Through The Meat Grinder

I've been going through the meat grinder at work lately. I'm on a project that my direct manager calls a "death march." There are no requirements, and there won't be any requirements. The software engineers - that's me - have to make assumptions about how we think the Web application might sorta need to work, and then hear that maybe we got it right, maybe we got it wrong.

And we hear from some management grumbling about whether the team is staying long enough at night to get the project completed in time for its fixed January 1 launch and maybe holiday time off should be cancelled. It's one thing to know that your hard work is not appreciated, quite another to hear of it vocalized outright, even secondhand.

I don't mean to sound bitter. Generally, I like my job very much. But I think it shows a degree of disrespect to professional software developers to constantly and nebulously add to and define requirements and demand that the development staff react without moving the dates.

This is so not the way to do things.

Comments

[Bill]

You have my sincere sympathy.
I'm an embedded systems developer, and I'm in the middle of one of 'those' projects also.
Despite claiming to be an ISO-9002 compliant company, I've been told to 'do what it takes to make the demo' so many times now, I'm ready to scream!
Design by demo - how to guarantee disgruntled staff.
Bill