Software sweatshops

I suppose it would be OK to rant about the menial day that I am having right now at work, but I guess that wouldn't really be too entertaining at all. Besides sitting all day and answering emails to give the semblance of 'working', the only substantive thing that I have today is a business meeting at Figaro later around 5pm. It's something about an upcoming project that would look nice in my resume, except that it is actually a goverment project and I hear that it's not something to look forward to. I really am used to dealing with corporate monkeys by now... so maybe government monkeys are just a different species. Different yes, but something probably farther on the left in the evolutionary chart of Darwin.

I am afraid that I am getting too used to slacking around. When you've been through tough shit, I guess it feels really great to get a breather. But not as long as this one because you really reach a point where you just stop enjoying doing nothing. I miss the action that I used to suddenly find myself into. I miss getting the phone calls from a client being pissed off about how the vendor is handling the escalated issues. I miss nervously writing sensitive emails that are so carefully worded that it took me 90 minutes to draft. I even miss the times that they put my balls in a fucking vice at a steering committee meeting. Of course, I'm laughing at all of it right now having already weathered through the storm, but ask me again when I'm in the same spot then it's gonna be a different reaction I assure you.

I remember my boss pulled me aside one of those days after hearing one of my engineers make a comment that went something like "Sigh... I guess I'll see you in hell again next Monday." We were doing QA then, and was racing against the schedule to make the system ready for UAT. My boss told me "I just heard Amy say [excerpt above] .... morale is low, and you should definitely project a more positive attitude about this." Of course I explained the overall situation but eventually told him "OK. Don't worry about it. I'll handle it."

Of course as the PM, I am tasked to keep the team together and be the constant strength when everybody else seems to exhude weariness and fatigue. But I know my people and I always make it a point to know how they respond to pressure. They may make those comments, and we really do joke about stuff like that but they know and understand that this is the way it is. When push comes to shove, we will have to put in a lot of extra effort, and they know that I don't take this lightly.

A lot of lay people have the natural idea that IT guys are used to working extra hours and through weekends. And although I understand what they mean, I usually like to qualify this to everyone involved. As a consultant, we provide solutions to clients and will obviously do what it takes to deliver on our promises. When it's crunch time, we don't have problems working the extra shifts. But the problem is if this becomes a trend in the way the company executes projects, then it becomes more a liability. I always spill this out to potential employers on interviews who ask me about working extra hours. If it is a pattern for each and every project, then there is something seriously wrong with how they scope out the resources. This isn't a software company you're running here, this is a sweatshop. Of course, it has probably ruined my chances of getting hired... but that was exactly my point.

Recently, I was interviewed for a management job at a BPO company. The guy told me that I would need to build this system for a client within only 2 months with X number of developers that I would still have to hire. My immediate response was to try to asses if this predicament came by accident or if it was really how they usually worked on projects. I was automatically calculating the phases, 8 man weeks would only give me 2 weeks to iron out the design, 3 weeks for coding, and 3 weeks for testing.

What made my jaw drop was his repeated rhetoric on how it had to have zero bugs. Based on this statement alone, I could already resonably conclude that this guy did not come from a development background... despite an earlier statement that he did. Who can accomplish such an unrealistic task? Holy Crap! This guy is full of it. Nobody writes a bug free program. Even Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and all the other big software companies cannot write such pristine code. No software manager can certify with 100% certainty that the delivered solution is 100% bug free. You are only assured by the amount of testing that you conducted, and you obviously cannot use the word "thoroughly tested" with just 3 short weeks. I would've enjoyed the great challenge, but the idea that my prospective boss was unappreciative of real issues in software development scared me.

Being a technical PM, I do understand what kind of bohemoth it really is we are faced against and I just find it hard to look my engineers in the face and tell them to cheer up. How can you tell the group to be positive about it when you just sequestered their weekends? It is bad news, so let them just recieve it as the bad news that it is.

I guess I just have a different approach. Others would probably say that I have to work on my "can do" attitude but I disagree. I dont mope around and wear a plackard saying "We're doomed!" It's not like they hear me openly telling everybody that we're all fucked! Whenever I'm faced with this, my natural tendency is to asses what I myself wanted to hear, if I was in their shoes. Sure, I'm no longer the one who is actually churning line after line of code and running it through a barrage of tests in hopes of trying to keep the dumb ass mistakes to a minimum.... but if I was, the last thing I wanted to hear was a manager giving me those patrionizing pep talks. Ugh!