Reply to: I will never learn

[suityou01]

.. and do you know how many times Ive developed a 'quick fix' on the basis of something a Project Manager has told me to do, then when its gone up petals up, the PM has turned around and gone ..... no I meant to do it this way, not that way ..... and of course because there was no documentation ....

The developers are well within their rights to cover his a..e in case you change the goalposts later on when it all goes wrong .... sorry, but its true.

It's a quick fix in terms of it won't take long to do. It is however the right thing to do. It's not a 'quick and dirty' hack. I don't really approve of those.

Given that they have inherited the system from another team of developers and significant handover and training effort was given the business is agrieved at their lack of understanding.

I couldn't care less. Numptiess is numpties. I get paid a day rate no matter what I do. In this case ClientCo is relieved someone took the initiative

So in this case alls well that ends well. It would have been a different story if it had gone tits up though.

[AtW]

quite frankly - one of your bests posts here

Ok, I admit - it was better than average post from me

[original PM]

You're right of course. In which case nothing would have been done.
When is it ok to take the initiative?

Only when you do all the hard work and then make it look like the answer was all down to your pointless bollock juggling manager.

Trying to make yourself look good will only scare them into sacking you.....




probably

good work on the fix btw.

[Mich the Tester]

Testers could not reproduce.

HTH

[jmo21]

sounds to me like an undocumented, expected feature, masquerading as a bug.

The devs have never heard of this "thing" before, and want it formally spec'd, however small it may be.

SY01, you will be looking good as all the PM types will be saying "yeah, just do what SY01 says, easy fix" etc, SY01 has a can-do attitude blah blah.

It's all good when it works easily, but when it doesn't, watch out! You'll have managers in your face bawling at you, wanting you to account for your every minute etc.

[doodab]

When is it ok to take the initiative?

Only when you're absolutely certain she isn't going to scream. You may still receive a polite "no" though.

[suityou01]

Does your job spec include proposing a solution? If not, and the solution doesn't cut it (or the developers have botched its implementation), perhaps you would have been better off not mentioning it.

You're right of course. In which case nothing would have been done.
When is it ok to take the initiative?

Fix worked well btw.

[Drewster]

.......financial impact and is causing them lots of grief...
.......Yours truly investigated the issue, found the root cause, and documented a proposed solution for the developers to chew over.....

.......PM has demanded they implement my fix 'as is'.......
.......Programme manager has kicked off wanting hourly updates of progress with SY01's fix........

I should have kept my PI Insurance upto date!!!. Silly bugger.

Oh SY1... SY1...... Good luck with that!!!!

[thunderlizard]

I have boots that have been too big for so long I'm thinking of getting some bigger feet.

is that you Mr Prescott?

[themistry]

Hence, use reliable messengering protocols whereby message will be resent with a new messenger until it succeeds...

quite frankly - one of your bests posts here

[NeverBeenNorthOfTheM25]

Yours truly investigated the issue, found the root cause, and documented a proposed solution for the developers to chew over.

Developers have said they still want formal requirements def.

.. and do you know how many times Ive developed a 'quick fix' on the basis of something a Project Manager has told me to do, then when its gone up t1ts up, the PM has turned around and gone ..... no I meant to do it this way, not that way ..... and of course because there was no documentation ....

The developers are well within their rights to cover his a..e in case you change the goalposts later on when it all goes wrong .... sorry, but its true.

[threaded]

one day someone will spot your contributions and rather than making you a martyr they'll

just terminate you as you're a bit of a trouble maker.

HTH

[Olly]

Just think of it this way...one day someone will spot your contributions and rather than making you a martyr they'll embrace you and your talents and give you much much wonga....

Until that day, you'll be mildly despised, stressed and thought to be too big for your boots.

I have boots that have been too big for so long I'm thinking of getting some bigger feet.

[thunderlizard]

Developers did not understand, and demanded formal requirements. For a flipping defect.

Not unreasonable. It's not enough just to be told something's wrong. You need to know the definition of correct behaviour - otherwise you get into a cycle of guesswork.
Now if the fix goes in but doesn't solve the problem, the developers will be the only ones with egg-free faces.

[OwlHoot]

.. Yours truly investigated the issue, found the root cause, and documented a proposed solution for the developers to chew over. ..

Does your job spec include proposing a solution? If not, and the solution doesn't cut it (or the developers have botched its implementation), perhaps you would have been better off not mentioning it.