[OT] Extra time spent

[Nick Sabalausky via Digitalmars-d]

On 6/6/2014 9:24 AM, Dejan Lekic wrote:
>
> A typical scenario is when (top-level) manager (M) want thing yesterday,
> and tell senior engineer (SE)
>
> M: How long will it take?
> SE: Well, we did not even analyse the requirements for this feature.
> Let's spend some time brainstorming this first, and then I will be able
> to do better estimation.
> M: We have no time for that, and I think you already have all you need.
> SE: OK, 3 days.
> M: What??? We need this thing yesterday!
> SE: Well, I could do a quick hack... It will take 1 day, but we will not
> have time to test, no time for code quality, etc.
> M: DO IT!!!
> (that "quick hack" code stays there because next week another urgent
> thing came, and SE never had time to make the code better)
>

That's what's known as a *good* corporate culture.

Conversely, my experience is more like this (common occurrence):


[Manager barges in]
Random Developer: Yes? What is it?
Manager: The sales dept just sold feature X, promised it by deadline Y, 
so go do it.

[At *every* weekly developer meeting]
Manager (pretending to be useful, as usual): The amount of bugs and slow 
rate of fixing is unacceptable. This company is at a point where we need 
to transition away from the "fire-fighting mode" we've been in.
Everyone: About damn time. Sounds great.

[A few days later]
Random Developer: Uh huh?
Manager: The sales dept just sold feature Z, promised it by deadline Q, 
so quit fiddling with that unimportant stuff and go do it.


But then, our product was made specifically for HR personnel and 
headhunter agencies, and those people are the dumbest of the dumbest 
dumbshits, so they'd never be able to recognize diarrhea if they were 
drinking it, let alone know what software is worth buying. To this day 
I'm convinced that's the sole reason that "software" company has managed 
to exist at all despite their complete and total ineptitude.