How do deal with a lead who does not know s**t about technologies
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Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
In my experience, voicing your opinion to anyone on the team and/or to the lead is detrimental to your employment. I would arrange a calm meeting with the person in question and discuss things. If that doesn't work then go through your chain of command.
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
I'm looking for a job because of a similar situation (someone up the chain making decision about stuff they don't understand). My favorite example as of late (there are dozens of them) is whether or not a service should return an exception when the method you called fails to do its job. She thinks we have a "difference of opinion" about the best way to handle it is. I'm thinking she has a difference of opinion with every developer worth minimum wage.
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In my experience, voicing your opinion to anyone on the team and/or to the lead is detrimental to your employment. I would arrange a calm meeting with the person in question and discuss things. If that doesn't work then go through your chain of command.
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012)Slacker007 wrote:
If that doesn't work then go through your chain of command.
i had tried that in past and my manager told that he will look into it. And that was about 3-4 months back. Nothing changed and i can see the junior and some of senior developers are really annoyed with the person in question (overall moral of the team is really down). But anyway not my problem anymore. i have just send my resignation mail to my manger. let the job hunt begin :)
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I'm looking for a job because of a similar situation (someone up the chain making decision about stuff they don't understand). My favorite example as of late (there are dozens of them) is whether or not a service should return an exception when the method you called fails to do its job. She thinks we have a "difference of opinion" about the best way to handle it is. I'm thinking she has a difference of opinion with every developer worth minimum wage.
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Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
CS2011 wrote:
"How hard can it be. every one else is doing it"
-> It is going to take me quite a bit longer but since you are familar with it could you create a demonstration app, specific to the problem we are trying to solve, that does it? Then I can fill in the details. Follow that up with an immediate email reminder. If the response is nothing but a link to a site that has the technology then respond back that you need an example that is "specific to the problem we are trying to solve". - - - - My best example of this is where an off hand comment like this required two developers (the ones that said it would be just a couple of minutes) three days working full time to do it.
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Slacker007 wrote:
If that doesn't work then go through your chain of command.
i had tried that in past and my manager told that he will look into it. And that was about 3-4 months back. Nothing changed and i can see the junior and some of senior developers are really annoyed with the person in question (overall moral of the team is really down). But anyway not my problem anymore. i have just send my resignation mail to my manger. let the job hunt begin :)
CS2011 wrote:
not my problem anymore. i have just send my resignation mail to my manger.
That was my next suggestion. :thumbsup:
"the meat from that butcher is just the dogs danglies, absolutely amazing cuts of beef." - DaveAuld (2011)
"No, that is just the earthly manifestation of the Great God Retardon." - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "It is the celestial scrotum of good luck!" - Nagy Vilmos (2011) "But you probably have the smoothest scrotum of any grown man" - Pete O'Hanlon (2012) -
CS2011 wrote:
"How hard can it be. every one else is doing it"
-> It is going to take me quite a bit longer but since you are familar with it could you create a demonstration app, specific to the problem we are trying to solve, that does it? Then I can fill in the details. Follow that up with an immediate email reminder. If the response is nothing but a link to a site that has the technology then respond back that you need an example that is "specific to the problem we are trying to solve". - - - - My best example of this is where an off hand comment like this required two developers (the ones that said it would be just a couple of minutes) three days working full time to do it.
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CS2011 wrote:
"How hard can it be. every one else is doing it"
-> It is going to take me quite a bit longer but since you are familar with it could you create a demonstration app, specific to the problem we are trying to solve, that does it? Then I can fill in the details. Follow that up with an immediate email reminder. If the response is nothing but a link to a site that has the technology then respond back that you need an example that is "specific to the problem we are trying to solve". - - - - My best example of this is where an off hand comment like this required two developers (the ones that said it would be just a couple of minutes) three days working full time to do it.
Indeed: have employed this tactic in the past and it always works (or gets you fired :-))
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
Just assume that all non-programmers think ALL TECH PROBS can be solved with Magic Jelly Beans. Then explain that Magic Jelly Beans need time to be cultivated, grown, and harvested. That can be around 75 days, like a pepper (at least where I live). Tell them that a change to their "garden" may affect all the gardens in a 10 acre square radius, so you have to check with all the other farmers/gardeners to see if the change will affect their plants. No one wants Canadian Thistle introduced into their garden just because it's bi-product of what other companies are doing. Wow....I really need to get out of my house.
Whatever.
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Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
Ad Hoc design meeting with said lead since he knows everyone's doing it maybe he can help figure out how.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
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Ad Hoc design meeting with said lead since he knows everyone's doing it maybe he can help figure out how.
VS2010/Atmel Studio 6.0 ToDo Manager Extension
Version 3.0 now available. There is no place like 127.0.0.1 -
Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
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Just assume that all non-programmers think ALL TECH PROBS can be solved with Magic Jelly Beans. Then explain that Magic Jelly Beans need time to be cultivated, grown, and harvested. That can be around 75 days, like a pepper (at least where I live). Tell them that a change to their "garden" may affect all the gardens in a 10 acre square radius, so you have to check with all the other farmers/gardeners to see if the change will affect their plants. No one wants Canadian Thistle introduced into their garden just because it's bi-product of what other companies are doing. Wow....I really need to get out of my house.
Whatever.
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Sorry you cannot deal with that, he wouldn't understand anyway (he is a PM, isn't he?). Hence go back to work and try harder to accomplish the task, after all every one else is doing it. :-D
Veni, vidi, vici.
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Indeed: have employed this tactic in the past and it always works (or gets you fired :-))
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair. nils illegitimus carborundum me, me, me
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Just assume that all non-programmers think ALL TECH PROBS can be solved with Magic Jelly Beans. Then explain that Magic Jelly Beans need time to be cultivated, grown, and harvested. That can be around 75 days, like a pepper (at least where I live). Tell them that a change to their "garden" may affect all the gardens in a 10 acre square radius, so you have to check with all the other farmers/gardeners to see if the change will affect their plants. No one wants Canadian Thistle introduced into their garden just because it's bi-product of what other companies are doing. Wow....I really need to get out of my house.
Whatever.
Yes, you should go out and check the garden. Perhaps the Magic Jelly Beans are ready. :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
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Now what do you do when you are trying to explain someone that this problem is bit difficult to solve and will require more time to give a proper solution and needs to designed properly so we can use it across the application. and you hear the response "How hard can it be. every one else is doing it":mad:
It's been rumored that I know a thing or two about software development, so I was once hired out to a startup, let’s call them XYZ Technology, to help them get things going. The owner struck me as a nice, enthusiastic and humorous guy; let’s call him Jerry – and initially, as in the first month and a half, we got along great. I was introduced to the key customer, PQT Repairs, listened to their stories and noted their requirements – pretty much run of the mill stuff for an abc repair shop. XYZ Technology had developed what they thought was a manufacturing execution systems (MES), and their customer was convinced that this was the case. Jerry also entitled himself CTO, and thought of this system as his crowning achievement. While having no experience with industrial IT he had been able to develop a MES on top of Dot Net Nuke, or at least he thought so – never mind that he had never looked at a real MES, nor read a specification for one. There was also a tiny problem with the solution in that it didn’t work. First we spent nearly a month going through the design specification – 4 or 5 pages each day – I guess Jerry spent the evenings fabricating the stuff as we went along. Well, it was summer, and he was buying the beer. The day things started to deteriorate was the day Jerry finally allowed me to look at the code for the system – I spent a fortnight trying to make sense of it – while there was a lot of code, figuring out how the stuff had anything to do with the given design specification turned out to be impossible. Basically it was a bluff – and it turned out that I was expected to turn it into a real working solution in a couple of months. Jerry still runs XYZ Technology, a company that is capable of making money without delivering anything worth speaking of – because Jerry seems like a nice, enthusiastic and humorous guy. This would not have been possible if companies like PQT Repairs had a functional IT department. PQT Repairs had outsourced most of its IT department in an effort to cut costs, and like many other companies this leaves them vulnerable to con artists. Personally I think enterprises needs at least one person at the CxO level with deep knowledge about software architecture and development – and that management at all levels need at least some knowledge about this too.
Espen Harlinn Principal Architect, Software - Goodtech Projects & Services AS
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It's been rumored that I know a thing or two about software development, so I was once hired out to a startup, let’s call them XYZ Technology, to help them get things going. The owner struck me as a nice, enthusiastic and humorous guy; let’s call him Jerry – and initially, as in the first month and a half, we got along great. I was introduced to the key customer, PQT Repairs, listened to their stories and noted their requirements – pretty much run of the mill stuff for an abc repair shop. XYZ Technology had developed what they thought was a manufacturing execution systems (MES), and their customer was convinced that this was the case. Jerry also entitled himself CTO, and thought of this system as his crowning achievement. While having no experience with industrial IT he had been able to develop a MES on top of Dot Net Nuke, or at least he thought so – never mind that he had never looked at a real MES, nor read a specification for one. There was also a tiny problem with the solution in that it didn’t work. First we spent nearly a month going through the design specification – 4 or 5 pages each day – I guess Jerry spent the evenings fabricating the stuff as we went along. Well, it was summer, and he was buying the beer. The day things started to deteriorate was the day Jerry finally allowed me to look at the code for the system – I spent a fortnight trying to make sense of it – while there was a lot of code, figuring out how the stuff had anything to do with the given design specification turned out to be impossible. Basically it was a bluff – and it turned out that I was expected to turn it into a real working solution in a couple of months. Jerry still runs XYZ Technology, a company that is capable of making money without delivering anything worth speaking of – because Jerry seems like a nice, enthusiastic and humorous guy. This would not have been possible if companies like PQT Repairs had a functional IT department. PQT Repairs had outsourced most of its IT department in an effort to cut costs, and like many other companies this leaves them vulnerable to con artists. Personally I think enterprises needs at least one person at the CxO level with deep knowledge about software architecture and development – and that management at all levels need at least some knowledge about this too.
Espen Harlinn Principal Architect, Software - Goodtech Projects & Services AS
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Yes, you should go out and check the garden. Perhaps the Magic Jelly Beans are ready. :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
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Yes, you should go out and check the garden. Perhaps the Magic Jelly Beans are ready. :-D
Will Rogers never met me.
Magic jelly beans? Programmers need magic mushrooms!