The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Risk Management

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2011-12-20

John grabbed another slice of pizza and took a moment to review the project status and gather his thoughts. The project plan was buried unter a pile of empty pizza boxes and laptops. The room stunk of caged programmers, grease, and deadlines. At least it wouldn't be too much longer, now. John finished his slice and got back to work.

This particular deadline death-march was for a risk-management and assessment package. It was the pizza-and-pepperoni for John's employer, an insurance company. Identifying, assessing, and wrapping numbers around risks was their line of business. The VPs wanted the "tribal knowledge" of how to do this encoded into a software package, and they wanted it live by the end of the quarter- only a week away.

The Source of Control

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2011-12-06

"I think I understand the process," Miguel said, "but how do I check in the code?"

Stephan leaned over his desk for a closer examination of Miguel. His expression spoke of a deep distaste for what he saw. "You don't," Stephan said. "Only I access source control. Only I check in files, after I've confirmed that you haven't made any mistakes. Can you imagine the chaos if we just let any developer have access to our code base? We like to keep things nice and organized around here."