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>> One (fairly major) part is yet to be completed. Break this down. Break it down into granular chunks even if they are a month long. Divide everything up into

• bruce511 2y ago
  >> We both know that going live is gonna be the big hurdle just dont tell them that till your ready. Yeah. There are over 5000 stores that this will roll out to, so it'll go slow there. Fortunately there's a dedicated (separate) testing team so thats good. >> Break this down. Break it down into granular chunks even if they are a month long Part of the problem is that it's not easy to break down at this point. We are aware that "it doesn't run". (There are underlying classes which affect things.) What we don't know is "how many class issues are outstanding". We knock them off, and we move to the next one. We "feel" like its close now. But any attempt at quantification is simply speculation. We have tried -not- to introduce speculation into the process because that's not data. When we're pushed on providing speculate data (when will this be done?) we ecplain why that's impossible for us to determine and suggest (to the middle manager) that he guesses instead. He tends to not push too hard there. Part of building trust (at least as far as him) is in not making-stuff-up. We're clear on what we do know, and clear on what we don't know. Obviously I don't know yo what extent that is passed on upstream. Upstream are keen on dates, targets, reports on "accomplishments", all the usual management. "We don't know" is good data for them, but not what they want to hear, and perhaps not helpful to them.
  • morgante 2y ago
    > We are aware that "it doesn't run". ...what? You have an application that literally doesn't run and you've been working on it for months?
    • mewpmewp2 2y ago
      Presumably there is some legacy integration or blocker why it doesn't run.
      • Sponge5 2y ago
        Even so, working as an engineer on a project that doesn't run as a whole for more than a week, let alone months.. It's very understandable that management is nervous. Cut things away until you have something that runs is step one...
    • bruce511 2y ago
      It's probably an over-simplification to say "it doesn't run". Firstly, this is a conversion of existing code to a later version of the compiler. (a 25-year later version). So it's not "writing a new app" - it's making it all compile (and run) under the new compiler. To be clear - it does compile. That was a pretty small part of it. And it does "run" in the sense that the Exe starts, gets through authentication and so on. All the Utilities run, and the 2nd-largest system is running. The primary program consists of around 15 threads all running simultaneously. The code was originally written using a co-operative threading model, and it's now going to use a preemptive model. The program that "doesn't run" is effectively (not yet) starting all the threads correctly, in the right order, and at the right pace. (There is a lot of cross-thread communication and cross-thread UI interactions.) So yeah, it's a giant big ball of smoosh. This is not a project for the faint-hearted. But we're actually nearing the end of the tunnel now - every day progress is being made. But until we can show the "whole program" running, to management progress seems to be binary. (It either works or it doesn't.)
      • rrr_oh_man 2y ago
        > But until we can show the "whole program" running, to management progress seems to be binary. (It either works or it doesn't.) That's insufficient communication from delivery (= you), imho. When a tunnel gets dug, you also don't always know what you're going to encounter (surprise water table? rock? skeletons?), but you make a plan to the best of your current knowledge, track your progress against it, and adjust where needed. If you cannot do that, it looks like you're just trying to power through the project blind based on gut feeling alone.
• CRConrad 2y ago
  > Make everyone STAND for them (so they stay short) Hard to see on Teams or Slack or whatever.