[techtalk] Testing (Was: Re: Technical issues)

[Mary Gardiner]

On Wed, Nov 22, 2000 at 06:36:02AM +0000, jenn at simegen.com wrote:
> Ah .. well, you see, if I've got the luxury of setting my own
> conditions, I'd say 'sorry, we signed off on a spec which didn't include
> that feature. It can go in the next release'.
> 
> Of course, I have that luxury in every single I job I go to .. don't I?
> Yessssssssss..... 
> (no.)

Well the project I'm thinking of is being completed by a group of uni
students in a small business that has explicitly refused them written
specs at all.

The preferred method is that the owner/manager (who isn't a techie) comes
around and says "that doesn't look right, do it this way". This is
problematic for two reasons, one they never get it done, because they
don't have any priorities given to them, and two, the manager isn't that
aware of the difficulty of what he's asking. A "can you do this this
way" can take the website guys half an hour, but cause the C++ programmers
to have to redesign the projects networking features around the new button
(OK, slight exaggeration).

So, technical discussion #2: How do you deal with an immediate superior
who is a non-techie (especially when your pay is low, your top priority is
uni or other reasons why you don't want to be a defacto project manager)?

Mary.

-- 
Mary Gardiner
<mary at creative.net.au>
GPG Key ID: 77625870