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Is it possible this was a communication failure not a technical one? I'm guessing your bosses couldn't tell the difference between the old performance level of

by lj3 10y ago

Is it possible this was a communication failure not a technical one? I'm guessing your bosses couldn't tell the difference between the old performance level of your code and the new performance level of the off the shelf code. But, I'm betting they could tell the difference in communication styles. I'm guessing you said 'no' a lot and your replacements said 'yes' a lot?

jazzyk 10y ago
>"They wanted it all; they didn't want to pay for it." The above happened on almost every project I have worked for over the years. Q: "Can we take feature x out of the plan?" A: "We can't release the product/project without it" Q: "Can we then add 2 more months to the release?" A: "Absolutely impossible, the client will not accept it" You are correct, the reason is severe (and systemic) lack of communication: Product-roadmap planning either does not involve technical personnel at all, or at least not until the very last minute, when you are brought in to essentially rubber-stamp the plan. Saying "no" takes a lot of courage at this stage, you are seen as incapable/negative. The underlying problem here is that we are seen as mere technicians/workers, not planners or strategists (we are partially to be blamed for this, but that's a separate topic).
- jnbiche 10y ago
  I've also had exchanges very similar to the above. What I think happens is that managers think that we're negotiating. Negotiating for what? I have no idea, but for many managers, it's their default assumption. In fact, we're not negotiating. We're describing the situation to the best of our understanding. Indeed, when often these situations have started to feel like negotiations, I've stopped and emphasized that this is not a negotiation, this is my very best estimate as to what I need to get the job done, nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes this gets through to them.
JoeAltmaier 10y ago
Oh I communicated the failings and expected drawbacks. The lag, the failures to connect, the features now missing. The whole different architecture that prevented doing anything like what we were already doing. But, its magical open-source! Which means anything can be fixed. Wave that wand and objections disappear. The new bosses made the mistake of thinking our app was the product. But it was the behaviors it facilitated that was the product. They dummied up a web app that looked like what we'd been doing. But it didn't perform or scale anything like what we'd had. Which will probably kill them in the end.

by lj3 10y ago

jazzyk 10y ago

>"They wanted it all; they didn't want to pay for it." The above happened on almost every project I have worked for over the years. Q: "Can we take feature x out of the plan?" A: "We can't release the product/project without it" Q: "Can we then add 2 more months to the release?" A: "Absolutely impossible, the client will not accept it" You are correct, the reason is severe (and systemic) lack of communication: Product-roadmap planning either does not involve technical personnel at all, or at least not until the very last minute, when you are brought in to essentially rubber-stamp the plan. Saying "no" takes a lot of courage at this stage, you are seen as incapable/negative. The underlying problem here is that we are seen as mere technicians/workers, not planners or strategists (we are partially to be blamed for this, but that's a separate topic).

jnbiche 10y ago
I've also had exchanges very similar to the above. What I think happens is that managers think that we're negotiating. Negotiating for what? I have no idea, but for many managers, it's their default assumption. In fact, we're not negotiating. We're describing the situation to the best of our understanding. Indeed, when often these situations have started to feel like negotiations, I've stopped and emphasized that this is not a negotiation, this is my very best estimate as to what I need to get the job done, nothing more, nothing less. Sometimes this gets through to them.

JoeAltmaier 10y ago

Oh I communicated the failings and expected drawbacks. The lag, the failures to connect, the features now missing. The whole different architecture that prevented doing anything like what we were already doing. But, its magical open-source! Which means anything can be fixed. Wave that wand and objections disappear. The new bosses made the mistake of thinking our app was the product. But it was the behaviors it facilitated that was the product. They dummied up a web app that looked like what we'd been doing. But it didn't perform or scale anything like what we'd had. Which will probably kill them in the end.