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Sure, NIH syndrome can be rational for technology that is crucial/central to your system. The problem is it is often used to justify re-inventing even mundane

Sure, NIH syndrome can be rational for technology that is crucial/central to your system. The problem is it is often used to justify re-inventing even mundane stuff. I once worked with a client who wanted to implement their own bug tracking system. The client’s main product was something totally unrelated.

marcosdumay 9y ago
If even mundane stuff keeps breaking your workflow and demands all of your time to keep up with, then all the power for reinventing it. All the better if it is simple.
flukus 9y ago
Bug trackers are one of those areas where a lot of companies should build there own. Everyone has there own workflows and information to capture and end up either conforming their process to the bug tracker or spending more time configuring the bug tracker than they would to build a new system from scratch. Those uber configurable systems always suck to use. Ones like JIRA can takes weeks to setup for your org and include their own query language. All of this complexity just to do something so simple is not rational. As long as you don't over engineer it then it's only a days work to get something up and running and it's a great project for interns.
- ionforce 9y ago
  > Bug trackers are one of those areas where a lot of companies should build there own. This sounds insane. I have not worked at a place where the workflow was so holy and important that it couldn't be captured in a near default JIRA install. Most of the customization asks I've seen with JIRA come from dysfunctional organizations that demand new swimlanes like "QA" and "product approval" and "spec design".
  - kckkdkd929292 9y ago
    dont spend money building spend it on vendor lock-in i guess if you want to change the world with todo app that probably makes sense
  - gaius 9y ago
    I have not worked at a place where the workflow was so holy and important that it couldn't be captured in a near default JIRA install JIRA out-of-the-box is surprisingly sane - most people who hate JIRA really hate the custom workflows their own organisation has inflicted on them.
- brightball 9y ago
  This is why BPM systems exist. To take all of those disparate “Good enough” tools that don’t fit your workflow and make them fit your workflow. Really a tech stack that doesn’t get nearly enough attention IMO.
- oblio 9y ago
  Making a serious bug tracker is hundreds, more like thousands of man hours. You’re saying that instead of investing 50 hours into configuring Jira properly, it’s better to do that? Even with intern work, it doesn’t make sense, especially since interns will be gone tomorrow ;)
  - flukus 9y ago
    I think your either over complicating the requirements or under estimating how long it takes to throw together a system with half a dozen tables and a a dozen views/forms. Or underestimating just how far you can get with such a simple system. Then you've got something tailored to your workflow. > Even with intern work, it doesn’t make sense, especially since interns will be gone tomorrow ;) But there will be a new batch sooner or later that can extend and update it.
  - collyw 9y ago
    Most places only need a fraction of the functionality of Jira.
    - oblio 9y ago
      Most developers underestimate the complexity of any project :) Especially one that becomes a crucial component of a company's workflow (as is the case for bug trackers in any properly run software company).
      - collyw 9y ago
        I would say its more of the case that developers unnecessarily make projects more complex than needed. Certainly on the last couple of projects I have inherited.
        nu-world-odor 9y ago
        Let's not forget that coupled with the complexity is the failing business cases bro!! the business units fail--yeah. JIRA is just some vast snowflake.
notyourday 9y ago
For 99% of companies, including the ones employees post here container and container orchestration is a resume driven development of devops/engops/sre/seniordevs caused by improper hiring, improper vetting of ideas and personnel and fixation on cargo cults. It is no different from cargo culting in sales where a perfectly functioning company slowly but surely building up brings in a CRO (can you imagine this showed up as a title?! ) who says "We will sell differently! Give me account managers! Give me sales development representatives! Give me customer happiness coordinators and we will sell to enterprise accounts at 50x contract value!" So the company hires a hundred people in those roles and it does look like the contracts are creeping up. So the CRO says "I know! The issue is that we are spedning too much time on paperwork. Hire me salesops! And give me all these Sales Force integrations! And special IT people reporting to me operating these new tools" So the company hires more people for those roles, burning through millions of dollars in salaries but at the end... the new customers are still just a trickle. Eventually CRO gets fired and most of the people who got hired on that push are gone as well as millions of dollars are spent. If they spent those millions on Google ads or Facebook ads they would have definitely gotten more revenue but plain Google ads and plain Facebook ads are not sexy.

marcosdumay 9y ago

If even mundane stuff keeps breaking your workflow and demands all of your time to keep up with, then all the power for reinventing it. All the better if it is simple.

flukus 9y ago

Bug trackers are one of those areas where a lot of companies should build there own. Everyone has there own workflows and information to capture and end up either conforming their process to the bug tracker or spending more time configuring the bug tracker than they would to build a new system from scratch. Those uber configurable systems always suck to use. Ones like JIRA can takes weeks to setup for your org and include their own query language. All of this complexity just to do something so simple is not rational. As long as you don't over engineer it then it's only a days work to get something up and running and it's a great project for interns.

ionforce 9y ago
> Bug trackers are one of those areas where a lot of companies should build there own. This sounds insane. I have not worked at a place where the workflow was so holy and important that it couldn't be captured in a near default JIRA install. Most of the customization asks I've seen with JIRA come from dysfunctional organizations that demand new swimlanes like "QA" and "product approval" and "spec design".
- kckkdkd929292 9y ago
  dont spend money building spend it on vendor lock-in i guess if you want to change the world with todo app that probably makes sense
- gaius 9y ago
  I have not worked at a place where the workflow was so holy and important that it couldn't be captured in a near default JIRA install JIRA out-of-the-box is surprisingly sane - most people who hate JIRA really hate the custom workflows their own organisation has inflicted on them.
brightball 9y ago
This is why BPM systems exist. To take all of those disparate “Good enough” tools that don’t fit your workflow and make them fit your workflow. Really a tech stack that doesn’t get nearly enough attention IMO.
oblio 9y ago
Making a serious bug tracker is hundreds, more like thousands of man hours. You’re saying that instead of investing 50 hours into configuring Jira properly, it’s better to do that? Even with intern work, it doesn’t make sense, especially since interns will be gone tomorrow ;)
- flukus 9y ago
  I think your either over complicating the requirements or under estimating how long it takes to throw together a system with half a dozen tables and a a dozen views/forms. Or underestimating just how far you can get with such a simple system. Then you've got something tailored to your workflow. > Even with intern work, it doesn’t make sense, especially since interns will be gone tomorrow ;) But there will be a new batch sooner or later that can extend and update it.
- collyw 9y ago
  Most places only need a fraction of the functionality of Jira.
  - oblio 9y ago
    Most developers underestimate the complexity of any project :) Especially one that becomes a crucial component of a company's workflow (as is the case for bug trackers in any properly run software company).
    - collyw 9y ago
      I would say its more of the case that developers unnecessarily make projects more complex than needed. Certainly on the last couple of projects I have inherited.
      - nu-world-odor 9y ago
        Let's not forget that coupled with the complexity is the failing business cases bro!! the business units fail--yeah. JIRA is just some vast snowflake.

notyourday 9y ago

For 99% of companies, including the ones employees post here container and container orchestration is a resume driven development of devops/engops/sre/seniordevs caused by improper hiring, improper vetting of ideas and personnel and fixation on cargo cults. It is no different from cargo culting in sales where a perfectly functioning company slowly but surely building up brings in a CRO (can you imagine this showed up as a title?! ) who says "We will sell differently! Give me account managers! Give me sales development representatives! Give me customer happiness coordinators and we will sell to enterprise accounts at 50x contract value!" So the company hires a hundred people in those roles and it does look like the contracts are creeping up. So the CRO says "I know! The issue is that we are spedning too much time on paperwork. Hire me salesops! And give me all these Sales Force integrations! And special IT people reporting to me operating these new tools" So the company hires more people for those roles, burning through millions of dollars in salaries but at the end... the new customers are still just a trickle. Eventually CRO gets fired and most of the people who got hired on that push are gone as well as millions of dollars are spent. If they spent those millions on Google ads or Facebook ads they would have definitely gotten more revenue but plain Google ads and plain Facebook ads are not sexy.