Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

internetworkers - Re: [internetworkers] textile workers of the future?

internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Jay Cuthrell <jcuthrell AT neonova.net>
  • To: "Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/" <internetworkers AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [internetworkers] textile workers of the future?
  • Date: Fri, 04 Apr 2003 21:20:36 -0500

Scott Lundgren wrote:
Contrast that job description with "Software Engineer V," who is the kind
of person companies are built around:

And what becomes of those between Software Engineer II-IV ?

They just fade away...

Seriously though, the SE II-IV's end up on calls that start from 11pm to 2am in the morning that last for 4 hours while everyone involved decides on the finer points of function point analysis and what -is- truly in scope for the deliverables that should have been on the VPN'd file server yesterday at 9am when the build scripts are supposed to kick off in the development environment. *deep breath*

The bottom line is that offshore and onshore and paulyshore are all different ways to get the project done and each has inherit pro/con components. Financially speaking, there is excellent potential for maintenance releases where a mostly mature code base is taken to offshore groups.

I am not yet convinced that starting from scratch offshore makes sense. I think there are good reasons to have everyone in the same room. If that means SE II-IV spend time offshore and learning about global culture then by all means do it. Don't just assume that the wonders of the Internet can bring you close enough to really get it. That being said, I have Michael Thomas's Mar 4, 2003 list rant on design meetings printed on my wall (thanks for that one!).

And now... my fun story about how often fun quotes like "You will be obsolete" are.

Once, I was part of a delightful conversation back in (I think) 1997.

At the time, we had brought in a future MBA student to help define our go to market "strategery" and fleece his resume. His contention was that web technology would be in the hands of novices within the next year. Webmasters would soon be Information Highway roadkill.

He looked at girl doing web stuff for the group and told her that she would be obsolete in a year. Why? Because he had discovered that MS Word can "Save As HTML". He said, in effect, she was pointless. He said her skills a testament to the relics of the Mac people web world. The skies parted and he was illuminated and bathed in glory.

After the light stopped blinding me, I got up out of my cube and explained that "Save As HTML" was just a way to present his document content so that a web browser could parse it (poorly) from a web server. I said it was a bad idea to rely on it and that it wouldn't put it where it needed to be accessed via the web. He looked at me with a smug grin and went on to say that the web server would be something that would be in the hands of novices as well.

This bright fellow proceeded to pump out this long and flowing treatise in MS Word then did his "Save As HTML". The webmaster asked if he wanted edits made to it. He said it was fine as is but he didn't want to learn how to FTP. So, she put it on the website for him.

Still gloating, he walked away to show off his new web creation to the director of the group.

Legend has it, pulling up the web page crashed the director's web browser.

So, I think even slight technical ignorance will keep this web and software thing going just a little while longer.

If anything, the textiles analogy means the US might still have a chance of delivering haute couture.

-Jay

--
Jay Cuthrell, CTO
NeoNova Network Services
http://www.neonova.net/
jay AT neonova.net 919.460.3330




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page