Comment Re:Well someone has to do it (Score 3, Informative) 347
IF managers listened to the developers.
My last major project:
Manager: What resources do you need for this project (Replacing a huge, entirely file-based factory product manufacturing system)
ME: At minimum, I need two more people, plus someone to take over most of my smaller duties. And a couple new DB servers.
Manager: How long will this take?
ME: Two years minimum, since we are replacing an entrenched 15 year old system.
Manager's report to director: He can do it by himself in 6 months.
3 months later:
Manager: Why isn't this finished? You started over a year ago!
ME: I started three months ago, you gave me nothing I asked for and you've given me several other projects since then that you said were higher priority.
Manager: Well stop wasting time and get to work! I told the director it would be done by now!
ME: You gave me nothing. At least let me have a CS temp.
Manager: There's a woman in finance who has a sister that might want the job. She knows Excel really well, she can probably learn databases and programming.
Aaaand I think we've all been there.
Fortunately the sister didn't want the job and I got a great college grad as a temp. I would not have finished the project (in two years) without his help, we hired him after a year, too.