When to escalate

[Lost User]

You put some margin in.

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[kenrentz]

PIEBALDconsult wrote:

It sounds like your team needs to have weekly meetings where such bottlenecks can be detected and resolved.

Sounds like an instance where daily scrum's would work. If properly done, they quickly identify bottlenecks and people who are not able to deliver when they say they will. unfortunately in this case, with the developers being in different time zones, frequent meetings may not be very practical.

[RichardM1]

Todd Smith wrote:

How do you know he doesn't have a list of 10 other items which aren't higher priority?

Because he doesn't say he had 10 other things that were more important. If I ask someone to do something, their answer is their word. If they break their word to me, I ask them why. If they do it often enough, I learn not to trust them. Someone asks me what to do, and I can't, I explain why. If I get started and can't meet the deadline, I explain as soon as I understand I will not be able to meet it.

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[Joe Woodbury]

There is no good way to escalate problems. Sometimes, everything works out, sometimes it comes back to you in a very nasty, job losing, way. I've experienced both. In one case, I wrote an extremely tactful (especially for me) email to my new boss only to get raked over the coals days later for "not being a team player" with the irony that the developer in question ended up doing everything I'd asked my boss to have him do. (That, and me daring to argue with my boss about his absurdly optimistic time estimates, led to me being added to the roster for a layoff several weeks later.)

Anyone who thinks he has a better idea of what's good for people than people do is a swine. - P.J. O'Rourke

[BillWoodruff]

Hi HopingToCode, In this case I would find fault with your boss : imho he's "passing the buck" : you've done your job, I think, when you have pursued said Senior Dev a few times, and been blown-off. At that point, I think, it becomes your boss' responsibility to pursue a solution. Of course, such "one-size-fits-all" answers don't take into account the "culture" and "norms" of your workplace, the extent to which there is "strict" vs. "loose" hierarchy, the extent of informal communications, etc. Something that may be useful is to try asking said Senior Dev. an open-ended question like "do you mind my asking you what your priorities are in your work right now, and how that may be creating a delay here ?" Contrast that with asking the question : "How come it isn't done this week ?" Of course that puts you in a role you may not want to take, and may be just an unrealistic fantasy. imho that's the kind of question your boss should be asking the Senior Dev's boss. best, Bill

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