Here is my life as a software engineer

[HTY483]

Well I'm sure it beats roofing houses not to mention the fact that software engineers make bank. Dont they typically start computer science majors off at around $60k-$70k??? Not bad for just a bachelors degree.

[Larry Caldwell]

Remember the lesson of Scotty. Always tell them it will take twice as long as it will really take. Then when you deliver it ahead of schedule you look like a genius. Ask for a raise.

[grad_student200]

Originally Posted by wallbuilder

Feels like a Dilbert cartoon.

Management: "We're going to build a bike. How long will it take?"

Engineer: "To do it right? 2 months."

Management: "Cool. Can you create a dev plan? Break down into features, stories, tasks."

(Nevermind the fact that it is questionable whether the engineer is the right one to be doing this planning.)

Engineer: "Yes, here is the plan."

(For next 1.5 months, get loaded up with work unrelated to the bike project)

Management: "Alright, we're on track to deliver the bike, aren't we? I want to push this to Production."

Engineer: "Well, no. Look at the incomplete work items we need to do. And these are critical. My original forecast of 2 months was based on the assumption that I would be working on the bike heads-down for that time frame, but remember that we took on a bunch of new projects in the meantime."

Management: "But I saw you demo the bike at the last sprint demo? It was very cool. Are these incomplete work items critical? It doesn't need to be perfect. The bike can have a wobbly wheel. I made a commitment to our internal stakeholders that we would deliver a bike next week."

Engineer: "Sure, but shouldn't we fix the wobbly wheel? Or do the stakeholders have the correct expectation that this is a V1 and we are planning to make improvements?"

Management: "Yes, don't worry about it. I'm anxious to get this pushed to Production."

Engineer: "I'm not sure what the huge rush is, but sure ... will do."

(1 hour later)

Management: "Hi. Has this been pushed to Production yet?"

Engineer: "No, it's quite an involved process to deploy the bike to Production. Especially if we want to fully automate it so we can release new versions faster."

Management: "Can you just do it manually for now? Create a story in the backlog for automating deployment."

Engineer: "Uh, sure."

(Gets deployed and a bunch of congratulatory emails start flying around about the hard work we did to meet this milestone)

(1 week later)

Management: "Engineer, I'm a little confused. I thought we were done with the bike project, but the stakeholders showed me the bike and it has a wobbly wheel."

You better be careful. Those types of managers without an IT background do that a lot. I have seen cases where business executives set a production deadline that is highly unrealistic. They sometimes do this against the advice of experienced engineers ranging from senior developers to mid-level management. Then when it turns out the deadline is lost, millions of dollars can be wasted. I have seen business executives blame others for that even though they were the ones who set the deadline unrealistically in the first place. It's a narcissistic personality disorder.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by tnff

So you bought his whine? Management at that level has a lot more flexibility and control than that.

You would like to think so. I'm telling you that it clearly isn't true in many cases. This guy has a personality disorder. It took scolding him like a naughty child (being old enough to be his father probably helped) to get him to admit his inadequacies. He wouldn't even look at me in the eye after I publicly called him out and broke him down. He was assuredly telling the truth.



And it fit with what my boss (his underling) had been telling me. She and I became good friends and surely wouldn't have lied to me.

Originally Posted by tnff

At that level the directives from above are general guidance, not specific details.

It used to be that way. I know because I used to be a third-party auditor, evaluating the performance of management at that level and above. It makes sense that it doesn't work that way anymore. It fits with the general move toward commoditization of work, and Sarbanes-Oxley and other pressures perhaps have also prompted today's executives not to give up any power to their underlings.

Originally Posted by tnff

What they accomplish and how they accomplish it is heavily on them.

"On" them, yes. "Up to them"? Evidently not, and again, it makes sense: The company, like many companies these days, brought in a charismatic C-level to clean up a big mess, but there aren't enough truly qualified C-levels available. So these mental midgets that they put in charge craft plans that have no elasticity within them.

Originally Posted by tnff

The good ones get things done. The bad ones push the buck above them.

That's the point: There are only a handful of "good ones" who build flexible organizations with distributed authority. Sounds like you've been extremely lucky to work for such a place. There are fewer and fewer places where "things get done" these days, and this is very likely why that that is the case.

[bUU]

Originally Posted by rummage

And people on C-D wonder why management doesn't want to hire an older worker, or they cut older people out of the process at work.

Because they'll tell them the truth - and that would be horrible, wouldn't it? /sarc

[Dopo]

Worst thing I've had to deal with, was a boss that refused to set priorities = whatever is in his mind at x moment, that's the highest priority.

[mathlete]

Originally Posted by rummage

And people on C-D wonder why management doesn't want to hire an older worker, or they cut older people out of the process at work.

He didn’t care because he was a short-timer, not because he was an old-timer. And short-timers come in every age, race, gender, and ethnicity. You’re right about one thing though. Management doesn’t want to hire older workers. Why? For the same reason it doesn’t want to hire people of certain races, gender, or ethnicities unless forced to do so.