Just a cute baby photo for you guys and gals. I took this one this past weekend when I went on a much, much, much too brief trip to the mountains.
Here at work things have been, shall we say, busy. We are at the tail end of something resembling a death march. One of those things where no one worries about anything until the end. Then everyone wants to have an opinion on how the software should look and operate. Then, it’s up to the developers, who have been asking for requirements for nearly a year, to make it happen … no matter how many hours it takes. Here is an excerpt from an e-mail that I received last week:
We need to get this resolved today and do whatever it takes to get this system to the point it is ready to demo. If that means working from 6am when the lab opens until midnight then that is what needs to happen.
In my e-mail, I was referring to the fact that we have no testing documentation because we have no functional requirements … therefore, what are we testing against? No good answers except: “You write the test plan!”. Interesting, putting the fox in charge of the hen house. Have the developer write the test plan? WTF? Oh well. So that’s what I’ve been doing. 15 pages of use cases so far!
So, of course, we’ve been working every day from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM. There is absolutely no reason to work until midnight! We are all tired, a bit cranky, and ready for this to be over with. It should be finished tomorrow … we hope. I’ve had precious little energy to expend on photography, but I miss it.
It’s things like this that make me think KNOW that I need a plan of action to get out of this madness called software development. It’s ran its course. Time for something new. I just have to figure out what that is.
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Maybe you and I could start a consulting business together.
For a blessedly brief period in my life, I had a job that I resolved to quit every single Friday evening. I would spend the weekends relishing my relief at being “out of there”. By Sunday, I was getting serious about what I could do next that would provide the free time I needed for pursuit of my long term goals, and by that evening I had resigned myself to another week in the chamber of horrors. That actually worked for a couple of years and bought some time. But, when I was finally able to escape, it was a day for celebration.
Best of luck to you in this big decision.
Oh, this sounds all too familiar. I moved from development to support because I didn’t like the cowboy/seat-of-your-pants/she’ll-be-right attitude of project managers and upper management. Quality sw development is a thing of the past. when I started in the industry we could turn out major financial systems that were bug free. Now bugs are so common they call them undocumented features
Good luck with whatever you decide to do. Just be sure that your decision is based on wanting to move towards something new rather than escaping from something old. There’s a difference
I used to work in the software business, for more than ten years as a matter of fact. Nowadays, instead of being directly in the melt cup, I’m standing on the side watching it and I feel so much better. I have the insights – I know both sides, the producer and the customer – so I decided to go freelance, and offering them my writing services. I’m doing mostly commercial writing, like pamphlets, brochures and illustration work. It’s so much more fun.
Think up something (and save some money for starting up something light that not requires heavy investments), you have the time and it must not necessarily be spot on what you dream of at the beginning. You can always change direction while you’re on the move. Important is being on the move, since when your standing still, your more likely to fall.
I just delivered my resignation a couple of days ago. Same hamster wheel as you, only chip design. My new job has nothing to do with this. It’ truly a time for celebration. You just start to plan for an exit.
@Cedric: There is a fine line here between wanting to walk away from and wanting to walk toward. I feel both of these tugs. I would like to do ‘something’ else, but am not quite sure what that something is just yet. On the other hand, though I may not mind living at a certain income level, there are others to consider. They are called family. I have no doubt that they would be fully supportive, but I have to consider them as well. Also, I have a certain attachment to my income level, honestly, though I am not so attached that I couldn’t walk away, if necessary. Software, now, is not so much about solving problems, it’s about solving problems quickly to be able to make more money … quickly.
Remember the promise of computers, long ago? They were going to make things so efficient that we’d have so much more time for leisure. They only made sure that we would do more things in a given hour. More! More! More!
@Chris: if you have some ideas, e-mail me! Seriously!
Good idea, Paul, that of finding something to walk toward. As Jung would say, it, “hold the tension until something emerges rather than making an either/or decision” (job/no job).
Ugh, death march. Does not sound good. I know that is a common refrain, but I can tell you that there _are_ software development jobs that don’t have this side to them. I am in one now. It’s busy, but 40 hours a week busy, not sleep under your desk busy.
I understand the tugs, though.
Hang in there!!! Sounds completely exhausting and frustrating.