The fantasy of management.



  • So I've recently been put in the position of Software Lead on another project, which means I'm SL on two projects (three, technically, and providing support on a fourth but the third and fourth are on hold). Both of which have one Engineer allocated... who is also me.

    The new project is an upgrade to an existing one. Now, there is no real customer-mandated delivery date for it other than 'by the end of 1st quarter 2017', but for financial reasons the company has decided that we must ship all of the deliverable by the end of this year... which somehow has turned into, "Complete by August 1st".

    Except what they are asking for requires a complete database redesign, and our database engineer is currently fully tasked through August on another 'Critical must ship by August 1st' project.

    So, myself and the Software Manager went through the tasks, gathered estimates, and allocated resources while writing up all the issues pertaining to the requirements we were given. To say that August 1st was doable would be a horrible, horrible, lie. We could give them partial functionality by then, but full functionality was sometime in November.

    This morning we sat down with the Program Manager and Product Management teams and presented our findings. We had spreadsheets and interactive charts to back up our assertions. Absolutely no one refuted the facts of our findings.

    Result?

    "I reject your reality, and substitute my own!

    It must be nice living in a fantasy world like that where you can just write requirements and pick a random date for completion without a care in the world in regards to reality or reasonable expectations of your staff, then totally ignore hard data that doesn't fit in your world view.

    So... we're going to be development complete August 1st. We got them to drop some of the requirements, which is good, but I'm still not confident in our ability to meet that deadline. I'm also concerned that the person, "Managing customer expectations" may fail to do so, considering what we'll be shipping is different from the proposal. Looks like I'll be spending the rest of the week trying to figure that out, while still trying to get work done for other project which I'm Lead/Engineer for.

    Thank god we have free painkillers in the medicine cabinet. My head is pounding.

    Hopefully this will be the last time I'm tasked as a Software Lead, because this crap is horrible and I really do not get paid enough to deal with it. I want at least six figures for this bullshit. I literally spent 8.5 hours in meetings yesterday, and almost 7 the day before; today isn't looking much better.


  • FoxDev

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    "I reject your reality, and substitute my own!

    ..... so that's where our VP of IT went after we shitcanned him for incompetence.....

    my condolences.



  • @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    This morning we sat down with the Program Manager

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  • @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    "I reject your reality, and substitute my own!
    It must be nice living in a fantasy world like that where you can just write requirements and pick a random date for completion without a care in the world in regards to reality or reasonable expectations of your staff, then totally ignore hard data that doesn't fit in your world view.

    It's exactly what happens here where I am. I try hard to ignore management and their deadlines. I'm in a state where I just say "aham" to whatever he say, and fuck everything else. The worse they can do is fire me.


  • Trolleybus Mechanic

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    To say that August 1st was doable would be a horrible, horrible, lie

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    It must be nice living in a fantasy world like that where you can just write requirements and pick a random date for completion without a care in the world in regards to reality or reasonable expectations of your staff, then totally ignore hard data that doesn't fit in your world view.

    It's called "Sales".


  • Java Dev

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    Thank god we have free painkillers in the medicine cabinet. My head is pounding.

    That's not how you solve that problem. Instead, I suggest you make sure you go home in time, find a distraction, and make sure you get a good night's sleep. I'd suggest a long weekend but it's only Wednesday.


  • area_pol

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    So I've recently been put in the position of Software Lead on another project, which means I'm SL on two projects.
    Both of which have one Engineer allocated... who is also me.

    So you are alone in these projects? ("one engineer allocated")



  • @Adynathos said in The fantasy of management.:

    @nullptr said in The fantasy of management.:

    So I've recently been put in the position of Software Lead on another project, which means I'm SL on two projects.
    Both of which have one Engineer allocated... who is also me.

    So you are alone in these projects? ("one engineer allocated")

    Effectively yes, except for the database work.


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