://www.google.com/search?q=tdwtf+vs+plugin ? :-P

    Nah, I won't be mean.  It's at http://inedo.com/downloads/submit-to-wtf.  (Eclipse version at http://code.google.com/p/eclipse-tdwtf-plugin/.)

     



  • @Master Chief said:

    @Anonymouse said:
    @Master Chief said:
    Getting into conflicts with people who are doing shit wrong is one of my all time most favorite activities.
    Even when those people are your bosses, being too clueless to recognize that they're the ones doing everything wrong, but who will inevitably find a way to somehow blame you when the whole sorry mess blows up in their faces?
    And CC everything to his superior, damn right.
    What if his superior is just as stupid as your boss is, and wouldn't get the point you're trying to make if his life depended on it? Or the boss is the CEO's darling nephew? Or you're working in a small company where your boss is already at the top of the hierarchy, with no superior above him?



  • @Anonymouse said:

    @Master Chief said:

    @Anonymouse said:
    @Master Chief said:
    Getting into conflicts with people who are doing shit wrong is one of my all time most favorite activities.
    Even when those people are your bosses, being too clueless to recognize that they're the ones doing everything wrong, but who will inevitably find a way to somehow blame you when the whole sorry mess blows up in their faces?
    And CC everything to his superior, damn right.
    What if his superior is just as stupid as your boss is, and wouldn't get the point you're trying to make if his life depended on it? Or the boss is the CEO's darling nephew? Or you're working in a small company where your boss is already at the top of the hierarchy, with no superior above him?

     

    I don't play the what-if game.

     



  • @galgorah said:

    @snoofle said:

    @twelve said:

    @snoofle said:

    I've been telling my boss all along to manage up and set expectations. Back it up in writing. But he's so afraid of conflict that he won't.
     

    Your boss needs to grow a pair or take a pay hit. I'm a junior programmer straight out of college and have flatly told bosses two levels up that business requirements X with deadline Y is unreasonable. It's better to do things right than go back and fix the disaster you want me to build in a week.

     

    Boy, you are new; who goes back and fixes stuff? Once something is deployed, you don't fix it; you start on the next project, and address production problems in the background as they arise, which in management-speak is some thing completely different than fixing/cleaning-up code.

    I assume you've documented everything via email to CYA.
    Surely not. He hasn't needed to. It's all fully documented in TRWTF Sidebar.


  • @Master Chief said:

    I don't play the what-if game.

     

    But what if you did?


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