/rant I'm a software developer. I just released an update. The changes that I did work. The bits that another developer did don't - after the 3rd flipping attempt at fixing an issue! Is it me? It's really not difficult to actually test your changes. Grrr! /rantover
I wouldn't mind but it makes ME look bad because I released the update. I'd have tested it myself if I'd known it was in there
You released it. You could have checked it first or at least been given proof it worked. You didnt. You share responsibility. But usually its just a case of producing a working tested release and getting that out too. . They made me drive to the PCB assembly house and reprogram several hundred PCBs once when I released unchecked code by mistake.
There is supposed to be. However there is no dedicated release manager at my company, so it's up to the developers to keep track of the changes and let the QC testers know. Some are more diligent than others Tbh, when a better job crops up on the market I'll be applying. I think I've about had enough of the slapdash approach and being undermined by the people in charge when you try to set some standards. It's a pain that every company seems to go through after years of employing contractors before getting a permanent workforce, who then discover what a pile of **** the source code is. If you haven't got the buy-in of the software managers to improve standards (and I'm talking about "walking the walk", not just producing "death by Powerpoint" presentations about how important quality is!) then there's no light at the end of the tunnel. I've been doing this job long enough to recognise a no-win situation Still, it's better than the abusive managers/blame culture I used to work for...
Well that's the thing. I only found out about it after release when the QC chap and the business analyst told me it still didn't work. I wasn't aware of it. It does nothing for my reputation, hence the rant And I am one of the developers, who happened to volunteer to do the release after office hours
If anyone needs a full Microsoft stack developer with over 20 years experience in the Leicester area... Rant really is over now!
Ooh, I could go on about this all day Sounds like you've got your head screwed on. Unfortunately, unless there's some commercial impact of bug-ridden code, nothing's likely to change unless someone evangelises this stuff and is listened to, preferably someone who's been at the sharp end. As you say, bleating about quality does nothing unless there're concrete proposals in place as to how you're going to do it. Becoming procedure-bound only makes sense if the procedures achieve something. My previous company X put releases out that pulled together the work of, say, 100 - 150 engineers across different functional areas. The builds were huge. If the tools weren't in place to control that kind of stuff, and maintain visibility of what was in a release, it would've been chaos. We used to have dedicated build leads, robust archiving, build scripting that would pull in agreed fixes from the bug database, then semi-automated regression testing across all hardware platforms it would run on. Only then would it go out the door. The driver to improve things came from the commercial impact of cocking things up, which could be severe. Still managed to balls things up from time to time, tho' PS Microsoft? Meh. Not really where the excitement is these days. Do something else
Angry part first. Forgive me for saying so, but this is completely stupid. Developers strengths generally do not lie in responsibility and conscientiousness... I never hired a developer because they knew how to track stuff in Excel. Ok, remember your training... For what it's worth: I'm actually a Release Manager, though I've done a lot of other things before including system engineering, development, and managing teams of devs. I understand your pain, I've been through it too, but you really should try to disassociate your emotions from your work somewhat, especially once you leave the 'office' (which may be at home these days)... it will drive you to alcoholism (hey aren't you drinking right now? ) Anyway - if the company you work for is frustrating you and talking about it with your manager bears no fruit, then you need to chalk it up and move on. Even in times like this, good developers are hard to find, and life is too short. Find something you love with people you like to work with. Q. How's your C++ and have you any experience in games development?
Not really. I'm more of a C#, SQL, API, microservices, web developer. I used to do a lot of VB too, although that's luckily fading into history now. I used to quite like a bit of embedded assembly programming back in the day
That's definitely on the TODO list now that lockdown/furlough is easing up. I did have a chat with the IT director about my concerns several months ago, and it's not something I'm likely to put myself through again in a hurry. There's none so deaf as those that won't listen!
I completely agree with you. However having been a lead developer in my last job (with a major FTSE 100 company) I regard my role as slightly above a normal code monkey (a term I have frequently use for myself by the way, no disrespect to anyone else ) and why quality is important to me. It's frustrating to watch people make the same mistakes
I asked cos I know of a games dev house which is hiring, but will take experienced people only. My place, we do embedded C++ and Asm (Arm) mostly. Today we got told 20% of our entire site is being let go. I'll find out tomorrow if I'm on that list. All of us are quite indispensable to the project we're currently working on (a specialised industry) but they're still prepared to cut good people and lose those skills and knowledge forever for the sake of a few months downturn... If they cut me tomorrow I won't care, but I'll be sad to say goodbye to some really great people. Sorry. This isn't about me. Quality is everything, what's frustrating to me is the refusal for a lot of people I work for that talk it, but don't care about it when they realise it costs a dollar figure. They never seem to realise the cost associated with bad quality because that's on another balance sheet and they never go there.
