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Boiled Water posted:Mission accomplished: you will never close anything, tickets closed will go straight to zero yeah, last year I closed ~1000 bugs in tfs with code fixes for like ~1550. clearly the problem with our process is that there aren't enough fields in the bug tracker. Oh, the best part - let's make them mandatory fields, but make it so if you don't fill out the fields correctly the first time, the bug can never be saved. Let's not talk about workflow, or how certain fields are only valid in certain bug states, or how you can't just move a bug to closed or such and such arbitrary state, you have to change it to the mandated state (e.g. if a bug is active, you can't' just reassign it to yourself, you need to change it to fixed. then deployed, then reassign it to a tester, then mark it 'active' again, then mark yourself as a developer.) right now I am actively trying to get laid off because I hear it's six months pay and a bonus. I swear to god it wasn't even this retarded two years ago.
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Jul 16, 2018 14:54
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Bruegels Fuckbooks posted:yeah, last year I closed ~1000 bugs in tfs with code fixes for like ~1550. clearly the problem with our process is that there aren't enough fields in the bug tracker. Oh, the best part - let's make them mandatory fields, but make it so if you don't fill out the fields correctly the first time, the bug can never be saved. Let's not talk about workflow, or how certain fields are only valid in certain bug states, or how you can't just move a bug to closed or such and such arbitrary state, you have to change it to the mandated state (e.g. if a bug is active, you can't' just reassign it to yourself, you need to change it to fixed. then deployed, then reassign it to a tester, then mark it 'active' again, then mark yourself as a developer.) I see this all the time. It's a huge red flag for dysfunction, because it tells you that no one is talking.
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Jul 16, 2018 14:57
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Hello thread, I could use some help. I am a former academic and self-taught programmer. I am (currently) the only tech guy in a pre-MVP sports data startup. Despite our early stage we have received investor interest and suddenly the scope of our product has massively grown. Instead of just building something myself, I now expect to be leading a team of 10 developers within the next 6 months. Having never worked in development outside academia, I obviously have a lot to learn. But I also have an opportunity to implement a process from scratch. I'm learning a lot just reading this thread (although I haven't caught up yet) but I thought I'd skip to the end and ask if anyone has any resources they would recommend. There's also the specific issue of coming up with development plans that satisfy our investors. They want to see a level of detail that is incongruous with agile as I understand it (e.g. mapping out the sprints for a year). I'll do that if I have to, emphasizing as much I can that these our forecasts not commitments. But I was wondering if anyone could suggest other ways of planning for development that would be more productive/realistic while also showing that I've put serious thought into the whole process.
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Jul 16, 2018 17:42
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Hello thread, I could use some help. 
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Jul 16, 2018 19:01
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Jul 16, 2018 19:02
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gently caress, I know.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:04
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Hello thread, I could use some help. your actual next task is to find a new cto to replace you and to do most the hiring you want somebody who's been in startupland for a long time and comes with drat good references, cuz gently caress if you know enough to grill them on technical stuff this is compounded by the fact that your investors suck balls and you need to tell em to pound sand on the forecasts
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Jul 16, 2018 19:06
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Plan out the first month, then extend that timeline to a year. Are the investors ok with that? If so, you might come out of this alive.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:07
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SurgicalOntologist posted:There's also the specific issue of coming up with development plans that satisfy our investors. They want to see a level of detail that is incongruous with agile as I understand it (e.g. mapping out the sprints for a year). I'll do that if I have to, emphasizing as much I can that these our forecasts not commitments. But I was wondering if anyone could suggest other ways of planning for development that would be more productive/realistic while also showing that I've put serious thought into the whole process. Man, I used to have a list of things people tend to forget about when they plan out their work, but I have lost it. It had come out of a fairly-popular book about software project planning. Anyways, my suggestion would have been to start to drum up a naive plan and then factor in that list of gotchas. It would include things like: Having to do demos Data migration Ordering and working with new hardware Testing out and trying new software frameworks Paying technical debt Situations where you have to interact with outside people; due to the communication overhead you have to draw out those activities because the turnaround will usually be long Deployment Ramping new people in general as well as on specific activities
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Jul 16, 2018 19:19
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Engineers should be honest. We have to be, because we're the ones who have to deal with the reality of implementation. Computers in particular are too stupid to deceive, so only truthfulness can get anything done. The investors want someone who will lie to them - and I stress that any attempt to forecast the timeline of an immature project farther than a few weeks is a lie - and you are going to set yourself up for abuse if you agree to become that person. But the trick is that they don't really want lies. What they want is a feeling that you've got a plan, you're taking it seriously, you're not just snowing them, and they're used to getting those reassurances in the form of promises. You can try to give that to them in an honest way by quantifying your uncertainty.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:34
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baquerd posted:Plan out the first month, then extend that timeline to a year. Are the investors ok with that? If so, you might come out of this alive. All deadlines are arbitrary. The investors will have to deal and you should push back.
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Jul 16, 2018 19:45
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Rocko Bonaparte posted:Man, I used to have a list of things people tend to forget about when they plan out their work, but I have lost it. It had come out of a fairly-popular book about software project planning. Anyways, my suggestion would have been to start to drum up a naive plan and then factor in that list of gotchas. It would include things like: And then, after you account for all of these factors (and probably more), triple your time estimate before sharing it with anyone. It will always, always always take massively longer than you think, even when you account for all the extra crap most people forget or gloss over.
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Jul 16, 2018 20:04
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Also, when you say you don't have an MVP, does that mean you don't have a demo-able product ready to sell, or does that mean that your software doesn't exist in a way that an outsider could even try to use? If it's the latter, your absolute first priority (after hiring someone to replace you as CTO) should be to get your software up and running somewhere that others can see and use. Doesn't matter what state it's in so long as someone can visit and login. I'm debating whether or not "logging in" should even be required (depends on your product, honestly). The important aspect is that you work out the kinks in your deployment pipeline first, and develop features later.
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Jul 16, 2018 21:01
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Thanks, everyone.vonnegutt posted:Also, when you say you don't have an MVP, does that mean you don't have a demo-able product ready to sell, or does that mean that your software doesn't exist in a way that an outsider could even try to use? If it's the latter, your absolute first priority (after hiring someone to replace you as CTO) should be to get your software up and running somewhere that others can see and use. It's closer to the former, but really somewhere in-between. Short story is that I developed some unique sports analytics algorithms. I've made several dashboard interfaces as demos. My co-founder has industry connections, showed them to some people, and got incredibly positive feedback. Almost everyone we talked to wanted to give us money as an investor or customer. However, in order to sell the product in this market we need not only data analytics but also data collection (machine vision). Which is certainly doable but we're essentially starting from zero on this aspect of the product. I mean, we've done a lot of research and we have a couple of advisors who are experts in this area. One of them is bringing in proofs of concept of some of the steps involved but we have a ways to go to piece it all together, link it up with the analytics, make an attractive frontend, etc. So, I guess we have some demos, but we don't have anything that could be called a "deployment pipeline". Bongo Bill posted:But the trick is that they don't really want lies. What they want is a feeling that you've got a plan, you're taking it seriously, you're not just snowing them, and they're used to getting those reassurances in the form of promises. You can try to give that to them in an honest way by quantifying your uncertainty. Yeah, this is how I've understood the situation. They asked for a detailed account of what the engineers will be working on because they don't know what else to ask for. My push-back got a mixed response; I think they get it, but for them to be satisfied I need to show them something else. All the planning I've done is engineering-heavy (e.g. data flow diagrams), now I need to do more process-oriented planning. Which is why I'm here. Quantifying uncertainty makes sense--are there any established techniques or resources that you would recommend? Rocko Bonaparte posted:Man, I used to have a list of things people tend to forget about when they plan out their work, but I have lost it. It had come out of a fairly-popular book about software project planning. Anyways, my suggestion would have been to start to drum up a naive plan and then factor in that list of gotchas. It would include things like: Thanks for the list. bob dobbs is dead posted:your actual next task is to find a new cto to replace you and to do most the hiring Yeah, I've already been pushing for a new CTO but my co-founder is reluctant to admit any inadequacy of the founding team. It still could happen but I have to plan for the possibility that it won't. My current plan is to hire two experienced team leaders ASAP and then redo much of the planning with them, give them control over hiring, etc. I'll have to strike the right balance between competence and humility, but we've got the money to offer a real salary, we're in a sexy industry, and we have some big names as early investors, so we should be able to find some talent. In the meantime I still have time to cram as much learning as possible into the next few months while the pieces fall into place. If anyone has recommendations for books, tools, etc. that would be appreciated. I'll just say that I know I'm unprepared. I know that this will be difficult and will not go as planned. I know that despite all that I'm surely underestimating the difficulty. I'm not some startup bro that thinks they can do anything because everyone tells me I'm smart. I'm humble and cautious, to a fault. I hope that this awareness will help in some small way or at least provide the opportunity to mitigate the problems we'll face by preparing in the meantime. This thing has just grown and grown. I've been riding the brakes the whole way, but I can't stop the momentum. I guess PM me if anyone is generous enough with their time to have an in-depth conversation. Or if I haven't scared you off....we're hiring. 
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Jul 16, 2018 23:02
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Bongo Bill posted:The investors want someone who will lie to them - and I stress that any attempt to forecast the timeline of an immature project farther than a few weeks is a lie - and you are going to set yourself up for abuse if you agree to become that person. That reminds me, we gave a week-to-week plan for the next year and a half recently, on something that is in the process of being actively researched 
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Jul 17, 2018 08:31
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SurgicalOntologist posted:.
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Jul 17, 2018 17:50
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Weve got a new member of our team! Shes a newbie engineer who is currently learning Ruby and getting used to working in development...Im making sure to keep an eye on her, but Im worried about a newbie junior coming into our project and getting overwhelmed, especially as their first job/exposure to development. Ive been a newbie myself and its super tough. What can I do to help a newbie besides talk to them, make sure theyre involved, and give them time and space to grow? Im worried that the managers/C-levels are going to be like shes not productive enough, get rid of her and completely fail to understand the point of signing on a junior or newbie.
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Jul 17, 2018 17:57
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Pollyanna posted:Weve got a new member of our team! Shes a newbie engineer who is currently learning Ruby and getting used to working in development...Im making sure to keep an eye on her, but Im worried about a newbie junior coming into our project and getting overwhelmed, especially as their first job/exposure to development. Ive been a newbie myself and its super tough. What can I do to help a newbie besides talk to them, make sure theyre involved, and give them time and space to grow? Im worried that the managers/C-levels are going to be like shes not productive enough, get rid of her and completely fail to understand the point of signing on a junior or newbie. Are you her manager or team lead? If not, all you can do is make sure she knows you're available to help and mentor her. If her manager has unrealistic expectations, there is literally nothing you can do about it.
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Jul 17, 2018 19:10
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Pollyanna posted:Weve got a new member of our team! Shes a newbie engineer who is currently learning Ruby and getting used to working in development...Im making sure to keep an eye on her, but Im worried about a newbie junior coming into our project and getting overwhelmed, especially as their first job/exposure to development. Ive been a newbie myself and its super tough. What can I do to help a newbie besides talk to them, make sure theyre involved, and give them time and space to grow? Im worried that the managers/C-levels are going to be like shes not productive enough, get rid of her and completely fail to understand the point of signing on a junior or newbie. When we got a newb at my last job, I had only been there 6 months so was still new to it myself. I spent time sharing my experiences with getting things up to speed and helping guide her away from some of the most tedius work by pointing her to the updated team docs I had written/updated as I went through those pains. That really helped bring her up to speed with our entire development process, but also our team/manager knew not to give her any big tasks the first few months she was there. I actually got lots of positive feedback from my manager saying that the team had noticed and appreciated the time and effort I spent on mentoring her and how fast she was able to dive right in compared to previous new hires.
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Jul 17, 2018 19:21
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Hello thread, I could use some help. Also remember that VCs tend to promise you money and seem interested, but you won't see a dime until you have paying customers and success is pretty much guaranteed. So if that cash isn't in the bank already, don't get too excited about it.
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Jul 17, 2018 20:07
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Lumpy posted:Also remember that VCs tend to promise you money and seem interested, but you won't see a dime until you have paying customers and success is pretty much guaranteed. So if that cash isn't in the bank already, don't get too excited about it. you could also be a kid from stanford or harvard or sometimes some berkeley eecs kids
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Jul 17, 2018 20:13
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bob dobbs is dead posted:you could also be a kid from stanford or harvard or sometimes some berkeley eecs kids I am unable to parse the sentence in relation to my post... what does it mean?
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Jul 17, 2018 20:40
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Well-connected kids at good schools can sometimes get insane amounts of money just thrown at them for impossible projects, cf Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos.
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Jul 17, 2018 20:46
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a foolish pianist posted:Well-connected kids at good schools can sometimes get insane amounts of money just thrown at them for impossible projects, cf Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. Ahh, thank you.
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Jul 17, 2018 20:47
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First round is in the bank and they're already leading a push for more. Yeah, it doesn't jive with everything I know about startups and I was skeptical through the whole process that it would really happen. But here we are. Not sure exactly but I imagine the incongruity with typical VC behavior has to do with the fact that we're not in the US. Startup culture seems to be about a decade behind here. We're well-connected in the industry but not at all with the SV world.
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Jul 17, 2018 22:22
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a foolish pianist posted:Well-connected kids at good schools can sometimes get insane amounts of money just thrown at them for impossible projects, cf Elizabeth Holmes and Theranos. not even that well-connected, tbh. lots of seed vc's who see a stanford name and look twice at your application, even if it comes in the slush pile
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Jul 17, 2018 22:28
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There's a(t least one) VC who set up shop across the street from stanford. They hire attractive recent grads to go network at events and grab startups before they graduate/drop out. The "well-connected" bar is "are you leaving your dorm"
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Jul 17, 2018 22:31
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I just realized I took a technical writing class in college and they didn't teach TeX. Is that weird? Because I'm teaching myself TeX right now and I'm not sure I could ever look back.
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Jul 18, 2018 14:57
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TeX is not very big outside math-heavy academic writing.
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Jul 18, 2018 15:09
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SardonicTyrant posted:I just realized I took a technical writing class in college and they didn't teach TeX. Is that weird? Because I'm teaching myself TeX right now and I'm not sure I could ever look back. Paolomania posted:TeX is not very big outside math-heavy academic writing. also I thought technical writing was more about what you put in the document rather than how you put it in
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Jul 18, 2018 15:11
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Yeah, most people aren't super big on opaque, difficult languages that have to be compiled seven or eight times in a row to finally converge on the right output formatting
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Jul 18, 2018 15:11
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I think we've spoken before about red flags in job postings in this thread (or one of the very similar other ones  ) and I saw on Twitter what I think may be the worst job posting in the world.Behold!   There's so many red flags that it could be an example post to people getting in the industry 
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Jul 18, 2018 16:06
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SurgicalOntologist posted:Despite our early stage we have received investor interest and suddenly the scope of our product has massively grown. 
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Jul 18, 2018 16:11
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JawnV6 posted:There's a(t least one) VC who set up shop across the street from stanford. They hire attractive recent grads to go network at events and grab startups before they graduate/drop out. The "well-connected" bar is "are you leaving your dorm" Sand hill road is across the street from the Stanford golf course A plurality of all major vc is across the road from Stanford. Maybe a mile down the road bob dobbs is dead fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Jul 18, 2018 |
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Jul 18, 2018 16:14
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Shirec posted:I think we've spoken before about red flags in job postings in this thread (or one of the very similar other ones That's... unedited?
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Jul 18, 2018 16:30
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Munkeymon posted:That's... unedited? Straight from a LinkedIn job posting https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/make-it-rain-cloud-consultant-platform-architect-at-mongoose-gray-622156586/
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Jul 18, 2018 16:34
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That was REALLY hard to read. At least the pay wasn't $50k or something. I'm so used to seeing ridiculously stupid job ads followed by ridiculously stupid salary.
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Jul 18, 2018 16:34
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Shirec posted:I think we've spoken before about red flags in job postings in this thread (or one of the very similar other ones  I cant even
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Jul 18, 2018 16:36
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The most shocking thing is the salary in AUD, implying that this bullshit has made its way outside of Silicon Valley
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Jul 18, 2018 17:36
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BabyFur Denny posted:The most shocking thing is the salary in AUD, implying that this bullshit has made its way outside of Silicon Valley Every tech sector in every country is doing this poo poo. When I interviewed at a Munich startup it was for a Ninja Devops position :/
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Jul 18, 2018 18:17
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