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The worst mistake I've seen management make over 20 years of software development is not listening to the technical people. Estimates get shortened. Technical

The worst mistake I've seen management make over 20 years of software development is not listening to the technical people. Estimates get shortened. Technical decisions are overruled for business or political reason. Warnings about undesirable outcomes are ignored. Sheer impossibility deemed surmountable. I feel this is the worst mistake by management because the technical people are the ones who suffer for it. Overtime, inferior software, frustration, technical debt, lack of quality, are all things management doesn't really care about because they can always just push people harder to get what they want.

snvzz 9y ago
>I feel this is the worst mistake by management because the technical people are the ones who suffer for it. How is this a mistake then? It seems As Planned. It'd be a mistake if the management suffered for it.
- redleggedfrog 9y ago
  In every case the companies they were trying to build up failed. Being vested owners, they lost money, and time.
  - snvzz 9y ago
    I agree that makes sense, but the statement was "technical people are the ones to suffer for it". If that was true, it'd be as intended
- ehnto 9y ago
  Best case, good people leave and the company spends more than it needed to on onboarding new people. Worst case, good people leave and your team never fully recovers, the product is technical garbage and you end up spending on a rebuild, or the product fails. Considering the product is the foundation of the project, ignoring warnings from the people building it would be like ignoring someone yelling "Fire" inside a wood mill. They know the product, wood, doesn't come out very well given the current circumstance, fire. We should probably listen. Ultimately, more money and happier people could have been had if things were done pragmatically but correctly. There is of course such a thing as an overengineered product, so there is certainly a balance between pragmatism, speed and quality. But the mindset being brought up here is that you can forsake quality and happiness for more profit without consequence, and I suspect that's not truly the case.

snvzz 9y ago

>I feel this is the worst mistake by management because the technical people are the ones who suffer for it. How is this a mistake then? It seems As Planned. It'd be a mistake if the management suffered for it.

redleggedfrog 9y ago
In every case the companies they were trying to build up failed. Being vested owners, they lost money, and time.
- snvzz 9y ago
  I agree that makes sense, but the statement was "technical people are the ones to suffer for it". If that was true, it'd be as intended
ehnto 9y ago
Best case, good people leave and the company spends more than it needed to on onboarding new people. Worst case, good people leave and your team never fully recovers, the product is technical garbage and you end up spending on a rebuild, or the product fails. Considering the product is the foundation of the project, ignoring warnings from the people building it would be like ignoring someone yelling "Fire" inside a wood mill. They know the product, wood, doesn't come out very well given the current circumstance, fire. We should probably listen. Ultimately, more money and happier people could have been had if things were done pragmatically but correctly. There is of course such a thing as an overengineered product, so there is certainly a balance between pragmatism, speed and quality. But the mindset being brought up here is that you can forsake quality and happiness for more profit without consequence, and I suspect that's not truly the case.