Being told to fix bugs caused by others
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
You have my deepest sympathies.
Some years back, my department was afflicted with a manager who thought he could and should "fix the inefficiencies" in other people's code. The responsibility for dealing with problems he created invariably wound up on those hapless "other people's" desks...mine included. The ill will he generated that way was thick enough to be carved into entrée portions and served with hollandaise sauce.
Needless to say, the manager was never taken to task by his superiors for his arrogant interference in things he knew next to nothing about. However, the problem went away when he met an untimely demise: run over by an SUV, right in our very own parking lot. And they say there's no justice in this world!
(This message is programming you in ways you cannot detect. Be afraid.)
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
Well this is a matter of the tension between 'get her done' and teaching. The solution my currant company has come up with is using a web based code review system. When I get someone else bug, I fix it, but then I make sure they are on the code review so they can see the fix. If they are someone I know well, I will talk with them about what and why I did it. This allows me to get her done for the business while still making it a teaching opportunity. Mind you, if the other developer does not care, I totally agree with the other poster that said you need to take that to your manager, that IS why they are there:)
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
Maybe you can take this negative and turn it into a positive. A true team really doesn't need a manager or to be publicly shamed, they're able to communicate among themselves and tackle issues together. Play dumb and ask the guy that wrote the code to help you. Point out the error and ask for his input. Get an understanding of what he did and hopefully he gets an understanding of what you did.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
When it comes to breaking builds, our culture is that the one who broke it is quick to at least say they investigate it, lest their inbox fills up with "friendly reminders" from all the others. As for bugs: We tend to use "You were the last to touch it!", the the age-old unwritten rule that has governed many a playground over the millennia. I'm not necessarily for shaming someone who trips and falls (as others have said, we all do from time to time), but if that someone then refuses to fix their mess, or tries to get away from fixing it, that's a whole different ballgame.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
Happy me. Found another bug caused by the same developer during the same changes, but in a different place. I fixed the last bug...
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed
We have a Trophy affectionately called the fuck-up cup. If you discover a bug, you can award the cup to the person who implemented it and they have to display it on the highest part of there desk until somebody else is awarded it. It works really well as the person who finds the bug is usually happy to fix it as they had the pleasure of awarding the cup to the original culprit. Or sometimes you can have a quiet word with the culprit who 9 times out of 10 will drop whatever they are doing to fix their mistake in exchange for you not giving them the cup and thus drawing everyones attention to it.
I agree, this is a great approach. YOU are responsible for YOUR CULTURE. I say you work with the Team, and do stuff like this. Find cool ways to celebrate the process and "reward" the problem children. We had padded karate blocking sticks. We could opt for a public (among developers, all getting their licks in) beating (body shots only). It did not hurt, but boy was it fun. I took the first beating for SIMPLY NOT coming up with the idea sooner... That got everyone into the spirit. Finally, where are the code reviews? People who break things often MUST have their code reviewed by their peers before publishing.
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Pawel Krakowiak wrote:
I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed
We have a Trophy affectionately called the fuck-up cup. If you discover a bug, you can award the cup to the person who implemented it and they have to display it on the highest part of there desk until somebody else is awarded it. It works really well as the person who finds the bug is usually happy to fix it as they had the pleasure of awarding the cup to the original culprit. Or sometimes you can have a quiet word with the culprit who 9 times out of 10 will drop whatever they are doing to fix their mistake in exchange for you not giving them the cup and thus drawing everyones attention to it.
Trophies like this work great, just don't let management get their hands on it or the award process. Ideally, don't even let them know what its all about, so there's no chance they can use who's got it against them. At my previous job, the other developer and I instituted a couple of different trophies for various mistakes. They were great fun for years, until management made a big deal out of awarding one of them to one of the developers in a big public display in front of some customers who had come to visit. We never awarded the trophies ever again -- they weren't fun anymore and management obviously took too much notice of who was getting them.
We can program with only 1's, but if all you've got are zeros, you've got nothing.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
There are several ways to look at this Maybe you are the best person to fix the bug and prevent it from happening again. Maybe you did a bad job. No supporting documentation, no comments etc..., basically no knowledge transfer which is often the case. Ego meshed in with the code. ... ... Regards, Ousmane
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CBadger wrote:
NO WAY! You mean to tell me bugs are caused by others? :OMG: :WTF:
Or Microsoft. :-O
Corporal Agarn wrote:
Or Microsoft.
Don't let my Former Bitch Supervisor From HellTM hear you say that, she thought the sun rose, and set, on Redmond. She believed program bugs were like roaches. If you saw one, there were at least ten, and no program was bug free. However, one day we encountered a compiler bug. The machine code generated did not do what the source code said. We showed her the two side by side, since she couldn't read assembler code, she insisted the problem was ours. We reminded her that the compiler was a program and of her stated position on bugs. Her response, it's a COMPILER, not a PROGRAM, and therefore exempt from her rule. Besides, Microsoft does not issue products with bugs. :omg: :wtf: :omg: No. Exaggeration.
Psychosis at 10 Film at 11 Those who do not remember the past, are doomed to repeat it. Those who do not remember the past, cannot build upon it.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
This used to be roughly half of what I would do on a regular basis. My nickname used to be "the cleaner", as in the guy who cleans up the bodies to make it look like nothing ever happened. The better you get at coding, the more you are called in to "fix it". Think of it as a vote of confidence in your abilities to get the job done.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
Maybe your team could do with code reviews and release testing? IE get script buy-off by the team, promote to test server, have the test team run regression and new functionality tests, get test buy-off, move to production. PS Since you didn't name names, I don't see a problem with complaining about co-workers. It might even shame the developer into doing better in the future if (s)he reads about it here. If you have good code tracking, people should know who did it anyway. However, it makes sense to assign it to you, the modifier proved incompetent and since you built it, you are more likely to fix it properly.
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I created part of a web app. Another dev went in and changed how some code works and a modal dialog stopped working (it shows as an empty modal with only the title, but underneath there's an exception). Guess who was assigned the bug? Of course the creator of the tool, that would be me. This happens from time to time and I hate it. I feel that whoever breaks stuff should be publicly shamed ;) (for example in the CI server's website, but of course my client doesn't have CI...) and responsible for fixing it. I am sure this was discussed a dozen times here, sorry. This really grinds my gears.
I am not sure about what is correct/incorrect in this particular case. But, I feel you should get recognized for that work you did; either writing some new code or fixing bugs created by others. Here's a story. You might already know it. There was a farmer who had a horse and a goat…..One day, the horse became ill and he called the veterinarian, who said: - Well, your horse has a virus. He must take this medicine for three days. I’ll come back on the 3rd day and if he’s not better, we’re going to have to put him down. Nearby, the goat listened closely to their conversation. The next day, they gave him the medicine and left. The goat approached the horse and said: - Be strong, my friend. Get up or else they’re going to put you to sleep! On the second day, they gave him the medicine and left. The goat came back and said: - Come on buddy, get up or else you’re going to die! Come on, I’ll help you get up. Let’s go! One, two, three… On the third day, they came to give him the medicine and the vet said: - Unfortunately, we’re going to have to put him down tomorrow. Otherwise, the virus might spread and infect the other horses. After they left, the goat approached the horse and said: - Listen pal, it’s now or never! Get up, come on! Have courage! Come on! Get up! Get up! That’s it, slowly! Great! Come on, one, two, three… Good, good. Now faster, come on…… Fantastic! Run, run more! Yes! Yay! Yes! You did it, you’re a champion!!! All of a sudden, the owner came back, saw the horse running in the field and began shouting: - It’s a miracle! My horse is cured. We must have a grand** **party. Let’s kill the goat!!!!* *** The Lesson:* this often happens in the workplace & life in general . Nobody truly knows which employee or people actually deserves the merit of success & are in fact contributing towards success , or who’s actually contributing the necessary support to make things happen. Be grateful. Remember……… *** LEARNING TO LIVE WITHOUT RECOGNITION IS A SKILL!!!! ***
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I am not sure about what is correct/incorrect in this particular case. But, I feel you should get recognized for that work you did; either writing some new code or fixing bugs created by others. Here's a story. You might already know it. There was a farmer who had a horse and a goat…..One day, the horse became ill and he called the veterinarian, who said: - Well, your horse has a virus. He must take this medicine for three days. I’ll come back on the 3rd day and if he’s not better, we’re going to have to put him down. Nearby, the goat listened closely to their conversation. The next day, they gave him the medicine and left. The goat approached the horse and said: - Be strong, my friend. Get up or else they’re going to put you to sleep! On the second day, they gave him the medicine and left. The goat came back and said: - Come on buddy, get up or else you’re going to die! Come on, I’ll help you get up. Let’s go! One, two, three… On the third day, they came to give him the medicine and the vet said: - Unfortunately, we’re going to have to put him down tomorrow. Otherwise, the virus might spread and infect the other horses. After they left, the goat approached the horse and said: - Listen pal, it’s now or never! Get up, come on! Have courage! Come on! Get up! Get up! That’s it, slowly! Great! Come on, one, two, three… Good, good. Now faster, come on…… Fantastic! Run, run more! Yes! Yay! Yes! You did it, you’re a champion!!! All of a sudden, the owner came back, saw the horse running in the field and began shouting: - It’s a miracle! My horse is cured. We must have a grand** **party. Let’s kill the goat!!!!* *** The Lesson:* this often happens in the workplace & life in general . Nobody truly knows which employee or people actually deserves the merit of success & are in fact contributing towards success , or who’s actually contributing the necessary support to make things happen. Be grateful. Remember……… *** LEARNING TO LIVE WITHOUT RECOGNITION IS A SKILL!!!! ***
Thanks for the story. :-)