What’s the Freakin’ Rush?
Today I realized something that's been bothering me for weeks. It's all about management's perceived need to rush something through the process, and what actually the business need is. Specifically, when you're not building a fix, or a critical feature that's time-dependent, then what's the bloody rush? Why should I find 30 mins right now to show something to a group of users when I'm in the middle of fixing something in the code and tomorrow will do?
This is all about management's need to set it's own, self-imposed goals, and has nothing to do with reality or the development process. In fact, it's counter to that process as a whole. I've been told to show something that I know is wrong in spots because management doesn't want to wait until it's fixed in an hour or so, worrying that we'll loose an entire day. So what?
This isn't business critical. This isn't time-critical. This isn't something they have been clamoring for. This is something that is an enhancement to the existing functionality and because the QA process is very lengthy, management doesn't want to wait an hour it doesn't have to.
Can you say Crack Monkey? Yes, I knew you could.
This makes me exceptionally angry about some management decisions, such as these. If you think I'm the one that can get the job done, and if you trust me to do it right, and quickly, why on earth are you so "ants in the pants" about a release? This is in-house development, folks. This isn't releasing the next version of the OS, or meeting a hard deadline. This is a simple matter of a manager losing touch with what's the best way to manage people.
I've got to remember that I'm angry at the decision, not the person. It's been happening for several weeks, and it's only just now that I've realized it. I need to say "No" more. Just plain "No".
I'm as angry at myself as I am at him.