3 ms·

It seems like what you are describing is a code maintenance job. If that's right, there are answers to your questions in that context: 1. "Why agile/scrum is e

by Zigurd 5y ago

It seems like what you are describing is a code maintenance job. If that's right, there are answers to your questions in that context: 1. "Why agile/scrum is even a thing?" Mainly because new development projects benefit from Agile. If you are responding to tickets, all you need is a trouble ticket system. That's not Agile. It's just a bug list with tracking. Which is what Jira was before Agile became fashionable and Jira has to become Agile. 2. "What's with infinite tests? Why so much code is being written to do so little?" Because regressions suck and management would rather pay you to be belt-and-suspenders than have surprises. Good? Bad? Depends. 3. PMs? Project managers or product managers? Or product owners (Agile jargon alert)? Same principle as why so much test code: Management wants to have a documented task that is documented as complete. Dull and bureaucratic, but perhaps appropriate to maintenance tasks.

lifeplusplus 5y ago
very questionable assertions, entire field of CS was build, as well as the internet plus operating systems without the need of all those 'roles'.
- bruce511 5y ago
  The key part of your sentence there is "was built". 30 years ago I wasn't maintaining software, I was writing it from scratch. We didn't sell "software" to customers, we sold "you could use a computer in your business". We started in DOS, and were around when literally every program was rewritten from scratch in Windows. We had no scrum, no product managers, just tiny numbers of people building the world. Today software is everywhere, and it's spent the last 30 years maturing. Tiny projects have turned into huge monsters. We've succeeded in computerising every process. Businesses have lots of processes so there's lots of software working together. Today's world doesn't need a new invoicing system - there are plenty of capable commercial ones already available - it needs armies to maintain the existing ones. It needs the vision to build on what is there to make it ready for the next 30 years. Today there are still cutting edge jobs, and new platforms to build new stuff on, but this is a small part of the current "software industry" - these jobs are rare and more people will end up working on existing code. The good news is that my cohort are retiring and these big existing projects need new "big picture" owners. So there are good, long term, jobs for those who want to take things to the next level.
  - burntoutfire 5y ago
    Something as complex and ambitious as Windows XP was successfully built before we were hit with modern way of doing things.

by Zigurd 5y ago

lifeplusplus 5y ago

very questionable assertions, entire field of CS was build, as well as the internet plus operating systems without the need of all those 'roles'.

bruce511 5y ago
The key part of your sentence there is "was built". 30 years ago I wasn't maintaining software, I was writing it from scratch. We didn't sell "software" to customers, we sold "you could use a computer in your business". We started in DOS, and were around when literally every program was rewritten from scratch in Windows. We had no scrum, no product managers, just tiny numbers of people building the world. Today software is everywhere, and it's spent the last 30 years maturing. Tiny projects have turned into huge monsters. We've succeeded in computerising every process. Businesses have lots of processes so there's lots of software working together. Today's world doesn't need a new invoicing system - there are plenty of capable commercial ones already available - it needs armies to maintain the existing ones. It needs the vision to build on what is there to make it ready for the next 30 years. Today there are still cutting edge jobs, and new platforms to build new stuff on, but this is a small part of the current "software industry" - these jobs are rare and more people will end up working on existing code. The good news is that my cohort are retiring and these big existing projects need new "big picture" owners. So there are good, long term, jobs for those who want to take things to the next level.
- burntoutfire 5y ago
  Something as complex and ambitious as Windows XP was successfully built before we were hit with modern way of doing things.