The emergency fix



  • This was heard from the team that sits next to me, and in the office of their manager (also very close by):

    Someone discovered a problem with something that's been deployed for a while. After some research, they need to make a fairly self-contained isolated patch. Ok, no big deal. Routine stuff, right?

    Except that while researching it, they discovered a long buried bug that the users have not yet noticed.

    Senior manager: Listen, as long as we're in there, let's fix this other stuff too.

    Manager: But wait, fixing this causes something else to be undefined, which <daisy chain of affected subsystems here>.

    Long story short: 3+ weeks of work.

    SM: No, we need it tomorrow; this is an emergency fix!

    M: Then perhaps we should limit what we're fixing to the actual reported bug.

    SM: But we can fix this other stuff too!

    M: Yes, but not in the same time frame: it's a lot more work and will take a lot more time.

    The SM acquiesced, but he was not happy about it.

    Wheee!

     



  • That's easy... Just do 3 weeks of work in 1 day!  Do I have to do everything around here?!



  • I call bullshit.  We've heard enough of your stories to know that sanity and pragmatism would never prevail in your workplace.



  • Update: they decided to put in just the small patch.

    It was so small and so obvious that it didn't even need to be tested; they just KNEW that this was the solution.

    Except for the duplicated code elsewhere that was the actual problem.

    Oops!



  • @C-Octothorpe said:

    That's easy... Just do 3 weeks of work in 1 day!  Do I have to do everything around here?!

    Any decent project manager will confirm that according to MS-Project, 9 women can give birth to a kid in 1 month, so if it does not get done it's a resource problem.



  • @snoofle said:

    It was so small and so obvious that it didn't even need to be tested

    Oh for fuck's sake.

    If you promise to wield it mercilessly and you email me a postal address, I will go out and find some mahogany or ebony and hand-carve you a clue stick. You can't continue to work with these people barehanded. It's not right.



  • @Justice said:

    I call bullshit.  We've heard enough of your stories to know that sanity and pragmatism would never prevail in your workplace.

    @snoofle said:

    Update: they decided to put in just the small patch.
    It was so small and so obvious that it didn't even need to be tested; they just KNEW that this was the solution.
    Except for the duplicated code elsewhere that was the actual problem.
    Oops!

    I like this juxtaposition.



  • @flabdablet said:

    @snoofle said:

    It was so small and so obvious that it didn't even need to be tested

    Oh for fuck's sake.

    If you promise to wield it mercilessly and you email me a postal address, I will go out and find some mahogany or ebony and hand-carve you a clue stick. You can't continue to work with these people barehanded. It's not right.

    Can I have one, too?



  • @flabdablet said:

    @snoofle said:

    It was so small and so obvious that it didn't even need to be tested

    Oh for fuck's sake.

    If you promise to wield it mercilessly and you email me a postal address, I will go out and find some mahogany or ebony and hand-carve you a clue stick. You can't continue to work with these people barehanded. It's not right.

    Now I want to make a clue stick! Trying to decide what one would look like...



  • @utoxin said:

    Now I want to make a clue stick! Trying to decide what one would look like...
     

    Ornate woodcut decorations with all sorts of symbols like @ and { and $ etc.



  • @utoxin said:

    Now I want to make a clue stick! Trying to decide what one would look like...
     

    My preferred variant looks exactly like a 2x4x40 of pine. 


  • Considered Harmful

    @NoOneImportant said:

    My preferred variant looks exactly like a 2x4x40 of pine. 

    That's a clue-by-four.



  • @joe.edwards said:

    @NoOneImportant said:
    My preferred variant looks exactly like a 2x4x40 of pine. 

    That's a clue-by-four.

    You owe me a new keyboard.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @Medezark said:

    @joe.edwards said:

    @NoOneImportant said:
    My preferred variant looks exactly like a 2x4x40 of pine. 

    That's a clue-by-four.

    You owe me a new keyboard.

     

    Will you settle for a clueboard?

     


  • Considered Harmful

    @Lorne Kates said:

    @Medezark said:

    @joe.edwards said:

    @NoOneImportant said:
    My preferred variant looks exactly like a 2x4x40 of pine. 

    That's a clue-by-four.

    You owe me a new keyboard.

     

    Will you settle for a clueboard?

     

    Here you go:



  • @Lorne Kates said:

    Will you settle for a clueboard?
     

    Why settle when you can get a cluebat for only pennies more a day?

     



  • @utoxin said:

    Trying to decide what one would look like...
     

    I'm a traditionalist, so I'd go with these.

     



  • @havokk said:

    @utoxin said:
    Trying to decide what one would look like...
    I'm a traditionalist, so I'd go with these

    This is even more traditional:


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