Reply to: Most disastrous project you've ever worked on

[lambrini_socialist]

12 months later I was out of a job becasue there were never any problems, there was also one less contract role in the UK.

Bugger fixing anything.

i refer the honourable gentleman to my previous remark concerning professional standards....

Lamb

lift up off the seat a little, I cant hear you clearly.

There are times when its the right thing to make waves, there are times when it isnt. I have not done a single contract where I could not have shot the whole thing down in flames. It's easy. It's not always right

best lay off the Special Brew for a bit, eh?

[Moscow Mule]

This one ******* useless *****.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

meh, sounds like a mandate for apathy. my company solves problems and leaves things in a better state at clientco than they were before: it's possible to do this without being obnoxious. anyone who worries that this will get them fired needs to get some self-respect, and possibly upgrade their skills.

You must have been working at some much more enlightened cleintcos than the ones I've been at. You're right though, it is a mandate for apathy. I regularly talk to cleintco people who say "yes we know this is crazy but....." Being obnoxious or nice doesn't make any difference, and I always try to give the client the benefit of my previous experience - but in the end, you can lead a horse to water........

[minestrone]

I worked on a system that would fall over about 3 times a week out of hours, this involved one of the permies getting called and if they were unreachable I would get called as I lived 5 minutes away from the site. One time I got called in after drinking a litre of wine and 6 pints of Stella.

The system was beyond repair but when they offered me a year extension I refactored the exception handling through the whole application for a quiet life.

12 months later I was out of a job becasue there were never any problems, there was also one less contract role in the UK.

Bugger fixing anything.

[EternalOptimist]

meh, sounds like a mandate for apathy. my company solves problems and leaves things in a better state at clientco than they were before: it's possible to do this without being obnoxious. anyone who worries that this will get them fired needs to get some self-respect, and possibly upgrade their skills.

Lamb

lift up off the seat a little, I cant hear you clearly.

There are times when its the right thing to make waves, there are times when it isnt. I have not done a single contract where I could not have shot the whole thing down in flames. It's easy. It's not always right

[lilelvis2000]

In my first job there was a huge project which I worked on which went nowhere....4 years and not a single copy sold.

Now I have to deal with the monkeys that are SCC. These guys are like working with four year olds. "but the instructions are for Oracle 10g ODBC and this is version 9". "I did the install and the only thing I can find is Microsoft Oracle and it looks completely different".
All this for the "cheap" SCC charge of £550/day...

[lambrini_socialist]

Ah, but the customer is always right. Many a time I've been on contract where I've known the project is no good, but just plugged away and did the best possible. Making waves does little good and could be counter-productive and even a sackable offence, unless you are there to make waves.

meh, sounds like a mandate for apathy. my company solves problems and leaves things in a better state at clientco than they were before: it's possible to do this without being obnoxious. anyone who worries that this will get them fired needs to get some self-respect, and possibly upgrade their skills.

[swamp]

This is very true. Only today I spotted a major performance bug hidden by some other stuff. But speaking your mind here only ever leads to grief.

I shall wait until it is spotted then propose the fix.....

This is one of the good things about being a contractor. You put your consultant hat on and when the time comes say something diplomatic:

"I can see the developers have gone for a tactical solution here"
(The code is a pile of s*1te)

"This package/technology was popular in the past, but it's now been generally superseded by X"
(No one in their right ever uses this abortion of a product)

Etc. etc.

[BrilloPad]

Contractors are often just the footsoldiers; you start making waves and causing trouble and you will at best be ignored. Usually you'll be let go, or terminated. Anyone who fails to see this probably hasn't done much contracting!

This is very true. Only today I spotted a major performance bug hidden by some other stuff. But speaking your mind here only ever leads to grief.

I shall wait until it is spotted then propose the fix.....

[swamp]

You always know when a software project is going nowhere but you just keep your head down and keep invoicing.

oh wow. that's just the kind of high ethical standards and professional commitment to quality that makes contractors worth the money!

Contractors are often just the footsoldiers; you start making waves and causing trouble and you will at best be ignored. Usually you'll be let go, or terminated. Anyone who fails to see this probably hasn't done much contracting!

[minestrone]

Ah, but the customer is always right. Many a time I've been on contract where I've known the project is no good, but just plugged away and did the best possible. Making waves does little good and could be counter-productive and even a sackable offence, unless you are there to make waves.

Yes I have seen 2 people get the boot for trying to make things better. Client never likes it.

I used to drop hints like "did you never think of doing it this way?" but hardly ever does anyone follow it up. Now I don't even bother, I just write it the way they want it and keep my mouth shut. When I get bored of the madness I move on.

It's the client's project and if they want to write a bunch of crap who am I to get in the way.

[Sysman]

Sales people had sold a bunch of cool sounding technology that was completely unsuitable. The client had accepted it.

Leaving a bunch of techies in between trying to get something workable . Which would have involved using older, trusted tech and pretty much discarding the new tech bought for millions.

I was a permie consultant who was supposed to be promoting the cool new tech. Kind of hard when it just isn't the right tool for the job.

1985 - some "radio modems" were on offer. A year later we were still waiting for all the bits so we could test them.

1995 - different customer, similar salesman. This time it was microwave network devices to go across a busy junction and save on the cost of putting cabling under the road. A couple of years later they weren't working either.

Sometimes you just get a feel for stuff that's never going to work.

[TimberWolf]

oh wow. that's just the kind of high ethical standards and professional commitment to quality that makes contractors worth the money!

Ah, but the customer is always right. Many a time I've been on contract where I've known the project is no good, but just plugged away and did the best possible. Making waves does little good and could be counter-productive and even a sackable offence, unless you are there to make waves.

[lambrini_socialist]

You always know when a software project is going nowhere but you just keep your head down and keep invoicing.

oh wow. that's just the kind of high ethical standards and professional commitment to quality that makes contractors worth the money!

[Old Greg]

The National Programme for Information Technology and a recent contract that ended up getting mentioned in Prime Ministers question time for non delivery.

If the project's not hauled before the Public Accounts Committee, it's barely worth mentioning.