• 5 Posts
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Joined 1 year ago
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Cake day: September 4th, 2023

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  • Lol. You’re highlighting ops problem exactly. Oversimplification of the issue and delegation of the documentation problem to the engineering department is the exact reason people there feel resentment. It’s simply not their job. As the other commenter posted - the system spans multiple disciplines and workflows, yet it seems only the engineer is tasked with understanding it all, in order to build the system. Consultants register this as a risk, and management assigns this to engineering because ‘only they understand the code’ - is exactly the problem op is facing.

    The system is the property of the company. The company’s language should be used to capture it’s design, function and intent (what it does) versus how it is done (it’s expression in code). There’s a reason they call it ‘living documentation’ - it,.and the company’s understanding, should evolve along with the code.

    Edit: are you seriously letting ‘random’ segments into your code? I think I found your problem…


  • Frankly, it’s tiresome trying to describe technical details with business analysts who glaze over something you’re passionate about, treating it like nerdsprak. If the engineer has spent any amount of time producing a solution, you can bet he’s passionate and invested. Give credit where credit is due and don’t sound like an obnoxious condescending douchbag when doing so. People can tell when a disinterested person is giving fake praise. It’s quite different when a crowd of peers is giving recognition of a job well done. And no, you’re probably not as smart as they are in their field of expertise.

    Also, listen to their input. They don’t want a product with their name going live with a feature the bean counters want, but the engineers know make the product worse. It’s like a mom watching your daughter to go to prom with a cheap haircut because dad as too cheap to fork out for a perm. You know what I mean.


  • This is why documentation of business process and methods is so important. A lot of time, the engineer solves seemingly small problems without oversight, so imagine a decades old collection of many innocuous solutions leading to the whole ‘dunno what this does’. If it’s important enough to commit to a mission critical system, it’s important enough to document.

    Also, it’s incredibly frustrating for an engineer to be given a one line brief, work his ass off producing the solution, then have the business analyst take credit for the work, and not bother to even learn how the system works, even at a high level. It sows distrust and disdain.