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I would say what's wrong with it is it was a waste of money/time to be working on the replacement at all, it turns out they didn't need it and did fine without

I would say what's wrong with it is it was a waste of money/time to be working on the replacement at all, it turns out they didn't need it and did fine without it until it wasn't needed anymore. So the problem isn't that they should have finished it sooner, it's that in fact they shouldn't have been working on it at all, but spent four years working on something useless. so that's the problem... what the solution is and if it has anything to do with due dates, I don't know!

hallway_monitor 5y ago
I guess it might seem like a problem if you are the director of software. If you're an engineer then that was four years of solid pay and benefits, probably with a bonus to boot.
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  From the perspective of an engineer who cares about nothing but getting paid, the whole discussion in the OP is irrelevant, no? the whole thing is about somebody else's problems irrelevant to you, you'll get paid and probably not fired with or without irrelevant due dates.
- imtringued 5y ago
  Or it tears your ego apart because you are a young developer that has never shipped anything. Reminds me of my first job.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
> it was a waste of money/time to be working on the replacement at all, it turns out they didn't need it and did fine without it until it wasn't needed anymore But that wasn't known. They expected to need it, and when circumstances changed, they canceled the project. It seems to have been a huge project; "don't start work on the project until you need it to be finished" was never going to work. You can't judge people by what they should have done if they'd had perfect knowledge of the future. If anyone involved had had perfect knowledge of the future, they wouldn't have been working for the company anyway.
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  Who said anything about judging people?
  - thaumasiotes 5y ago
    You did, when you described something as "wrong". I did, before you, when I did the same thing, but it's not like you disagreed with the premise.
    - jrochkind1 5y ago
      I think there's something wrong with it in the sense that it would be preferable to do differently and worth thinking about if there's a way to do better. I don't associate that with judging anyone.

hallway_monitor 5y ago

I guess it might seem like a problem if you are the director of software. If you're an engineer then that was four years of solid pay and benefits, probably with a bonus to boot.

jrochkind1 5y ago
From the perspective of an engineer who cares about nothing but getting paid, the whole discussion in the OP is irrelevant, no? the whole thing is about somebody else's problems irrelevant to you, you'll get paid and probably not fired with or without irrelevant due dates.
imtringued 5y ago
Or it tears your ego apart because you are a young developer that has never shipped anything. Reminds me of my first job.

thaumasiotes 5y ago

> it was a waste of money/time to be working on the replacement at all, it turns out they didn't need it and did fine without it until it wasn't needed anymore But that wasn't known. They expected to need it, and when circumstances changed, they canceled the project. It seems to have been a huge project; "don't start work on the project until you need it to be finished" was never going to work. You can't judge people by what they should have done if they'd had perfect knowledge of the future. If anyone involved had had perfect knowledge of the future, they wouldn't have been working for the company anyway.

jrochkind1 5y ago
Who said anything about judging people?
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  You did, when you described something as "wrong". I did, before you, when I did the same thing, but it's not like you disagreed with the premise.
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    I think there's something wrong with it in the sense that it would be preferable to do differently and worth thinking about if there's a way to do better. I don't associate that with judging anyone.