NOT happy about this...My opinion shot down again

[mjr]

Ok, as many of you know, I work as a software developer.

Well, we also use an Agile methodology when developing our software.

Well, today, another of my opinions was shot down, because to paraphrase "It's not what the business wants".

Well, guess what: What the business wants isn't always the best solution! My solution has less redundancy, and met the requirements better than what was originally proposed! And it was cleaner! I was told, "yours is not to judge...", to which I replied, "I'm simply offering my opinion of what I think is a better solution."

But no, the PM thinks that my solution would make things "too crowded" in one column.

I should have really asked why "the business" wants it that way.

I kept my cool in the meeting, but man am I steamed about this.

It makes me want to stop speaking up.

[notalwaysright]

Last year, at the local Linux Fest I attended a session on Agile, it seemed very interesting.

Are you ideas consistently shut down, because that would be annoying. And from what I remember, not in line with Agile.

[mjr]

Last year, at the local Linux Fest I attended a session on Agile, it seemed very interesting.

Are you ideas consistently shut down, because that would be annoying. And from what I remember, not in line with Agile.

I've had a couple shut down before.

But I think in this case, the Product Manager should have at least taken the suggestion back to "the business" and presented it as "Here's a suggestion one of our developers made..."

And then if they didn't like it, explain why instead of the way things went.

I have a feeling at some point they're not going to like the way that they want it, and want to eventually change it to my suggestion.

I may try to plant the idea in the Architect's head that it's a bad idea, and let him fight that battle for me. If I can show him that what they're wanting is a poor design, maybe he'll side with me and get them to change it.

[mjr]

I ran this situation past a colleague of mine. I've known him for several years, he's a very bright guy, and always has some good insight for me. This is what he told me:

Most people are apathetic and lazy, and that drives almost all of their behavior. Your PM doesn't want to go back to the business and just wants to sit at his desk until it's time to go home and have a beer. So your motivation, which is to increase the value of your deliverable by applying good data representation techniques to the problem, is 180 degrees at odds with his motivation, which is getting to the beer part.

I suppose if I was in your position, I would start forming relationships with the business contacts so that I could work the issues in the background. It probably wouldn't help this time, but it would help in the future.

After several thousand idiotic decisions on the part of my bosses, years ago, I decided I wanted to be the boss. That was my primary initial motivation to seek a leadership position - because I was tired of following idiots. Now I have other reasons that I like leadership positions.

[notalwaysright]

Most people are apathetic and lazy, and that drives almost all of their behavior. Your PM doesn't want to go back to the business and just wants to sit at his desk until it's time to go home and have a beer. So your motivation, which is to increase the value of your deliverable by applying good data representation techniques to the problem, is 180 degrees at odds with his motivation, which is getting to the beer part.

Heh, true. Though I'm both sides of that, which doesn't make sense. I'm lazy. Because I'm lazy I want to do something only once. To accomplish this I want to do things correctly the first time instead of doing it crappy and having to re-do it. My apartment is organized because I hate searching for stuff I lost. My current job sucks for this mentality because hard work gets me absolutely nowhere. Still, there is a thing called work ethic, and if a person has it they will at least try not to suck too badly.

If the company indeed changes its mind and you have to do more work, I'd feel so tempted to call your boss out on it. Not that he'll see he made a mistake. He'll probably just shrug it off like "whatever, I was just doing what they asked for."

[mjr]

If the company indeed changes its mind and you have to do more work, I'd feel so tempted to call your boss out on it. Not that he'll see he made a mistake. He'll probably just shrug it off like "whatever, I was just doing what they asked for."

My immediate boss (team lead) acquiesced to the PM. My manager, however, I don't think knows about this.

But you're right, if they do decide to change it, I may bring it up to my manager. I think he'll at least listen. Especially since part of the "requirements" for us to get promoted here are to provide our input on things like this. I don't know if much will be done about it, though. I really don't want to throw people under the bus, as with our teams we have to rely on other departments and other people (also as a team and individuals), so I hope that if I have to do this it doesn't come off as tossing someone under the bus.

[mjr]

An update to this...my (new) team lead pulled me aside a few days ago and basically told me not to challenge "the business". They want what they want, and my job is to give it to them. If I have questions, I'm supposed to go through my BA or Team Lead.

[notalwaysright]

I guess they should abandon the idea that they are using Agile. The way I understand it, the goal of using incremental "sprints" is to allow for change, since it's nearly impossible for the end result to be exactly what was asked for in the beginning. So going to the business with an idea at the end of a sprint would be part of the Agile method, am I right? (And that's an honest question since I have no experience with this)

Anyway, I'd pretty much stop contributing ideas/feedback at this point.