3 ms·

Yes, I was in an "agile" org that over-hired senior engineers and then expected them to just do regular "spade" work tickets.. but more quickly / more per sprin

Yes, I was in an "agile" org that over-hired senior engineers and then expected them to just do regular "spade" work tickets.. but more quickly / more per sprint. No ownership of long running projects/tasks, no design/planning, just a constant stream of whatever ticket is at the top of the queue - GO. Over the last 12 months, 55% of seniors have left. Most that remain have been at the firm 0-1 year.. The median senior now has 1 year on the team versus previous median of 3 years. There's basically no institutional knowledge on the team anymore. Managers have now convinced themselves that all these green engineers are going to build v2.0.. however they are basically recommitting all the mistakes and suffering all the pitfalls that v1.0 did because.. no one is left to ask..

uwuemu 4y ago
I just want to know how do you keep a job as a manager when you fuck up so badly. The vast majority of what seniors bring to the table is experience. That is also what you pay for. That experience is not like gold, it's like a gold mine - you have to mine it first, then bring it to the surface and only then you can profit off it. The fact that there are software houses out there that do not understand this is amazing (in a bad way). I mean I guess there is some value in a senior dev coding menial tasks (generally more mature, less error prone code with the right amount of abstractions), but that like saying there is some value in a rocket engine pulling a plough... technically true, but not really economical and there's a pretty good chance of most of your rocket engines going away rather quickly.
- steveBK123 4y ago
  Larger cultural issues: Bad engineering - product relationship Inability to set priorities Zero roadmaps No annual/quarterly objectives The only thing that mattered was the thing someone was screaming about right that minute Manager walked rather than deal with it anymore as well..

uwuemu 4y ago

I just want to know how do you keep a job as a manager when you fuck up so badly. The vast majority of what seniors bring to the table is experience. That is also what you pay for. That experience is not like gold, it's like a gold mine - you have to mine it first, then bring it to the surface and only then you can profit off it. The fact that there are software houses out there that do not understand this is amazing (in a bad way). I mean I guess there is some value in a senior dev coding menial tasks (generally more mature, less error prone code with the right amount of abstractions), but that like saying there is some value in a rocket engine pulling a plough... technically true, but not really economical and there's a pretty good chance of most of your rocket engines going away rather quickly.

steveBK123 4y ago
Larger cultural issues: Bad engineering - product relationship Inability to set priorities Zero roadmaps No annual/quarterly objectives The only thing that mattered was the thing someone was screaming about right that minute Manager walked rather than deal with it anymore as well..