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FruitBatInShades wrote:
studying application design and the software development process is a requirement for a sucessful department
Sure - but it is not the project manager who is supposed to do this things. There are people whose expertise is SW architecture, just as there are people whose expertise is drawing marketing flyers using photoshop.
The manager only has to rely on the judgement of his experts.
Who is 'General Failure'? And why is he reading my harddisk?!?
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My boss is my partner.
He is holding 90% of the share of the company stocks
while I hold the remaining 10%.
He has zero programming experience. He is, at best,
a semi-power user for Windows.
As a result, we write programs that are simpler to use
than your typical WIN32 app.
He is extremly picky about the graphic user interface.
His role is mostly "the visionary" man behind the product line.
I find it difficult at times to explain to him that I can do
almost anything, given enough time. He seems to take it.
When he wants a feature to be done "this way" and it make hell
for me, I usually give him a counter proposal.
Our system is growing better and better all the time.
I am the expert in technology, He is the expert in the industry
field that is our target pool of customers. (Access control systems)
I find that even if we have a few heated arguments from time to time,
we end up with what looks like a success story.
I still have difficulties with the improvised project management
going on.
I must say that I am the last surviving programmer in my shop.
Too bad, because I am now stuck with 4 job descriptions:
(1) Win32 application developper (huge application there, 5.5 mb executable size)
(2) Firmware developper on a Motorola ColdFire embedded application for one type of microcontroller. (The core of the actual system), compiling at just over 200 KB, and
belive me, it's a huge app, w/o fat library or operating system overheads)
(3) Firmware developper on a bunch of PIC Micro accessory devices. Again, these devices are a huge importance in the whole. 
(4) Finally, I oversee some work contracted out to a local hardware development team. I supply technical specifications and they do some of the low level embedded stuff. I must say that they only work on newer stuff, they will not help with any of the above.
I am afraid my brains will blow up. 
I have been managing the 1st part for over 1 year.
6 months ago, I took over the 2nd part, and it actually helps, belive it or not.
This week, I am taking over the PIC stuff. This is going to hurt.
So, I am paryly my own boss and luckyly, it seems to work for now.
My boss has zero experience in programming and I only wish that he could
share my uneasyness at working on too many types of projects on too many
platforms all the time.
Am I paranoiac or am I underestimating my abilities ?
Should I speak to a doctor or is this forum an appropriate place
for this sort of rambling ?
Am I on topic or what ?
Bamaco
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You'll break at some point. Throttle back.
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Should I speak to a doctor or is this forum an appropriate place
for this sort of rambling ?
No, you need one more man who can share your pain/load.
Hire me!!![Rose | [Rose]](https://www.codeproject.com/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
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That may not be a bad idea!
We are located in Laval, Quebec, Canada.
Where are you located.
C.V.'s anyone ?
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If it's about C++, I'm in!
Florin Crisan
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C++ for 2 out of 3 projects.
8 bit assembler for the PIC microchip project
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So should I send a CV or were you just pulling our legs?
Florin Crisan
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I had a simular job description for almost 13 years (IF IT INVOLVED PROGRAMMING - I DID IT)!
You need some one else to work with, because the number of job desciptions are going to increase. Oh, your ability to get things done quickly will increase, provided you can concentrate on one task long enough.
The future:
Day 1: You go into the office and believe you will be finish with the current project today. You are inform that a customer wants a new feature added to some software (you wrote). This is an important custormer, so the job needs to be done quickly (preferably today). Oh and there is a bug in the firmware that also needs to be fixed. Ok! Ok! A few hours go by and there is some other project that needs your attention. And when is that project you have been working on going to be finished! Arrrg! You are now modifying: (1) an old-VB application (you never wanted to write in the first place), (2) an old-C program, (3) an MFC application, (4) and the firmware for one of your companies projects.
And you thought this was going to be simple day! Of cource it isn't, it cann't be, it goes against nature. You see the problem is that you are almost finished with a project you liked working on; therefore, naturely, you must stop and work on other things until you forget what (damn I forgot). (keep lots of notes)
Sorry, that was just one of my bad days!
Sooner or later you need to get someone to work with, or you'll probably need that doctor.
INTP
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Yes, it's true: I need to take tons of notes. (I keep a huge txt file for each project)
Your description fits pretty well most of the days I have encountered last week.
I my case,
(1) I had to fiddle around with a "card writing application" (something that interfaces a smart card connected to the PC through a RS-232 to RS-485 adaptor)
(2) Fix a firmware bug for a portion of the program I did not even write, originally, so it meant going through the code and inserting a bunch of comments and all that.
(3) Add a couple of feature to please an important customer. Our company had made a mistake (not my fault this time, something to do with glue between glass and metal that did not hold and a delivery man almost getting scalped as a result) so I wanted to please that client and add the features right away.
(4) Then there was this client, who had an installation a few months ago that needed upgrade. Some of the firmware that I did not work on was not up to date, and the update procedure for that firmware was hellish, to say the least. So I went on to upgrade the firmware for that client (on a saturday morning)
Ok, I need help. I just hope that my partner can see the wisedom in hiring such help right now! (He will see it, I just hope that he is ready to pay for it. He takes care of finances and sales and I take care of technology)
This reminds me of the old chineese curse:
"may your life be interesting"
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I've known and worked with my current boss on and off since 1980. His last significant software effort was from the early '90's, and was in C. He has no major Windows, GUI, C++, .NET, Java, or other experience.
All that aside, he's still a good guy to work for. He realizes that he doesn't necessarily understand the nuts and bolts of what we are doing, and relies on his team to tell him what he needs to know. Where he excels is in understanding our 'problem space' and in dealing with the rest of the corporate hierarchy.
Given a choice, that's what I prefer in a manager. Someone well-versed enough in software development to at least understand the implications of what they commit their people to, yet they're not such a 'jock' that they hang over your shoulder and micromanage.
Software Zen: delete this;
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Of the software dev managers here, there is a pretty good mix. Some are programmers (and still program when they need to!), others may have better personal experience but are not necessarily technical. My immediate boss is moderately technical - I think she may have programmed long ago but doesn't on a regular basis. She does (with our permission, of course ) tinker with some quasi-programming stuff, like XML UI scripts and stuff.
There are a lot of engineers in upper management, not a lot of true software programmers, but at most are technical in some way. (at least the ones in charge of software development.)
No single raindrop believes that it is responsible for the flood.
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20 years ago (or so), my boss decided to write the software on which our company is now based. After a few days or weeks of trying, he realized that he couldn't do it, so he hired a programmer. I think this has a good effect on his management, since he knows that the job isn't "magic" and takes a lot of work. However, it also means that he doesn't understand it well enough to judge time, so we sometimes end up selling things that haven't been written yet...
John
"You said a whole sentence with no words in it, and I understood you!" -- my wife as she cries about slowly becoming a geek.
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we sometimes end up selling things that haven't been written yet...
I thought Enron is closed!![Rose | [Rose]](https://codeproject.freetls.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/rose.gif)
Your boss must be good, really good.
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Well, it's not exactly what it may sound like. We sell directly to the clients, and perform the installs ourselves by taking scheduled trips to the client site. Since there is a built-in delay there, he "can" sell the extra feature (or whatever) and then make us programmers put it together before they install it (the next week). Sometimes it actually ends up working, but I am totally convinced that it's never a good idea. (Particularly, because there is always a few bugs in a new piece of software that has been written in a couple days and never even thought of before then.)
John
"You said a whole sentence with no words in it, and I understood you!" -- my wife as she cries about slowly becoming a geek.
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Ah, the Beauty of Vaporware.
This can be a powerful marketing strategy. If you sell first and code up only what sells, you avoid coding products that never generate revenue. Too often companies code up a product and then go out and see if anybody wants it.
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A company I worked for once sold some hardware that I did not even know existed yet. And guess what? There was no (PC) software to run it. Why? How can I write software for some thing I didn't know about.
INTP
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That's not too bad, then. My boss has just sold a system to 50 customers that I haven't even written the first line of code for. (Mainly because he keeps telling me to do other things first, as they have "priority").
I estimate the system will take about 3 months to build (and we all know us programmers tend to be overly optimistic about development times).
It's due to be implemented January 5th. My vacation started today and lasts until January 4th. Hmmm... do you see a problem somewhere? My boss sure doesn't...
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John
"You said a whole sentence with no words in it, and I understood you!" -- my wife as she cries about slowly becoming a geek.
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The best PM I ever worked for had a ton of programming experience. He knew what problems we, the programmers, faced daily. And he never once put any kind of unrealistic pressure on any of us. Whenever sales and marketing came along, he happily sat down with them and was the perfect shield for us. He always had a plan for anything that came up. One of the saddest days of my working life was when I left that group, because I've never worked for such a boss ever again. Thanks Duane, where ever you are right now. 
Chris Meech
It's much easier to get rich telling people what they want to hear. Chistopher Duncan
I can't help getting older, but I refuse to grow up. Roger Wright
I've been meaning to change my sig. Thanks! Alvaro Mendez
We're more like a hobbiest in a Home Depot drooling at all the shiny power tools, rather than a craftsman that makes the chair to an exacting level of comfort by measuring the customer's butt. Marc Clifton
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I Agree with you, I had bosses with a lot of experience and others with zero experience, And I prefer the firsts one.
At this moment I am the boss and I enjoy when the people listen and learnt to me.
But I saw other kind of boss the person Who believes to Know a lot but he knows nothing.....
I hate that kind of people....
Carlos Antollini
Do you know piFive[^] ?
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I had a bad experience with my last company. My immediate boss was network technician that was responsible for the IT department. Problem was he was overpaid and under skilled and he knew it.
I used to get briefs that consisted of 10 lines on a piece of paper. constant 'impossible features' and deadlines that speedy gonzalis on speed couldn't do.
The final breaker was that I was told to add a 'feature' to a databse application I was writing. They were editing an address list against adressing software and they wanted any un-edited data to be left as is, not cleared. I sent memo's, emails and documents saying this will corrupt the data, but no-one listened and I was forced to add it.
After 3 months they realised the data was screwed and guess who got the blame. ME. All the emails and digital memos had mysteriously disapeared, the documents had been 'misplaced'.
I had the forethought to keep an audit trail with markers that told me what had been changed and exported a 90% correct version, but they didn't believe me and redid the data by hand.
My boss sh*$ted me to cover his own butt! I left the industry after this and have not gone back. I still code for myself and have written a few apps for people but I do it as a hobby now.
One day the industry will learn that good software takes time to produce and employ managers who actually understand the software development process. Until then programmers will be forced to produce sub standard work due to unrealistic time scales, bad specs and people promising the impossible.
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FruitBatInShades wrote:
My boss sh*$ted me to cover his own butt! I left the industry after this and have not gone back
Hey man, I feel ur pain.
But U shouldn't have quit the industry.
I once had a similar experince like Urs, I left the firm for another one. Today, I'm happier
What would life be without programmers and salesmen?
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Or spell checkers......ur..U...Urs....do we really need to propagate this stupidity?
Can't you type? Can't you spell? I'm the Chief Architect for a very successful company, but when I see messages or resume's like this, I just throw it away. Kindof like "Can't write a message or email, probably can't code worth a crap". Just a heads up to you young pups.
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DeeWorld wrote:
Can't you type? Can't you spell?
Sorry old man;P I was just tryin 2 help. Typing any other thing apart from codes can be boring at times.
DeeWorld wrote:
I'm the Chief Architect for a very successful company
I'm happy 2 know u're still in the Industry somehow. We still need guys like u around. Goodluck!
What would life be without programmers and salesmen?
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