I'll keep it brief.
I am in a gig (senior developer/architecty-type role) and I have been working with a B.A. to gleen some requirements from their customer (a department of ClientCo).
The system they want to enhance is a big ball of mud, and the data tables are creaking at the seams (638 columns, NTEXT field fest) They have been getting max rowsize errors (upgrade to SQL 2005 "hid" this problem) and now want to add a truck load more fields. The design canny hack it cap'n.
I mentioned this to B.A. and she took the "well, assuming the design was ok, how long would it take" approach, and is seemingly using those estimates to quote the customer, and moving my re-write scenario further away from the argument.
I spoke to her about this, and said that it may well be only 3 weeks work in theory, but that's to a system that cannot take any more changes that needs a rewrite, so any estimates were entirely ficticious on that basis.
She said that she has tried to loosen the purse strings by putting in a quote for 90% of original build cost, not based on the estimates, and was approaching them on the idea of taking a more generic approach (ie re-write)
This morning their client dismissed this out of hand, and said they have neither the budget nor the time for this, and to just make the changes they have asked for. She capitulated!
Then went on to schedule a review meeting in 4 weeks time and said she thought "the changes wouldn't take all that long"
Now, the quandry is :
Is it time to go above her head with my concerns. I feel that she is trying, but may be out of her depth.
Discuss.
I am in a gig (senior developer/architecty-type role) and I have been working with a B.A. to gleen some requirements from their customer (a department of ClientCo).
The system they want to enhance is a big ball of mud, and the data tables are creaking at the seams (638 columns, NTEXT field fest) They have been getting max rowsize errors (upgrade to SQL 2005 "hid" this problem) and now want to add a truck load more fields. The design canny hack it cap'n.
I mentioned this to B.A. and she took the "well, assuming the design was ok, how long would it take" approach, and is seemingly using those estimates to quote the customer, and moving my re-write scenario further away from the argument.
I spoke to her about this, and said that it may well be only 3 weeks work in theory, but that's to a system that cannot take any more changes that needs a rewrite, so any estimates were entirely ficticious on that basis.
She said that she has tried to loosen the purse strings by putting in a quote for 90% of original build cost, not based on the estimates, and was approaching them on the idea of taking a more generic approach (ie re-write)
This morning their client dismissed this out of hand, and said they have neither the budget nor the time for this, and to just make the changes they have asked for. She capitulated!
Then went on to schedule a review meeting in 4 weeks time and said she thought "the changes wouldn't take all that long"
Now, the quandry is :
Is it time to go above her head with my concerns. I feel that she is trying, but may be out of her depth.
Discuss.
I'm out of my depth 
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