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I've just spent the last two days building out a system based on an API created by our clients internal dev team, only to have both the project manager and clie
by esskay 3y ago
I've just spent the last two days building out a system based on an API created by our clients internal dev team, only to have both the project manager and client throw in a massive curveball they knew about but neglected to mention - the API's been rewritten and replaced with a new one with a vastly different architecture.
That's ~12 hours of work down the drain and one demoralized developer.
It baffles me how this kind of thing continuously happens everywhere. Part of it seems to be that despite how many times you explain it to stakeholders, they don't seem to grasp that development takes time, and altering the plan mid way through is not only incredibly distracting but comes as a mental blow to the developer.
- imetatroll 3y agoI think it is more that they don't respect developer time.
- ghaff 3y agoAny project of any size with any degree of coordination ends up with considerable wasted motion and "do what I mean not what I literally said." Maybe this wouldn't happen in an ideal world. We don't live in an ideal world. Even rigorous efforts to specify requirements (e.g. waterfall) didn't work very well and it's pretty much the definition of iterative development of anything that you throw a lot of stuff out but hopefully not big chunks (which 12 hours is not). That would be spending a month of something to find you were on the wrong track.
- saghm 3y agoI think the point is that nothing about this is really that specific to programming; what we're talking about here isn't an instance of programming being hard but effective communication being hard. The parts of software development that are time consuming aren't very intuitive to non-programmers because there isn't an obvious way to show tangible progress, which makes it very hard to track externally, so it relies more heavily on verbally communicating the current state of things, and that introduces the potential for a lot of misunderstandings.
- ghaff 3y agoDesigning in all sorts of fields involve long stages without much in the way of visible process as people work problems out. Developers aren't nearly as special as they like to think they are.
- PH95VuimJjqBqy 3y agowhich is why you get in contact with their development team directly. I've seen internal teams that thought the communication channels couldn't go dev to dev and it was a nightmare. If you're experiencing this, consider that you have options if you're willing to take them.