On May 8, 2012, at 2:18 PM, Ross Singer wrote:

> On May 8, 2012, at 2:01 PM, Ethan Gruber wrote:

[trimmed]

>> Thanks for the info.  To clarify, I don't develop in java, but deploy
>> well-established java-based apps in Tomcat, like Solr and eXist (and am
>> looking into a java triplestore to run in Tomcat) and write scripts to make
>> these web services interact in whichever language seems to be the most
>> appropriate.  Node looks like it may be interesting to play around with,
>> but I'm wary of having to learn something completely new, jettisoning every
>> application and language I am experienced with, to put a new project into
>> production in the next 4-8 weeks.
> 
> Eh, if your window is 4-8 weeks, then I wouldn't be considering node for this project.  It does, however, sound like you could really use a new project manager, because the one you have sounds terrible.

But project managers don't 'add value' unless they actually do something.  If they just let you do things the way that you've done in the past, even if they worked, they could be replaced by any other project manager who knew enough not to micro-manage things.

And, if you actually managed to do the project on time, with them staying mostly hands-off, what does that tell people?  That they're not needed ... they need a project that's going to hell, so they can step in and 'fix' stuff.


-Joe

ps. and besides the obvious 'this is not the opinion of my employer, and may or may not be sarcasm' disclaimer, I've had a few instances where there was a non-quite-as-tight deadline and I had to learn something new ... but they footed the bill for sending me to a week of training

pps.  in all seriousness -- I know of someone who pulled crap like this, and then used it as a reason to fire the developer and replace them with one of the PM's friends who had the 'needed' skills ... then another instance where an outside consultant did a 'peer review' of our system 2 weeks before we were supposed to go live and then somehow got a contract to design & build a different system which took a year and cost the university $250k? $500k?, but he never delivered (hardware was shipped w/ empty drive arrays) ... so I might be a little more jaded than most in this scenario.  (but neither of those two anecdotes were at my current employeer)