On Thu, 2003-03-06 at 19:59, jdow wrote: > When bosses ask one too many times when I am working full speed ahead > on "getting it done as soon as possible" I often answer "Second tuesday > next week." The Ruddy Hatters are welcome to file off the serial number > and make creative software reuse of that phrase if they wish. > > I don't think it would be politic for them to do what I'd sometimes do > when pressured once too often. If I figured a week I'd answer a week. > Then next time asked I'd answer "two weeks". Third time I'd answer > "four weeks'. It once took until "eight weeks" for someone go get the > message, "When it is ready. And not a moment sooner or later."
As a developer myself, I fully understand the frustration s/w engineers feel when pressured for a completion date. HOWEVER, the boss has a business to run and a profit to make This annoying little goal of his (making a profit) requires him to know when things (including release dates) are going to happen. The boss isn't just coming around to try and annoy you for the fun of it. In fact, given the personal attitude of too many s/w developers, he'd rather not have to talk to one at all. S/w developers should keep in mind that it is making commitments and honoring them, regularly; that enables the boss to hand out paychecks, regularly. The s/w developer's life is no different at RedHat. I am quite pleased that the Open Source community seems to have matured somewhat on this point. For example, both FreeBSD and OpenBSD are on fairly rigid release cycles. Even Linus has been more methodical with the release of the upcoming 2.6 kernel after having suffered through the chaos of the 2.4 release. I just felt the need for a little counterpoint, Ray -- Raymond Lillard <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Product Systems, Inc. -- Phoebe-list mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] https://listman.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/phoebe-list
