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I have found myself in this archetype before. Management wanted a feature, went to the architects and got some INSANE estimate that couldn’t be justified by th

I have found myself in this archetype before. Management wanted a feature, went to the architects and got some INSANE estimate that couldn’t be justified by the revenue that would be coming in. Management felt like they were being told to fuck off with crazy estimates and they weren’t completely wrong. I was asked to review the proposal by a VP, came up with some simplifications, presented it back to the same architects and we delivered it for 10% of the anticipated cost and the feature was profitable in year 1. It’s had no defects because it was a simple design. Sometimes you need people who can speak to managers and engineers with credibility to get things done.

qznc 4y ago
Most people have a very cynical view of politics and I can emphasize. However, I try to stay more positive about it. Politics, for me, is about making decisions in groups too large to just talk with everyone. In such circumstances “bridge people”, like davewritescode, who can communicate with multiple factions are very valuable for progress. Sadly, especially in large “safe” enterprises people don’t want to learn this. Developers blame managers for “not understanding software” and managers blame developers for “lack of business understanding”.