Fun Factory Code Monkey

I went in to work on Saturday, because our project deadline is at the end of the month. One of the issues I'm having with the project is that our customers and analysts don't seem to be subject matter experts. This is resulting in requirements changes left and right. We've already been through design walkthroughs, which were fine before "new discoveries." My team has already started coding, so every change results in work stoppage, clarifying and modifying our design, and then heading back to the coding. This is a slow and time-consuming process.

In addition, the normally conflict-free Fun Factory has become a bit more contentious in previous weeks. Easy-going managers and leads are suddenly facing off in meetings. People are working long hours. People are tired. I understand the frustration, and with this group of folks I know that their inner-calm selves will come to the surface soon.

There is a high probability that the product that we deliver at month-end is not going to meet the ever-changing requirements. I've come to accept this over the past week. I'm trying to design software that is extremely flexible and takes into consideration that the landscape is constantly changing. The unfortuate part of this is that two of my programmers are relatively newbies. I'm spending the bulk of my time working with them and trying to maximize their potential. Unfortunately, since they have limited experience, their code is less flexible. I'm working on that. Three of my veteran programmers have expressed frustration and concern about the March date. I've passed that reality to management, and joined in on raising the red flag. That's all we can do.

I was hoping to stay out of the programming this project, or play a minor role at most. But once again, here I am playing the role of Code Monkey. I like coding. But after doing it for so long, I've found that I like working with other programmers and helping them become better. None of what I'm doing negates the need for me to help my team. But the deadline is in a few weeks... Code little monkey, code!