Comments on: Ancient wisdom is inescapable, especially with project management

By: Chad Myers

Chad Myers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:47:52 +0000

@Don: Repeatability, repeatability, repeatability. Testing it once only proves the software worked at that moment in time and the effort in testing it is lost forever.

Write one set of automated tests and run them automatically forever and it keeps paying for itself.

@Colin: Not sure how to answer that, lol. If you have repeatability and a good process flow going, turnover isn’t quite as devastating. If you have people turning over in less than ~2 years, that would be a warning sign to me (YMMV, of course, and certain situations come up — lottery, dream job, quitting to become a Monk, etc).

By: Colin Jack

Colin Jack — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:58:38 +0000

Oops I was wrong, 36%.

By: Colin Jack

Colin Jack — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:29:40 +0000

This and Jeremy’s posts made me think of turnover at our work, according to the way you calculate it at Wikipedia we are running at around 50% within development and support (over 2 years):

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnover_(employment)

So I’m wondering what the average is.

By: Lee

Lee — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:53:09 +0000

Thank you so much for writing this. Especially: “The inappropriate response…is to start mistrusting the developers and start assuming they’re lazy SOBs…” That sums up the CEO’s attitude at the last place I worked (and why I’m not there anymore).

Ironically, the CEO ended up jumping the sinking ship – the only place he could get a job was the MORTGAGE industry. Too funny.

By: Donn Felker

Donn Felker — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 15:36:36 +0000

I’ve been here. I’ve left as well.
Sometimes when I arrive at clients I’m in this situation and it sucks. If I can, I help them see the light, but as its been documented, sometimes the manic-panic sets in with the higher ups and everything is ditched.

Mgmt: “We dont need tests, we just need it to work!”
Devs: “Uh.. ok, so how do you know if it works?”
Mgmt: “Well fire up the app and test it.”
Devs: “How about we write some re-peatable tests to ensure that …”
Mgmt: “NO! We dont hvae time for that. I needed this yesterday! We have a conference in 2 days and this HAS to be done!”
Devs: “Ok, well it wont work.”

It just goes back and forth. Its ridiculous.

Good move on leaving. I would have done the same.

By: Chris

Chris — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:42:52 +0000

Amazing. Just amazing. Sorry for your bad experience Chad. Know you and Jeremy will land on your feet, but what a crummy thing to have happen to you.

By: Jon Scolamiero

Jon Scolamiero — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 13:27:50 +0000

@Chad: Thanks Chad, I needed that post.

By: Matt Blodgett

Matt Blodgett — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:47:23 +0000

Great post, Chad. Thanks so much for sharing the lessons you learned.

I look forward to seeing what you and Jeremy go on to next.

By: Ray Houston

Ray Houston — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:03:19 +0000

@Chad – pretty amazing. It’s funny how companies make the same stupid mistakes over and over again. Jimmy hit the nail on the head talking about scaring off two of the most talented folks in the business. Absolutely amazing.

By: Chad Myers

Chad Myers — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:30:20 +0000

@jbogard:

The reason I wrote this post is because most of the places I’ve worked, the various stakeholders all seemed to like the idea of Agile and bought into it, even played along with it and helped to move the project along. But at the first sign of any sort of crisis or hardship, they’re the first ones to ditch the process and revert back to pre-Agile and want everyone to switch to head’s-down, everyone panic mode. In every single case, three things happened: 1.) The project failed and the hurry-up was for naught (or some temporary goal was met, but it was unsustainable and quickly fell apart shortly afterwards) 2.) the team was burnt and most of the people left, or were so demoralized that they were next to worthless after this ordeal, and 3.) the situation that caused the panic in the first place was not dealt with and persisted, causing the project (if it managed to survive, limping and bleeding) to continue stuck in Death March, crazy mode which caused #1 and #2 to repeat but with much worse severity.