5 ms·

It is rarely the fix is "something small" when you have dev-manager leading the team of 5. The actual fix might be small (changing one line), but the real effo

It is rarely the fix is "something small" when you have dev-manager leading the team of 5. The actual fix might be small (changing one line), but the real effort to: 1) Make sure there's unit-test, integration-test 2) Make sure nothing breaks 3) Maybe test the deployment script 4) Maybe test the database migration is rather involved. If the dev-manager knows all of these steps then sure, why not. But that's like saying that QA should be able to do the same thing too (after all, QA should be a little bit more technical and more in-depth than the dev-manager). While these are nice, I rarely see them work like that. I'm not against it, but I just don't think that there is "simple fix" when a dev-manager present (because it implies the size of the project and the size of the software).

drdeadringer 13y ago
I am reminded of a chart of sorts that described "what the software engineer forgot" when describing how long a task would take. "Oh that's 5 minutes." You forgot logging in, powering on the computer, searching for the particular lines of code, a quick test that the fix didn't break anything, and then [if applicable] shunting over to version control.
nawitus 13y ago
Well, I didn't say that every project and every change is something small. I said that there's a subset of changes that are sufficiently small and don't even require new tests (like some small stylesheet change). I think it's rather strange to claim that small fixes don't exist at all.
- Kluny 13y ago
  Even a stylesheet change could require the dev manager to pull down a local copy of the site, get it running locally, make the change, then push it - that could take days if something goes wrong. For an engineer who already has a local working copy, it really is a quick change. Of course, it would be very quick if he simply edited the live code - but I, for one, would have some very stern words for a manager who thought he could get away with doing that.
  - nawitus 13y ago
    I think the assumption is that a manager who codes occasionally has the dev environment running.

drdeadringer 13y ago

I am reminded of a chart of sorts that described "what the software engineer forgot" when describing how long a task would take. "Oh that's 5 minutes." You forgot logging in, powering on the computer, searching for the particular lines of code, a quick test that the fix didn't break anything, and then [if applicable] shunting over to version control.

nawitus 13y ago

Well, I didn't say that every project and every change is something small. I said that there's a subset of changes that are sufficiently small and don't even require new tests (like some small stylesheet change). I think it's rather strange to claim that small fixes don't exist at all.

Kluny 13y ago
Even a stylesheet change could require the dev manager to pull down a local copy of the site, get it running locally, make the change, then push it - that could take days if something goes wrong. For an engineer who already has a local working copy, it really is a quick change. Of course, it would be very quick if he simply edited the live code - but I, for one, would have some very stern words for a manager who thought he could get away with doing that.
- nawitus 13y ago
  I think the assumption is that a manager who codes occasionally has the dev environment running.