Just means you get more frequent flyer miles.

+1; creative use of the word "fook".

Vaguely similar stuff going on at the job I left last year. People complaining publicly about how the company is "going through the pain of growth" and there's a lot of "undocumented legacy."

That's your fault, guys. Should have better treated the folks who knew that legacy

If people were to document things then it would be too easy to get rid of them.

My recent trick for people who want me to train replacements or just make millions of changes to already existing processes is to request a copy of their policies and procedures so I can make certain that the software is compliant and in synch with their approved processes. It's amazing how quickly things are no longer an immediate emergency.

+1; creative use of the word "fook".

Ah yes, I see you've met the training twins, Fook Mi and Fook Yu. They charge a premium to both show up at your site at the same time.

I suppose no one really wants to document themselves out of a job. Or automate themselves out of a job. But if you *do* a good enough job, you get to be recognized as the SME (Subject Matter Expert) and you become reasonably secure.

Sometimes, the documentation itself involves so much effort to wade through, you're better off with the human beings.

Sometimes, the documentation itself involves so much effort to wade

through, you're better off with the human beings.

Well fleeb.. There's a discussion in there. For years I've been pushing clients to make certain that they have documentation and human backup. I'd say "What happens if fleeb gets hit by a truck? Then where are you?"

About a year ago, my business partner gave me grief for that line. Told me to stop being so negative. So now it's more like...

"What happens if fleeb wins the lottery? Then where are you?"


See. I made it better. Well sorta. But the problem still remains. If you rely on a single person you have a nasty single point of failure. People and documentation backup both are needed.

~WoA

It's an issue of degree, though.

Firstly, the code itself should be easy to understand for someone wading into it. If not, it's already a disservice.

Secondly, if the company doesn't maintain redundancy in human resources, they don't really care about the product. That is, everyone on the team ought to have someone else within the team that can back them. Othewise, it's just shitty management.

That shifts your question from "if fleeb [dies/wins the lottery] what do you do?" to "if the entire team [dies/wins the lottery]", which changes things.

For a product as complex as the one I currently work on, even if I wrote pristine documentation for absolutely every minute detail of the thing, my suddent departure would destroy this product for lack of a backup. It would take someone a long time to come up to speed, regardless of documentation.

At the end of the day, it's a balancing act. I can spend all my time writing documentation that makes it crystal clear how the product works, without writing any code to make it work, or I can do nothing but write code without any documentation at all and leave it to everyone to figure everything out after the fact. Or, I can do something in between.

I'm doing something in between. I'm writing just enough documentation to convey where I'm trying to go with the overall design, but not so much as to delay development. If I can get another developer to understand where we're going with whatever I've written (and if I can get my manager to grasp it, and if he can get the marketing folks to grasp it), it has done its job.
The rest comes down to writing clean code that documents itself as well as it can.

That is useful if it's code.. But when it's your business processes? THen it gets scary

Some businesses simply aren't going to survive without key people, particularly if they are small and/or young. That's just part of the basic truths of business.

And there are some businesses where you definitely would prefer if the top people were hit by a bus instead of winning the lottery. Most of Silicon Valley comes to mind.

Write all the documentation you want. It doesn't matter. Nobody is going to read it. Give the same training half a dozen times. It doesn't matter.
Nobody is going to remember it. Until their pants are on fire, they are not going to pay attention.

So I guess this means you have to light their pants on fire as your *first* course of action. I should write a business book.

No one is Irreplaceable. No one. It may take longer, cost more, etc. but anyone who thinks that they can't be replaced is sorely mistaken.

Everyone is replaceable. Is true. Some are more of a pain to replace than others.

Yeah, I know I can be replaced. I actually try to put things in place to make it as easy as possible.

I don't want to be valuable because I have the knowlege hostage, and losing me would mean having to spin someone else up... I'd rather be valuable because I kick ass and can outthink competitors, at least as far as software design goes.

Ah well... I have enough documentation infrastructure in place now where I can communicate what I'm thinking about as clearly as is possible without having the person in the office to see the eyebrowse. Now, I just need my coworker to try to focus on writing his part of the code instead of constantly getting pulled by managers and customers into doing stuff that doesn't advance the product. I'm kind of concerned that I'm going to wind up writing *everything* in this new version... which is fine, but where will that leave my coworker?
(Or me, for that matter, when I wind up being the only guy who knows the whole product well enough to solve problems).

Monochrome and I discuss the fact that I have to keep living cause he doesn't want to have to deal with all the clients all the time. I don't blame him.

Most work has clients. Many clients are prats. Location of said work and clients is unimportant.

No one is Irreplaceable. No one. It may take longer, cost more, etc.

but anyone who thinks that they can't be replaced is sorely mistaken.

The last company that I left collapsed within a year.

The last company that I left collapsed within a year.

You were the company.

That sounds like another way of saying that I was irreplaceable. I was not the proprietor of the company, but it was not able to survive without me.
(The details are a bit more dramatic but the business premise is true.)

Go away or I'll call the Company Squad!

I'm on the Company Squad.

You are the Company Squad.

And that has been my requisite Princess Bride spoof for the evening.

I'm shocked by how many people in my company openly bitch about every advancement we make. It's like they want to be stuck with crap.

And when it comes to anything with security, everyone wants it unless it incoveniences them even slightly.

They people should go work for a bank and see where their bitching gets them.