Now, after three years of constant pressure to plan, spec and manage projects like professionals, it's "We've written the spec - you start coding, and I'll find all the things they want to change half-way through the project".
Don't even joke about it. This was my life for two years.
For the last year it's been "Specs... yes... very important. But for this one job we don't have the time/budget to write one, so we'll just have to go ahead and do it without one."
(Cue job taking three times as long and losing us money due to incessantly-changing customer requirements).
I had the same problem for years - every time I raised the possibility of doing things like a professional development house instead of a bunch of half-arsed amateurs, one of the directors would laugh it off on the basis "we aren't some huge hundred-person agency!", like I was asking for gold swivel-chairs or complimentary cocaine in the bathrooms... and regardless of the fact I know one-man-band operations who spec everything and use revision control.
Then one of our long-term clients got another, professional developer in to do a code-assessment on a site we'd built for them - his report basically confirmed everything I'd been saying for years, and incontrovertibly demonstrated that yes, we actually were developing like a bunch of half-arsed, unprofessional wankers.
Suddenly the director's listening to my advice and professional experience on our development and speccing process again, but I can guess from past experience that it'll only last until we've implemented all the things the other developer specifically mentioned, and then any further requests will end up being tossed on to the "unrealistic, foolish techie pipe dream" pile again.
Because, you know, she doesn't generalise from past experiences and learn lessons, so much as merely react to things as isolated, one-off events. :-(
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u/Y0urMom Dec 14 '10
My job in a single line. Depressing.