Quote:
Originally Posted by Tcoat
From a management point of view:
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Nice stuff.
Sorry about the major rant here, y'all are free to move on.
One of the things I notice the most often is that finding a way from HERE to THERE is tough, and it takes experience and the right eye/understanding. Great, you have an idea and it really may be a good idea, but... you usually can't just change everything at the drop of a hat.
Some days I'd rather the younger devs just don't show up; there's no sense of architecture, it's just the favorite-library-of-the-week they want to re-implement EVERYTHING in, because it's SO much better, and... moving forward is even harder, and it's good whiz-bang until 6 months on you've had to pile so much more crap on top because no one actually knows how it works, so you patch over patches and even features are just patches... it's like the old VW's had more weight in pop-rivets than actual sheet-metal...
Somewhere along the way I realized I rarely have the right answers, so I architect systems that assume change is constant and no decision will last. I actually got to see the results start to show from that once, and it surprised me just HOW effective it was. Crazy stuff was happening.
Oh. And if you're constantly cleaning up after someone, the best thing you can do is first ensure you're not the one creating a mess because you misunderstand something... in doing so, you also paint a pretty clear picture of the mess-leaver if you have it right, and they're the one messing it up. Don't complain, just ensure that it's very clear what's happening. Maybe there's something they can't talk about, and they actually want you to keep doing that. You can ask - "should I keep cleaning this up" and they may be relieved and say "yes, that would be really helpful right now" or they might say "no" (unlikely) or... understand problems, ask questions, and look to improve what YOU are doing, and be sure you've got it right. Asking to understand things that don't make sense may illuminate the right-ness for you, but it might also illuminate the wrong-ness to people that didn't notice because it's been that way for so long...
And finally, remember: the most successful people often fail the most often.