> An odd train of thought involving anti-gravity pads, some slanted brick
> wall, buckets, ropes, mouse boxes, and assorted other odds and ends
> ultimately led here:
>
> https://archive.org/details/the_incredible_machine_1992

Now there's a blast from the past!

> https://archive.org/details/softwarelibrary_msdos_games/v2&tab=collection
>
> Woo-hoo!
>
> TIM is a little clunky on my antique 'puter with slow connection (but so
> is everything else); I haven't yet determined whether it's possible to
> tweak the DOS Box settings from the browser (because I've been too busy
> pla--that is, "testing the interface").  :)

Might have to take a look when I get home :)

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On 16/08/2016 04:40 PM, Stephen wrote:
> If it is not in the Blueprint, that you signed, it is extra.

This. 100x this.

If ONLY our boss would understand how CRITICALLY IMPORTANT it is to 
agree on EXACTLY what we're supposed to be delivering BEFORE we promise 
to deliver it in exactly X weeks...

Or, for that matter, if he would ASK somebody how long it will take 
BEFORE he promises the customer how long it will take?

On a similar subject, why is it that when we tell him "it will take 6 
months", he thinks we're just "exaggerating" or "being negative" or 
whatever? Hey genuis, which one of us is a qualified software developer? 
Which one of us develops software ALL FREAKING DAY, EVERY SINGLE 
WEEKDAY, AND HAS DONE FOR YEARS? So which one of us is qualified to 
prognosticate on how long it will take? Right, so WHY ARE YOU IGNORING US??

Oh yes, that's right. Because you go to the school of thought that if 
you just WISH for something, REALLY REALLY HARD, that makes it happen. 
Because, you know, the laws of physics don't apply to wishes...

No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask that?

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On 8/17/2016 7:10 PM, Orchid Win7 v1 wrote:
> On 16/08/2016 04:40 PM, Stephen wrote:
>> If it is not in the Blueprint, that you signed, it is extra.
>
> This. 100x this.
>
> If ONLY our boss would understand how CRITICALLY IMPORTANT it is to
> agree on EXACTLY what we're supposed to be delivering BEFORE we promise
> to deliver it in exactly X weeks...
>

Salesmen, software salesmen. There is a special place reserved in hell 
for them.

[snip]


> No, I'm not bitter. Why do you ask that?


Because of your gentle prose. ;)

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

> Oh yes, that's right. Because you go to the school of thought that if
> you just WISH for something, REALLY REALLY HARD, that makes it happen.
> Because, you know, the laws of physics don't apply to wishes...

Your boss is a politician?

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On 17/08/2016 08:02 PM, Bald Eagle wrote:
> Orchid Win7 v1<voi### [at] devnull>  wrote:
>
>> Oh yes, that's right. Because you go to the school of thought that if
>> you just WISH for something, REALLY REALLY HARD, that makes it happen.
>> Because, you know, the laws of physics don't apply to wishes...
>
> Your boss is a politician?

It would be more accurate to say my boss possesses boundless optimism 
and is physically incapable of saying "no" to anybody who might give us 
money. Even if it's a tiny sum of money. So long as there's money. Or 
potential money. Or money some day. Theoretically. Perhaps...

Basically, he wants to please *everybody*. This is impossible, of course.

Post a reply to this message

>> If it is not in the Blueprint, that you signed, it is extra.
>
> This. 100x this.
>
> If ONLY our boss would understand how CRITICALLY IMPORTANT it is to
> agree on EXACTLY what we're supposed to be delivering BEFORE we promise
> to deliver it in exactly X weeks...
>
> Or, for that matter, if he would ASK somebody how long it will take
> BEFORE he promises the customer how long it will take?

What happens here:

They (project manager/planner) will ask the people who know how long it 
will take, get told it will take 18 months. They'll moan at you, tell 
you to cut out stuff and squeeze the schedule to make it 12 months. So 
reluctantly you agree to 12 months with cutting out all this stuff and 
squeezing the schedule to a high-risk one (ie nothing unexepected will 
happen... we all know how that goes).

Then they'll be in a meeting with the customer/senior management, get 
pushed hard to deliver it sooner, and just agree that 8 months is fine. 
Also they'll forget to mention all the stuff that was needed to cut out 
to make it 12 months.

Then they mention "oh yeh by the way it's 8 months now". Yeh, that's not 
going to happen. "well it's agreed with the MD now so we can't change 
it".  Well we can change it, in 8 months time it will have to change!

Post a reply to this message

Am 18.08.2016 um 08:50 schrieb scott:

> What happens here:
> 
> They (project manager/planner) will ask the people who know how long it
> will take, get told it will take 18 months. They'll moan at you, tell
> you to cut out stuff and squeeze the schedule to make it 12 months. So
> reluctantly you agree to 12 months with cutting out all this stuff and
> squeezing the schedule to a high-risk one (ie nothing unexepected will
> happen... we all know how that goes).

I think you've just mentioned the key problem with traditional software
project planning: Handling of the unexpected.

In my career as a software development, I have been involved in exactly
/one/ project with really sound planning. I guess it is no coincidence
that this was /not/ a native software company; it was an automotive
engineering company, and the software to be developed was firmware for
one of their products.

It was also the only project I've ever been involved in where people
didn't try to pretend they would have everything under control.

"From our experience, we /expect/ to lose X days to unexpected problems."

And the one particular product I was involved in did indeed run into
problems, due to the customer being way overdue in delivering a
prototype car for testing. Ultimately, a few weeks before the deadline
we had to communicate to the customer that if they wanted us to proceed
with the project, they would have to take the full risk from now on,
even for things /we/ might screw up -- because the buffer we had wisely
set aside for such blunders had been all eaten up by their delays.

(The customer agreed to proceed under these conditions, and the project
did indeed proceed without any hitches from our side, and finished just
in time.)


I think it is this mindset of acknowledging that one /will/ run into
problems, both self-made and external, and that time /must/ be reserved
for such events accordingly, that is crucial for good project management.

Post a reply to this message

> I think it is this mindset of acknowledging that one /will/ run into
> problems, both self-made and external, and that time /must/ be reserved
> for such events accordingly, that is crucial for good project management.

Indeed. We have quite a good project management tool, that essentially 
takes out any "safety buffer" from individual tasks and makes it one big 
lump at the end. That way individual tasks can over-run or under-run, 
but the idea being on average it will be some pre-determined figure.

The problem is, once this is done in a realistic way and agreed by all 
actually doing the work, project management types come along and say the 
end date is too far away and make it sooner. So you end up spending the 
whole project with the engineers assuming they will miss the end date 
from the start and not really caring about it, and the project manager 
frantically trying to fiddle things around and cut corners to meet the 
date they agreed to. In the end everyone is shafted for "missing the 
deadline", as senior management types seem unaware of the cries from the 
engineers since the beginning of the project.

Post a reply to this message

On 19/08/2016 09:29 AM, scott wrote:
> The problem is, once this is done in a realistic way and agreed by all
> actually doing the work, project management types come along and say the
> end date is too far away and make it sooner.

And *this* is the root of all the problems. This idea that you can just 
"make it sooner" by writing a different date on a piece of paper. 
Because that isn't how the world works.

It takes time to do things. You can admit that it will take time, and 
plan accordingly. Or you can pretend that it won't take time, and 
pretend that it will be finished by date X. But it will *still* won't 
actually be finished until date Y, no matter what you write on that bit 
of paper.

The whole point of planning is to *predict* when the work will be done. 
You do a series of calculations to estimate how long it will take, so 
that everyone around you can plan for that. Artificially changing the 
carefully estimated prediction won't make the work happen any faster. :-P



I used to assume that this kind of brokenness only happens at the 
amateur company that *I* work for. Alarmingly, this appears to not be 
the case. This raises the question HOW DOES ANYTHING EVER WORK?! >_<

Post a reply to this message

Orchid Win7 v1 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:

> And *this* is the root of all the problems. This idea that you can just
> "make it sooner" by writing a different date on a piece of paper.
> Because that isn't how the world works.
>
> It takes time to do things. You can admit that it will take time, and
> plan accordingly. Or you can pretend that it won't take time, and
> pretend that it will be finished by date X. But it will *still* won't
> actually be finished until date Y, no matter what you write on that bit
> of paper.
>
> The whole point of planning is to *predict* when the work will be done.
> You do a series of calculations to estimate how long it will take, so
> that everyone around you can plan for that. Artificially changing the
> carefully estimated prediction won't make the work happen any faster. :-P
>
> I used to assume that this kind of brokenness only happens at the
> amateur company that *I* work for. Alarmingly, this appears to not be
> the case. This raises the question HOW DOES ANYTHING EVER WORK?! >_<

Because the real Atlases of the world never shrug.
And the Boxers on Orwell's animal farm never stop working.

<political post>

And now you just need to extend that logic to politics and the magic markings
that politicians make on their magic paper to alter reality inside of their
magic lines.

Abracadabra!  We now have money out of thin air, can create prosperity by
astronomical taxing and spending, "create jobs", "raise the minimum wage",
declare that pi = 3.0, and stop people from stealing, killing, reading the wrong
things, thinking the wrong things, saying the wrong things, owning the wrong
items, associating with the wrong people, listening to the wrong music, eating
the wrong foods, looking at the wrong pictures, using the wrong medications,
worshiping the wrong cult leader, or do absolutely anything without their holy
permission.

Be thankful that not meeting the imaginary deadline doesn't land you in a little
concrete box.

</political post>

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