February 16, 2012 at 12:15 pm
I have to laugh to myself (to keep the insanity at bay) when I think about the first release of the project I mentioned earlier. To make matters worse, the "management" discovered a "silver bullet" that they were going to leverage to make us more productive: TDD/CI.
Don't get me wrong, I firmly believe in TDD/CI. However, if you force the team working on a major project to adopt such technology and techniques without any formal training and expect it to have an immediate effect tantamount to "saving the project from failure" then you have left the realm of rational behavior and have embarked on a journey to the island of insanity. We did only a mediocre job at TDD/CI on that project and it often became a bone of contention that actually reduced our capacity and velocity as people argued over "what is a unit", "what should be mocked", "why does code coverage not guarantee functional coverage", etc. I can't tell you how many "silver bullets" have been forced on me over my career without proper expectations and management.
Nowadays we use SCRUM to manage our agility and the management has succeeded in subverting that as best they can, rendering it almost ineffective in our case. The team is not empowered and is discouraged from innovation. What a mess...
Another major reason for all the overtime is that people often times have a feature in mind but cannot adequately describe it. What ensues is a constant struggle to get them to say what they mean and establish the communication necessary to validate that the feature has been defined well enough to be effective from a product perspective. SCRUM can help but only if you let it (i.e. proper story development and making the proper distinctions between epic and simple stories and acting accordingly).
February 16, 2012 at 12:22 pm
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
GSquared (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
Well.... now you know why Mickeysoft is shipping American jobs overseas to China. They pay them dirt and work them until they fall asleep. Check out this link if you don't believe it. Good ole Mickeysoft! 😀Yep. Just like Apple. Just like (fill in major corporation here). Just like (fill in another major corporation here). (Loop infinitely).
Yep and Obama has sworn to put a stop to it too. American jobs for Americans first. Go Obama!!!!!:-D
Obama is going to put a stop to corporate greed?! This I want to see! 😛
February 16, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Avoiding the overseas sub-topic...
I'm there now, I'm on a project that hit an oil slick and is at warp 12. Most of it's due to network kablewies during long processes (24+ hours) in the dev network. Right or wrong, it's what I've got to fight with. So I find myself having to check things at 3 in the morning just to see if it needs a restart.
The problem is you can't avoid this. The whole 8 hours after two weeks is a nice theory, and is most likely correct. However, that doesn't convince the powers that be or peers in other departments that you're 'trying your hardest' if you don't come in looking like a wet cat after the washing machine sometimes.
Part of the problem is political, not just effectiveness.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
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February 16, 2012 at 12:30 pm
KWymore (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
GSquared (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
Well.... now you know why Mickeysoft is shipping American jobs overseas to China. They pay them dirt and work them until they fall asleep. Check out this link if you don't believe it. Good ole Mickeysoft! 😀Yep. Just like Apple. Just like (fill in major corporation here). Just like (fill in another major corporation here). (Loop infinitely).
Yep and Obama has sworn to put a stop to it too. American jobs for Americans first. Go Obama!!!!!:-D
Obama is going to put a stop to corporate greed?! This I want to see! 😛
Sure, he is going to redistribute all of the rich guys wealth, and their corporations profits, to all the little people haven't you heard? 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
February 16, 2012 at 12:33 pm
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
KWymore (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
GSquared (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
Well.... now you know why Mickeysoft is shipping American jobs overseas to China. They pay them dirt and work them until they fall asleep. Check out this link if you don't believe it. Good ole Mickeysoft! 😀Yep. Just like Apple. Just like (fill in major corporation here). Just like (fill in another major corporation here). (Loop infinitely).
Yep and Obama has sworn to put a stop to it too. American jobs for Americans first. Go Obama!!!!!:-D
Obama is going to put a stop to corporate greed?! This I want to see! 😛
Sure, he is going to redistribute all of the rich guys wealth, and their corporations profits, to all the little people haven't you heard? 😀
(I think my sarcasm meter just got burned out.)
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 17, 2012 at 5:48 am
Useful discussion.
"There's no question with seamans"
February 17, 2012 at 8:06 am
Ah, people, I think we are getting content drift going on here. :ermm:
Both religion (Apple vs Microsoft) and politics (jobs, political party references, ...) have started taking over the bulk of the last part of the discussion.
-----------------
Larry
(What color is your database?)
February 20, 2012 at 6:56 am
IowaTechBear (2/17/2012)
Ah, people, I think we are getting content drift going on here. :ermm:Both religion (Apple vs Microsoft) and politics (jobs, political party references, ...) have started taking over the bulk of the last part of the discussion.
Yep. We're too tired to stay on-topic. 😛
- Gus "GSquared", RSVP, OODA, MAP, NMVP, FAQ, SAT, SQL, DNA, RNA, UOI, IOU, AM, PM, AD, BC, BCE, USA, UN, CF, ROFL, LOL, ETC
Property of The Thread
"Nobody knows the age of the human race, but everyone agrees it's old enough to know better." - Anon
February 20, 2012 at 1:17 pm
Nice editorial...reminds me of one job I worked as the only DBA. We had a clustered server crash and what started out looking like just a hard drive failure turned out real bad. The vendor didn't believe us as to what the problem might be, a 'cluster savvy' manager came into the server room while the system admin, application admin, adn I were brain-storming the issue and he promptly deleted the quorum drive saying it would just rebuild itself.
Six days later, we got the system up and running.
After the first eight hours, we realized this was going to take awhile, so we began 'tag-teaming'. Two people would oversee the one doing the work and ask any questions they thought of - such as 'stop -do you really intend to do that? Won't that cause this to happen?'. The overseers were able to step aside and take a breather as needed - one person was always watching over the person doing the work. That kept the stress off them. Then we switched off on doing the work. Six 12+ hour days later, everything worked fine with no unforeseen issues.
-SQLBill
February 22, 2012 at 4:11 pm
Bill:
What happened to the manager? I hope he was gagged and hog-tied to a chair (an uncomfortable one) and forced to sit there for the entire six days.
Then left in the server room, completely forgotten about.
February 22, 2012 at 5:02 pm
SQLBill (2/20/2012)
After the first eight hours, we realized this was going to take awhile, so we began 'tag-teaming'. Two people would oversee the one doing the work and ask any questions they thought of - such as 'stop -do you really intend to do that? Won't that cause this to happen?'. The overseers were able to step aside and take a breather as needed - one person was always watching over the person doing the work. That kept the stress off them. Then we switched off on doing the work. Six 12+ hour days later, everything worked fine with no unforeseen issues.
Another question.
What did you do to the bean counters who would constantly ask "How many of you does it take to push a few buttons?" Please tell me a potato gun was involved.
Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.
For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
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February 27, 2012 at 8:44 am
Peter Maloof (2/22/2012)
Bill:What happened to the manager? I hope he was gagged and hog-tied to a chair (an uncomfortable one) and forced to sit there for the entire six days.
Then left in the server room, completely forgotten about.
He was let go. We didn't want him anywhere near us while we were working on the system. We got a 'warm body' to stand at the door and forbid him entry. One of my co-workers threatened him with bodily harm if he came into the data center before we had the system up and running.
-SQLBill
February 27, 2012 at 8:46 am
Evil Kraig F (2/22/2012)
SQLBill (2/20/2012)
After the first eight hours, we realized this was going to take awhile, so we began 'tag-teaming'. Two people would oversee the one doing the work and ask any questions they thought of - such as 'stop -do you really intend to do that? Won't that cause this to happen?'. The overseers were able to step aside and take a breather as needed - one person was always watching over the person doing the work. That kept the stress off them. Then we switched off on doing the work. Six 12+ hour days later, everything worked fine with no unforeseen issues.Another question.
What did you do to the bean counters who would constantly ask "How many of you does it take to push a few buttons?" Please tell me a potato gun was involved.
We didn't have a problem with 'bean counters'...our other managers/directors knew the type of work we did and the issues we were having. We kept them updated with what was done, what needed to be done, expected finish time, and what our 'next day' plan was. Our update report was the last thing we sent before going home each day.
-SQLBill
February 27, 2012 at 9:20 am
SQLBill (2/27/2012)
He was let go. We didn't want him anywhere near us while we were working on the system. We got a 'warm body' to stand at the door and forbid him entry. One of my co-workers threatened him with bodily harm if he came into the data center before we had the system up and running.
Nice.
Sounds like you had a good plan for keeping management informed, too. Kudos.
September 14, 2023 at 1:30 pm
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
GSquared (2/16/2012)
TravisDBA (2/16/2012)
Well.... now you know why Mickeysoft is shipping American jobs overseas to China. They pay them dirt and work them until they fall asleep. Check out this link if you don't believe it. Good ole Mickeysoft! 😀 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1266643/Microsofts-Chinese-workforce-tired-stay-awake.html%5B/quote%5D Yep. Just like Apple. Just like (fill in major corporation here). Just like (fill in another major corporation here). (Loop infinitely).Yep and Obama has sworn to put a stop to it too. American jobs for Americans first. Go Obama!!!!!:-D
Obama is going to put a stop to corporate greed?! This I want to see! 😛
I am so glad that these problems were fixed over ten years ago! No more corporate greed! Love these forums and the humor of people on them.
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