« If Code Could Speak | Main | Care-Factor Nine Mister Spock »

Stop Calling Me Shirley

Listen to this articleListen to this article

The lack of documentation is disturbing. Requirements in the form of code or often, reverse engineered from the code. Phooey! Seemingly adhoc changes to the spec by the architects. Cowboy developers making changes here and there whenever they feel like it to hack in some new feature. Dependencies between developers forcing them to pair up to write code. What a ludicrous idea! Nothing seems to get done until the last minute. We'll be lucky to limp across the line. Whatever that line may be. With no real acceptance criteria, how does anyone know when we're finished?

But wait a minute...it's a waterfall project. Oops! XP was used on the previous project. Let's try that again shall we?

All those tests slowing down my build. How dare they make me ensure my code works. All those story cards on the Wiki to read. Boring! Would you believe I was even *gasp* forced to understand what I was doing by consulting with the business rep. Sheesh gimme a break. Imagine allowing the customer to change their mind at the last minute and still delivering on time. Bah! And what's with asking me for revised estimates every day? I signed up for anarchy. Instead I got micro-management!

Comments

To be fair, this sounds more like an "anarchy" project than a waterfall project. The pain is different though perhaps the cure is the same.

Simon,


what?

I mean.. what?

Hehehe. I'll admit the title is a little non-obvious to say the least. It's from a movie, Flying High, and goes something like:

"Surely you can't be serious?"

"Yes I am and stop calling me Shirley!"

Suffice to say that the first half is serious. As for the second half, well, the tongue was firmly planted in the cheek :-)

Post a comment