An anonymous reader writes: I'm a software engineer for a small company. The development team is composed of only a handful of people, I'm the newest of them. We have a very low turn over rate, the last hire in our dept. has been there for 9 years, and the one before that 22. A 'new' version of our software has been in development for over 8 years, without having an official release version. Ok, that's the meat and potatoes of the story. The conundrum comes in when the boss's boss comes into my office toward the end of the day (after everyone else had left) and asks me if i would have a beer with him sometime after work and discuss my impressions of the company. (I've been there just long enough to get a real feel for the culture and people there). Specifically, he wants to know what i think of the development environment/people and how the culture of it the work place may be affecting the development process (8 years for a 1st official release is ridiculous, so the question is entirely appropriate).
I'm not a very diplomatic person, and I'm aware of that quality in myself. That said, I realize that situations like this usually need to be handled with the utmost diplomacy. I want to be very careful not to burn any bridges, as this is my first job after college, and references are important. At the same time, I see many places where changes in policy/habits/culture could have a positive impact on what we produce and how we get there.
Of course i told the boss's boss i would be happy to sit down and talk with him, but a time/date wasn't set, and I specified that I first wanted to collect my thoughts on the matter.
So my question to all of you, is really about past experiences with similar situations, and any advice you might have to a newbie in the industry.
thanks for reading my post.