Black Magic Code

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

"Are you incompetent, it is just adding a single button!"

Oh no not again. It has been years since I last encountered the "it is just a button!". For f****ks sake, adding a button to a Graphical User Interface is no actual work, but making that button do something is.... uhm, anything from quite easy to impossible. The most annoying thing, is that there is no way of explaining to the person that can be nearly impossible especially when the person refuses to provide a spec for it.

The discussion starts with a "add a button", when the developer asks what the button is supposed to do and the response is "it shouldn't be that difficult". Now the developer thinks "great, for the first time in my career I get a proper spec!" and all he gets is dissappointment. He is provided with basicly what the button is supposed to be labeled and he is left by his manager to figure out what the label means. No spec, no cursory requirements, just a button called something and alot of questions...

And I have run into it too many times to count by now...