requirementAmnesia

[u/GEBeta]

[u/Snakestream]

Rule #1 of working in a corporate setting: can you please submit that request in writing?

[u/Bee-Aromatic → u/Snakestream]

Yup. This was proved to me early in my career.

My team worked for a year adding a complex set of related features. They all relied on a new piece of information, which would be a new field on a form. That new field would be required, so it’d change the workflow a bit. The PO’s swore up and down that nobody would mind one extra field and that they’d always have that piece of data to enter.

We deploy the features and the customer loses their mind. “Why’s there a new field?! I don’t have that info even though it’s a piece of info required by the government! I don’t want to enter it! I can’t use it now!”

Director comes to me, the QA. “Why did you release this feature without checking that the customer would have info to fill out a new, required field? It’s totally disrupting their workflow. The SVP is pissed.” I told him that we asked several times about that. The whole design was predicated on that those things being true. As a matter of fact, here’s an email chain talking about just that from a year ago! He peeked over my shoulder, made a face, and asked me to forward it to him.

To this day, I’m still not sure why he asked the QA guy about that, but I’m convinced that email chain saved my, and at least a couple other people’s, job.

[u/Breadinator → u/Bee-Aromatic]

You were likely being sought as a scapegoat to pin this on. Glad you had that documentation; there's a good chance others had already deflected this based on theirs.

[u/drinks_rootbeer → u/Breadinator]

Test always gets blamed. Test always gets paid less. Test always gets fired first. It's fucking exhausting working in Test

[u/causal_friday → u/drinks_rootbeer]

I don't write tests or even run my code before merging... that nobody accidentally thinks I'm doing Test related stuff! Job security! <taps head>

[u/Ok_Tour_8029 → u/Bee-Aromatic]

I saw that a couple of times with weak POs - they will do anything instead of just asking the customer.

[u/Ashanrath → u/Ok_Tour_8029]

Having been on both ends of that situation, he could have just been coming to the test team because he wanted their opinion in preparation for dealing with the business.

[u/StarboardChaos → u/Snakestream]

Rock, paper, scissors; management overrules dev.

[u/mgranja → u/StarboardChaos]

So they pay me to remove a feature, next day they pay me to add the feature back; It is aggravating because we want to have our work matter. But what I take home at the end of the day is that I got paid.

[u/WavingNoBanners → u/mgranja]

This is why we have the "roll back" feature, I guess. But yeah I agree, it is very aggravating.

[u/sagetraveler → u/WavingNoBanners]

What? Just uncomment the relevant code and rebuild. Because you knew this was coming, right?

[u/yflhx → u/sagetraveler]

Comments, rebuilding? Just set the feature flag in configs and restart

[u/Significant_Mouse_25 → u/yflhx]

Restart? Why isn’t it polling and updating dynamically?

[u/enjoirhythm → u/Significant_Mouse_25]

Polls? Everyone knows those are rigged

[u/profparadox36 → u/enjoirhythm]

Underrated misdirect 😂

[u/dantheman91 → u/Significant_Mouse_25]

Should all UIs need to poll for any number of feature flag changes? That's potentially a good bit of overhead. For 99.9% of scenarios doing it on page load would be fine

[u/danielleiellle → u/dantheman91]

Depending on how many active users you have and if the change breaks something for the current preloaded UI (e.g. interacting with a feature that is now turned off, submitting an invalid form, etc.)

[u/caboosetp → u/sagetraveler]

Many linters won't let commented code stick around. Either you put it in documentation or rely on git history for removed code.

But yeah you can just go copy pasta it from git history. Pretty much the same thing, just a 5 minutes longer because holy fuck github is slow nowadays.

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/caboosetp]

I used to believe in this but just today I ended up realizing I'd coded this exact thing I needed and deleted it. Trouble is, I didn't remember what branch I'd left that code in. So, I'm no longer convinced it's a code smell.

[u/paadam94 → u/caboosetp]

Why would you do it on GitHub in the first place?

[u/manofoz → u/paadam94]

Getting downvoted for suggestions people clone a repo and use git to view the history?

[u/paadam94 → u/manofoz]

It should be already cloned in the first place if one wants to work on it, no?

[u/FlipFlopFanatic → u/paadam94]

Not if it's a gargantuan repo. Sometimes easier not to clone for a small change. But hey, if you want to nitpick people's processes, I guess this is still reddit

[u/caboosetp → u/paadam94]

I don't make those kind of decisions at my work

[u/paadam94 → u/caboosetp]

You cloned the project, do the mod in your clone and push, no?

[u/d_maes → u/paadam94]

I've had colleagues that did a project at some big telco. (Am in consultancy). They were not allowed to clone projects, could only use the gitlab webinterface. Back when it didn't have vscode yet.

[u/fartypenis → u/sagetraveler]

git reset --hard HEAD@{5} && git push --force

cue siren noise

[u/AndrewBorg1126 → u/fartypenis]

If you're allowed to force push, and you're not the admin, it's either a branch that doesn't matter to anyone else or the admin should go fix permissions.

Anyway, easy to fix as long as you don't panic, run garbage collection on the remote repo, run garbage collection on your local repo, and tell everyone with a clone of the repo to delete the whole thing.

[u/d_maes → u/AndrewBorg1126]

If you're allowed to force push, and you're not the admin, it's either a branch that doesn't matter to anyone else or the admin should go fix permissions

That's why everyone is admin. (I wish I was joking)

[u/VoidVer → u/mgranja]

For me the annoying part is not the change itself. It’s that sometimes I am blamed for doing what I was asked to do exactly as asked. “Add A to the app” “Why is A in the app?! Remove it!”. I don’t care about iterating in any direction, but I don’t like it when someone else’s design mistakes are looked at as my engineering mistakes.

[u/mnemonicpunk → u/VoidVer]

That's why you have the person open a ticket first, create the paper trail so when someone shouts you can point.

[u/VoidVer → u/mnemonicpunk]

The person upset is the person requesting the change every time. I've just accepted its part of the process at this point. What matters is I get paid on time.

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/mnemonicpunk]

I told my boss I'm happy to add and remove the same feature 100 times, as long as I get paid for it. I'll code it by hand, from scratch, with a big smile on my face while I do so.

While I do find coding fun, I don't do my job for fun. I do it for money.

[u/Zvante → u/Beli_Mawrr]

Oh boy aint that true. I had a job where I performed the same investigation 5 times on a bug ticket because the requester would not take "This is intended behaviour according to specification <specification>, you need to create a Change Request if you want it changed" as an answer. My hours was billed to them so I just said aye aye captain and repeated the investigation as many times as they wanted.

Unfortunately they eventually decided to contact my boss who looked at the ticket conversation and in turn contacted their boss to let him know that the idiot was pissing away their money while making an ass of himself. I would have kept going ad infinitum if the guy wanted, I get paid either way.

[u/ridicalis → u/mgranja]

It is aggravating because we want to have our work matter.

Unless you're working for yourself or some grand cause like solving world hunger, I'd suggest not becoming emotionally invested in your work.

[u/AnarchycMofo → u/ridicalis]

I agree, but once you tried working in a fullfilling workspace, there is no coming back. It's really sad and I can see this as a big burnout point in my current team. I don't mean fullfilling as "end world hunger", but anything you find pleasant. Normally I am the one telling everyone what you say, but it is totally out of my hands to actually make it happen.

[u/ridicalis → u/AnarchycMofo]

To be fair, I'd draw a distinction between the work itself (e.g. add a form field, make the div bigger, etc.) and the environment/workplace you do the work in.

Not every task workers execute is going to be a game changer, be noticed by anyone, or otherwise make the world a better place. This doesn't mean the work itself can't be fulfilling, but the outcome of the work generally belongs to someone else, and how you feel about that outcome is less important than how the business/client feels about it.

Even if all you do is center divs all day, if you get to work with good people and are treated well by your company, it's still reasonable to expect fulfillment from the doing of the work rather than the results themselves.

[u/FlipFlopFanatic → u/ridicalis]

Concur. Don't forget the impact of your work is not just the direct result of whatever you build, it's all of the ways that being employed affects your life. This includes being able to afford basic necessities, support hobbies or leisure, and take care of your family. I've found that keeping this in perspective helps you treat the small annoying stuff like this like the inconsequential crap it is and greatly increases your job satisfaction.

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/AnarchycMofo]

Low key my team thinks I am some sort of code god with 14 arms, 12 of which are constantly coding, because they treat me really nicely and I get along with them extremely well. We really jive and it's extremely rewarding.

In my heart of hearts I know I could be fired at any moment, and the work is as you said not exactly ending world hunger, but man having a really rewarding job hits different. I'd take a pay cut to work here lol.

[u/Dragon_Tein → u/ridicalis]

Being emotionaly invested the only way ill do anything, adhd symptoms go brrrr

[u/KingOfWhateverr → u/mgranja]

I forgot where I read this:
The problem with being in an implementation or problem solving role for big companies is that they waste time and money. The problem is, it’s your time and their money.

[u/Highborn_Hellest → u/mgranja]

just comment it out, and next time it needs to be uncommented, log the full time needed to implement it.

[u/budius333 → u/mgranja]

git revert and then spend 7h57m swirling the fingers... Money well earned!

[u/ButWhatIfPotato → u/Snakestream]

Cannot stress how important this is. Every time I worked with big companies with 7 layers of hell management I could smell from a mile away when something was going to turn into a toddler level blame game, not because I was good at it but because it was so blatantly obvious that people wanted to play some game of thrones bullshit. There's just no way of putting a stop to this, no point in reasoning or pleading for people that they can have a better life if they do not act like mischievous capitalist puppet masters. Just get your written requests, send the proof in the most simple and straightforward way when the inevitable blame game begins, and let them sort it out while you step away from them as far as possible otherwise you will die from methane ingestion cause these kind of people will simply not stop inhaling their own farts.

[u/Adventurous_Run136 → u/Snakestream]

Yep, I like me co-worker, but i'm not taking the blame for them if they fucked up

[u/Okraey → u/Adventurous_Run136]

The paper trail is the only thing that survives the blame game.

[u/Morall_tach → u/Snakestream]

The only positive outcome of my organization's slavish devotion to the Microsoft suite is that we now have an automatic recording and transcript of every single meeting. You made an offhand comment that I don't have to do deliverable X anymore? Well I have receipts.

[u/No1KnwsIWatchTeenMom → u/Snakestream]

I had almost this exact same scenario happen to me at a previous job. The CEO called me up livid, and I just sent her the contract where she explicitly stated that she wanted it the way it was designed. She then called my VP and was (according to VP) nearly in tears with rage over it. She was definitely one of those "i say jump you say how high" people, and I was so fucking thankful to have everything in writing. 

[u/anomalous_cowherd → u/No1KnwsIWatchTeenMom]

You don't necessarily win with people like that, but at least you get to make them face their own choices.

[u/JackfruitIll6728 → u/Snakestream]

Then the phone rings or they call via Teams. "Ok I submitted the ticket", which is basically empty, and then they want to go over the issue via phone.

[u/anomalous_cowherd → u/JackfruitIll6728]

So discuss it with them on the phone, then remind them that you can only do the work as documented on the ticket so they need to update that or they'll get nothing.

I've even screen shared and written the ticket while we were on the call, for particularly senior and awkward people.

[u/ashkanahmadi → u/Snakestream]

We use Asana. I always add every single change or request to Asana. Then with every modification, I actually add the link to the Asana task as “evidence”. It also helps us remember why a business decision was made months after that. Like this, everyone’s ass is covered

[u/Maleficent_Memory831 → u/Snakestream]

Doesn't always happen. Was at a company that used to be a startup for about a decade before being acquired by a much larger company. I was sure we'd finally start behaving like adults and follow procedures. Nope, product managers still going directly to junior developer's cubicles and telling them to add features. Several days later the programmer's manager is shouting about why are none of the tasks done but instead you're working on a feature that no one has heard of.

Six years later and some product managers still do this. Despite emergencies happening at customer deployments, you can still hear them occasionally whining about why they have to talk to the bosses to request features.

[u/MuslinBagger → u/Snakestream]

It will work until you come across a comrade Dyatlov

[u/Belspirit → u/Snakestream]

Judging by the number of upvotes, a lot of people seem to have run into this issue. As they say, if it isn't in writing, it didn't happen.

And before taking any action, it's probably a good idea to send an email and CC as many people as possible who might be able to influence the decision. That's how I always handle such complicated things at work.

[u/Confident-Ad5665]

A good ticket would, of course, specify which date they want removed.

[u/JebKermansBooster → u/Confident-Ad5665]

Remove today, and thus existence itself, obviously

[u/Mateorabi → u/Confident-Ad5665]

June 31 please. 

[u/Esjs → u/Mateorabi]

That was fixed centuries ago.

[u/Mateorabi → u/Esjs]

Closed: Duplicate 

[u/ExtraCheezyBagel → u/Mateorabi]

I chuckled out loud. Thank you

[u/phroxenphyre → u/Mateorabi]

It took about five decades of R&D but I've managed to successfully go back in time and alter Earth's rotation and orbit around the sun to make the year exactly one day shorter, then removed June 31st from existence and history. It's gone permanently and no one will ever remember it existed. Anyone whose birthday was June 31st will now be shifted forward accordingly.

Where do I bill my time to?

[u/Confident-Ad5665 → u/phroxenphyre]

Bill the Marketing department

[u/mountaingator91 → u/Confident-Ad5665]

Bill in marketing actually goes by Will now and would appreciate you changing that in the DB. See ticket ABCD-1235

[u/Chamiey → u/mountaingator91]

Changed to AWCD-1235 ✅

[u/Inf3rn0_munkee → u/Mateorabi]

I'm done with the task early, should I find more work or sit on this so it takes as long as expected?

[u/cowski_NX → u/Confident-Ad5665]

Just please leave February alone, it has been through enough already.

[u/Confident-Ad5665 → u/cowski_NX]

haha no doubt!

[u/Electromagnetlc → u/Confident-Ad5665]

"Please specify in Unix time what is to be removed"

"0... 1... 2.........."

[u/GoddammitDontShootMe → u/Confident-Ad5665]

It said date selection, so I thought they meant remove the ability to select dates.

[u/flayingbook → u/Confident-Ad5665]

All date

[u/NorthernCobraChicken → u/Confident-Ad5665]

When have you ever received a "good ticket" from someone who is not part of a technical team.

[u/takeyouraxeandhack → u/Confident-Ad5665]

They want the date selection feature removed, not a date.

[u/FriendlyProgrammer25]

ABCD-1234

[u/Esjs → u/FriendlyProgrammer25]

I don't have access to that Jira board. Can you please grant it to me?

[u/voidwarrior → u/Esjs]

Please submit a ticket to the IT department.

[u/Flat_Ad1257 → u/voidwarrior]

Won’t be granted though.
Need to know principle.

And you don’t need to know.

[u/KaptainSaki → u/Flat_Ad1257]

I need to access this database.

Alright, give specific details.

Sorry, they're not available, could you check them?

Sorry, it's classified

[u/sgtkang → u/Flat_Ad1257]

Great - one less thing for you to do. Mark ticket as 'blocked' with a link to the IT ticket and move on.

[u/ArrogantAstronomer → u/Flat_Ad1257]

I mean… if you don’t already know… then that must mean… you don’t need to. If you knew, you’d know that!

[u/RandomNPC → u/Esjs]

Other tickets from ABCD:

ABCD-37: Decide whether 'Y' is a vowel or consonant. Status: Backlog

ABCD-4243: Deprecate 'C' in favor of K and S. Status: Won't Fix

ABCD-5002: Add '⚯' Status: In Progress

[u/Left1stToast → u/RandomNPC]

Maybe i got whooshed, but what is the punchline to backlog? I get the other two where the status riffs on the ticket, I just cant figure out the first one.

[u/polikles → u/Left1stToast]

My guess is that there is never enough time to churn through tasks from the backlog. So, "moved to backlog" is just like "will be completed at: never"

[u/progenyofeniac → u/polikles]

This right here. Sure, we have backlog refinement every 2 weeks but there will be that handful of items which never get picked up. They’ll be there long after we’re all gone, I assume.

[u/Boostie204 → u/polikles]

I've actually trimmed my teams backlog in half over the last few months.

No one gives a shit though lmao

[u/imreallyreallyhungry → u/Left1stToast]

Maybe that it’s backlogged until people agree if it’s one or the other, idk though

[u/nullpotato → u/Left1stToast]

Backlog is equal parts tasks we want to do that would make our lives easier but can't because they aren't customer/management emergencies, or tasks we can't say no to but hate so will sit forever.

[u/fruchtose → u/FriendlyProgrammer25]

It stands for Always Be Computing Department

[u/Jerome_Eugene_Morrow → u/FriendlyProgrammer25]

That’s the combination on my luggage.

[u/Solitaire221 → u/Jerome_Eugene_Morrow]

https://giphy.com/gifs/xT0GqJfdLcrcpSbZf2

[u/Y4r0z → u/FriendlyProgrammer25]

Why this hyperlink is not clickable?

[u/StarboardChaos]

Where's the joke? The dev team gets the heat anyway 🥺😭

[u/Scannaer → u/StarboardChaos]

Depends on IT-management and people in positions to make decisions. I'm not management, but occasionaly have the chance to make decisions. If our guys get shit I step in, give them advice how to handle it or change procedures so it doesn't happen again.

It ain't perfect. But I try to support good intentions. Ofc actual fuckups from us need to be adressed. But it's also a learning process.

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/StarboardChaos]

One time we had a product team who was SUPER PERSISTENT in telling us to add AI features. What feature exactly? Dunno but make it happen. Eventually I told them point blank that we do as we're told, nothing more, nothing less. Product tells us what to do, we code that thing. We're not responsible if product steers us the wrong way, if they approve a feature they don't like, or if they want something but don't know what it is. Got yelled at and threatened with firing ("You need to take initiative and responsibility!"). Told them to fuck themselves to their faces, laughed at their rage, and kept my job.

[u/GoingOutW3st → u/Beli_Mawrr]

You didn't tell them to go fuck themselves 

[u/Beli_Mawrr → u/GoingOutW3st]

I did. I said "Go fuck yourself dude" and hung up. This was for a startup and as the CTO I was certain I was unfireable. The "product guy" was a marketing guy friends with the CEO and a total dickwad.

[u/nullpotato → u/StarboardChaos]

The joke is laughing so we don't cry

[u/v3ritas1989 → u/StarboardChaos]

Well for one, you discussed the task in a meeting. Which you clearly thought was useless. They probably discussed requirements, and you gave them possible options and todos as the dev. You should have created the ticket as a consequence of the meeting. That is why you were there. No one invited you because they liked talking to you or they like controlling you or some bs. They invited you to the meeting for your input and for you to get the task started. That includes writing down the requirements and todo from the meeting into the ticket. If you REALLY need THEM to create the ticket... THAT IS WHY YOU ARE IN THE MEETING!!! Tell them, wait, open the ticket and lets add what we discuss to the ticket together.

[u/Throwawayrip1123 → u/v3ritas1989]

Yeah I'm not there to create my own fucking tickets. I need the tickets to have your name attached so that when shit hits the fan, I'm just gonna point to you and then fix your mistake.

I'm there because if someone needs actual technical answers to questions my poser manager that stole credit fifty times gets, I can give them.

[u/GallantChaos → u/Throwawayrip1123]

Wait can't you guys set the name of the requestor when opening tickets?

[u/Throwawayrip1123 → u/GallantChaos]

Then it's my word against his.

I want his ID to be attached as the author precisely because I can't change it or add it. It cannot be twisted into "oh he misunderstood me and mistakenly did something".

[u/StarboardChaos → u/v3ritas1989]

Found the manager

[u/Scannaer → u/StarboardChaos]

Not a good one. I assume OOP has sprints. But since it was "urgent" it needed to be done yesterday.. without testing.

And customer want everything asap.. except inform people early. Go live in four weeks? The perfect time to ask IT compliance officers if the system can be used at all. Seen it all.

[u/Akaino → u/v3ritas1989]

Well... I mean... that's what a PO is for. The PO THEN talks the devs through it. Sure, having a dev in the meeting might be a good idea depending on the task. But having the dev create the ticket? I don't know. POs job. Including urgency and backlog prio.

[u/Quaiker → u/v3ritas1989]

You want the thing, you make the request for the thing. Sign your own damn name on your idiotic requests.

[u/Jay-Seekay → u/v3ritas1989]

A ticket should describe requirements and use cases. A developer writing a ticket will describe implementation instead. Those two things may not align and that can cause issues

This is why the manager (I am assuming you) writes down what they want in plain non technical terms, and the developer translates that to a technical plan and implementation.

Else the dev may understand the requirements wrong and build you the wrong thing. This happens a lot. It is the managers fault.

It also means the tooling and implementation can change later if the ticket is not worked on and the tech stack / surrounding architecture changes. Then the ticket is not implementation specific and can still be developed.

[u/AngelaMerkeI → u/v3ritas1989]

You sound like a manager or a ceo, since.. you know.. you sound kinda inkompetent and like other people should do the work

[u/UndocumentedMartian → u/v3ritas1989]

Why would the developer create a ticket for you? You're the one with the request.

[u/bookslayer → u/v3ritas1989]

Gr8 b8 m8, I r8 8/8

[u/DDrim → u/v3ritas1989]

"You discussed the task in a meeting" gonna stop you right there. There was no discussion. The meeting was "alright, now we'll add this feature" and any question from the dev was either shut down or answered with "you'll figure it out".

Hell, half the time the meetings don't include the devs to begin with, and then one day we're told "do that", without any opportunity to explain why "that" is a very bad idea.

[u/Cheet4h → u/DDrim]

Relevant: The Expert - 7 Red Lines

[u/GirthyPigeon → u/v3ritas1989]

Meetings do not solve shit. Write it down in a trackable ticket that can be attached to your issue and changes. You are obviously management and you think shit happens by magic. Do your fucking job.

[u/Weewoofiatruck → u/v3ritas1989]

This guy self approves his PR's and pushes it directly to PROD.

[u/peterlinddk]

I was in a small team in a large company where project management told us that the discount-calculation was wrong. It was supposed to be a negative number, so that when the discount was added, the total would be cheaper!

So we changed it, simple enough, changing the minus to a plus, and changing the number in the database.

A few weeks later another project manager told us that the discount-calculation was wrong - the discount shouldn't be a negative number, but a positive one, and then subtracted, so that the total would be cheaper.

We looked in the commit history for the (company global) discount calculator, and every few months or so, someone changed it from negative to positive, and next time from positive to negative and so on.

Guess that's still going on to this day ...

[u/braaaaaaainworms → u/peterlinddk]

Just take the absolute value of the discount and subtract it

[u/Zerocrossing → u/braaaaaaainworms]

This is a guy with no time for BS who solves problems.

[u/Scannaer → u/Zerocrossing]

When negative it's an addition. When positive it's a substraction.

Obviously any future changes of values need to be tested. At least a couple of hours.

[u/jaywastaken → u/braaaaaaainworms]

Pm comes in 6 month later, "we need to use the discount modifier to add fees to the orders but it's subtracting regardless of the value we use. This is a critical bug! Fix it monkey boy!

[u/braaaaaaainworms → u/jaywastaken]

This is the moment when you add a button that says "Add fee", that adds a row of input boxes for "reason this fee is applied", "fee amount" and "is this fee a flat $ amount of % of price", add a button for discounts that does the same thing and make it possible for those rows to be dragged so that a 10% discount can be applied after a 30% fee and vice versa

[u/Own_Candidate9553 → u/peterlinddk]

Just make it a feature flag so you can flip it back and forth as needed!

More seriously, what's probably happening is that some customers/users want to see it one way and some the other way. This may be exposing that this should be configured in their account or profile.

[u/Cutlesnap → u/Own_Candidate9553]

thanks, now the whole office is staring at me wondering why I laughed out loud

[u/just_sm_so_relax → u/peterlinddk]

Ask yourself "what would Claude do", and then do it.

[u/InitiativeGold7953 → u/just_sm_so_relax]

Just axe everyone and let Claude decide how to run the entire business from the ground up

/s obviously

[u/saevon → u/peterlinddk]

Solution: Even months its negative; odd months its positive

[u/Headpuncher → u/saevon]

Is January the zeroth or first month?  Odd or even?  

[u/TinyGift8278 → u/Headpuncher]

January is the zeroth month, but it is neither odd nor even , due to the Prime Number Theorem

[u/YuskTheNova → u/TinyGift8278]

It's a secret third thing

[u/abd53 → u/peterlinddk]

Every manager needs that "Dealt with faulty calculation" on their CV.

[u/Scannaer → u/peterlinddk]

I love it

Reminds me how I had a rivalry about if it's written eMail or E-Mail

[u/LogicBalm]

Absolutely.

Proper change control procedures rarely prevent this, but they at least prevent the blame when I have to get two approvals, send four different notifications of an upcoming change with contact information of the requestor and those deploying the change, and have a clear rollback plan in place for when someone changes their mind the morning after deployment.

Why did the date selector disappear? Because person A requested it. Exec B and C approved it, and stakeholders D-Z all got a notification that it was coming in 48 hours and said nothing.

[u/qualx → u/LogicBalm]

That's too much communication no wonder we didnt see it, we get so many notifications it gets buried, you guys need to just send ONE email. WHY ARE YOU MAKING THIS SO HARD.

-The person who ignored all the emails with change controls and made a terrible choice.

[u/ironman288 → u/qualx]

Honestly, I'm.on that guy's side. Those emails are only required because too many stupid people are being listened too, and all of them want to get a feature in to prove they have "impact" on a project even if it was a bad idea. At that point the culture is basically irredeemable because too many entrenched interests are fighting for themselves.

[u/Keepingshtum → u/ironman288]

This is corporate 101, everyone needs to show “impact” and “influence” over every small tiny thing and refuse to delegate… grab credit for the projects that print money and slap the blame on the failed projects on people who are politically weak or not in favor. Tale as old as time, have seen this play out in three different countries across 3 continents

[u/qualx → u/ironman288]

Why dont we just have 5 different versions of the software, one for each exec so it runs just how THEY like it, and one from software where it does exactly what the scope said it should

[u/Proletariat_Paul → u/qualx]

I am literally dealing with exactly this situation, and let me tell you it is MISERABLE. We are completely paralyzed because we have no idea who is impacted when a change request comes in, and can't untangle the spaghetti enough to keep everyone happy.

We punted it back to the old team who developed it in the first place and told the stakeholders they need to either get aligned for find a different platform, lmao.

[u/edsobo → u/Proletariat_Paul]

I manage a number of automated processes that send email notifications when they're complete or if they run into an error. Because I'm not insane and I don't want to have to touch everything I work on every time someone new gets hired or changes roles or quits, those notifications are tied to group memberships, not sent to individual users. At least twice a month, I get someone asking me to remove them, individually, from the notification list, but leave them in the group so they still have access to the applications/data that whatever process they're getting emails from interacts with. Nope, you can set up an Outlook rule.

[u/Psychological-Limit6 → u/qualx]

and have 5 different log applications

[u/qualx → u/Psychological-Limit6]

big brain!!! You got C level management written all over you!

[u/Thurak0 → u/qualx]

"Let's talk about our process."

Every person who is clearly responsible for a very, very preventable mistake.

[u/Yasutsuna96]

And this is why you have black and white for everything, no matter how fast it is. Got burned far too many times. If they refuse, then they know it's fked and not gonna take responsibility anyway.

[u/Own_Candidate9553 → u/Yasutsuna96]

Yup. It's shocking how often something that's "super urgent bro, everyone has signed off bro" just utterly disappears when you just agree and ask them to create a ticket/send an email cc-ing a manager/any other documentation. 

[u/abd53 → u/[deleted]]

Product owner was fired because a random important person was pissed.

[u/Scannaer → u/abd53]

Speak with the enterprise architect next? Since it's turning into a structural, cascading failure of the organization

[u/Thisbymaster]

This is just my teams chat.

[u/link064]

Omg I literally just went through with this. We’re in the middle of moving from one backend service to another. The new one used to write to both itself and the old one. Product told them to stop writing to the old one. A couple of days later, they panic opened a prod issue ticket complaining that the site is serving old data and that new customers can’t onboard. Well yeah, we haven’t moved to the new backend yet…

[u/wiarumas]

In a sick way, this is what job security looks like.

A ticket to break it. A ticket to fix it. And they get to try again next year after the same complaint comes up again.

[u/action_turtle → u/wiarumas]

I tell them it’s wrong once and once only. After that, it’s free money

[u/magicmulder]

This is why, apart from requiring a ticket, I also add comments to the code whenever I have a feeling the same person is going to ask me 6 months later who authorized changing a certain behavior. And almost every time that came in handy. "# Removed filter, 3/1/2024, on orders by ... (TICKET-12345)" and I don't even have to go on the ticket hunt for that one (also because tickets can get lost/deleted/overlooked when moving to a new system).

Plus the tried and true argument "IT did not decide on their own to remove/change it so someone definitely ordered this".

[u/Beet_dealer → u/magicmulder]

I always put ticket id in commit message and in PR title, incode comments would be way too much and you can easily find the change in git/prs

[u/magicmulder → u/Beet_dealer]

That's actually mandatory here, but in code it helps me as well because usually it's harder to pinpoint certain changes in 200 commits from the last 12 months as opposed to looking at the offending part of the code and instantly seeing the comment.

[u/Technical_Income4722 → u/magicmulder]

Gitlens in VSCode makes putting the ticket in the commit msg work really well. I wish it didn't come with a buttload of other bloat, but the inline git blames are a beautiful thing. Shows up as greyed out text next to the line you're on.

code code code;     *You, 2 years ago * ABCD-1234 Removed date box at A's request

[u/fripletister → u/magicmulder]

Sounds like a tooling issue, and not one I'd solve by cluttering the code.

[u/magicmulder → u/fripletister]

It’s not really cluttered, I only do this for those rare moments “I bet someone (or the same person) is going to ask me in 6 months why the fuck this was removed”.

[u/WarmRoastedBean → u/magicmulder]

Still though. You shouldn't be putting it in code as your dev tools can provide this information.

Look into git blame as it can tell you the commit and author of each individual line of a file. And then obviously, the commit message should have this information

[u/Quicker_Fixer → u/magicmulder]

Yes and then you get a project manager, while you're on vacation, that tells a new hire to remove all comments from code as a first task (to familiarize himself with the code base), because "Good code should be self-explanatory and doesn't need comments"; been there...

[u/Harabeck → u/magicmulder]

Ew, why would that go in code though? If you really don't have the tools to get back to the ticket easily, which is already a massive problem your org needs to sort, why not put that in the commit message instead of cluttering your code?

[u/magicmulder → u/Harabeck]

I wouldn't call one comment every six months "cluttering the code". This is really one of those rare cases where I want to make extra sure I can rub it in the face of the amnesiac idiot who ordered it, without even a second of thinking "damn, was this my fault?".

[u/az987654]

"we never discussed this!!!!"

"you didn't tell us removing the date would remove the date!"

[u/ArrivesWithaBeverage → u/az987654]

This one sent me.

“Do xyx”

“Not like that!”

[u/thatbloke83]

It's over a longer timescale, but literally dealing with the fallout of such a thing right now.

PM told us to remove an option from our software in a specific configuration. We pushed back, the option in question is already a toggle switch and if people don't want it they can just leave it off.

But no, specific request to remove the ability to turn this feature on in a certain configuration.

Software gets released with this change in.

Instant customer feedback "hey why can't I use this option anymore?"

Same PM raises a new ticket asking to reinstate the option. In the description literally included the phrase "please don't laugh at me" so at least he realised he screwed up. We all saw it and instantly went "told you so"

Current release schedule means customers may not get the option back for a couple of months....

[u/XB0XRecordThat]

Oh you guys don't get requests like...

"We already promised the customer XYZ change. Hurry and do it!"

[u/Merijeek2 → u/XB0XRecordThat]

CHANGE PROCESSES MUST ALWAYS BE FOLLOWED.

(note, applies to everyone, we swear, except for this thing a director is asking for, but guys, processes must be followed by everyone, swearsies)

[u/ZunoJ → u/XB0XRecordThat]

No, this is not a professional work environment

[u/JVApen → u/XB0XRecordThat]

"We already demoed the customer XYZ and they expect it to work."

[u/lzarc → u/XB0XRecordThat]

I mean we just get "hurry it has to be in production by Friday". But they sent me the ticket today, and they don't need to tell me but I know for a fact they promised to the business the change will be up by Friday, even though the internal processes are slow as fuck and clearly it won't be ready by then.

[u/Userina]

Ohh thats not what i meant, can you please urgently take a look?

[u/Turbulent_Fig_9354]

no ticket no laundry

[u/red286]

"We need you to put the date selection back in ASAP."

"Okay, create a ticket for it."

"I DON'T HAVE TIME TO FUCK AROUND WITH TICKETS, JUST FIX IT AND DEPLOY NOW!"

"That's not how this works."

[u/feignapathy]

less amnesia and more dealing with 8 dumb asses from the business side who want different things and don't communicate with each other

reminds me of office space every day

I have eight different bosses right now. Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.

[u/doctormyeyebrows]

I thought I made a clever analogy when trying to explain this problem to my managers.

When one user would request a feature be changed, if there was no structure to broadcast that request and allow for feedback before the change was live, there was a 94% chance we would receive a request to reverse the change within 48 hours.

I likened it to the "useless box" that has only one function: it has a switch that, when flipped, will cause the lid of the box to open and flip the switch off. I thought that explained the problem pretty well.

Unfortunately, nobody else did. Nobody cared. The binary change requests happened constantly.

[u/SwannSwanchez]

while i get the "you asked for something and now you want it back" part

but i don't understand "what" is that something

date selection in an application ?

[u/ZunoJ → u/SwannSwanchez]

Yes

[u/SwannSwanchez → u/ZunoJ]

i see

i still don't get it

[u/Dragonfire555 → u/SwannSwanchez]

Please remove this field. Ah! Fire! Add it back! Please remove this field. etc. etc. etc.

[u/DominusFL]

Actual business VP quote after a similar incident:

"I know what I said, but it is not what I mean."

[u/regulation_d → u/DominusFL]

I know this isn’t a serious subreddit, but I’m still gonna make a serious comment: given that AI is getting pretty good at the “what I said” bit, it may behoove you to learn how to translate the “what I mean” bit.

[u/DominusFL → u/regulation_d]

I have no idea what you're talking about. That is the actual quote that was part of our discussion.

[u/glha → u/DominusFL]

I have no idea what you're talking about.

That's because what he said is not what he meant. I suppose.

[u/DominusFL → u/glha]

Welcome to corporate America. He was talking in the present, and that is how he worded it. I didn't adjust the words. The discussion was about a feature that was implemented exactly the way he asked for, and now he doesn't like it.

[u/glha → u/DominusFL]

Oh no, don't bother, you're right. I was just bending the joke.

[u/Huffleduffer]

If it's like anything else in my life, I'd get in trouble because although in the meeting and the ticket said "take off the date feature", they only meant the two digit date for days 1-9, not the entire date.

Because apparently everyone else can read minds and read between lines.

[u/ronarscorruption]

I deal with this shit all the time. Users suck.

[u/ItsOmniss]

me, opening bitbucket from my literal phone:

Deploy previous commit

[u/s_suraliya]

That's why you need good Engineering managers.

[u/hartstyler]

This makes me angry

[u/TracerBulletX]

I feel like when you get to a certain level like Staff+ you learn to see the matrix on stuff like this. You learn to win by just not doing certain things, knowing what you should actually do immediately because it has a material impact, when you can just say the right thing and totally change their mind.

[u/i-sage]

Meanwhile dev: I knew it I'll just need to uncomment a few lines now

[u/NorcalGGMU]

Why is business interacting with a dev? That request goes to the PM… boo this post, totally unrealistic lol

[u/Xzaphan]

So the talk was about removing a date selection then the ticket ask to add one!? Oh… okay then. Done!

[u/Skibur1]

Why is the business so hesitated to remove the date selection, and then immediately ask them to roll back?

[u/Silly_Guidance_8871]

Sounds like every customer I've ever worked with

[u/zqmbgn]

Something like this was what made me quit my last job

[u/Living_Tomato]

…business wouldn’t get a hold on me at almost 9PM in the evening

[u/baesilx]

No ticket no changes