High on all fronts on that test, which does not surprise me. Though what you describe sounds worse than what I have. I’m just generally tired and pissed off, despite thinking myself a normally happy guy.
I’ll take this as my nudge to put my casual job search into overdrive.
I admit it’s possible the project “succeeds” and gets out the door. My prediction in that case is that we limp along and eventually give up after maintaining it for a while.
I only work my ~40 hours a week. When I did much more than that, I think my output went negative.
I think I learn a lot, at least. The project has a more “modern” stack than the company’s other main product. And management/leadership being hands-off means I make a lot of big decisions myself. Many bad decisions, but at least I learn what not to do next time.
We are reasonably consistent with estimates, but there’s this hidden assumption that 1 point equals 1 developer day. So even though we consistently get 20-25 points done per sprint, we typically cram more items to meet that 30 point threshold.
Oh, and of course you may end up dragging items sprint to sprint if they don’t get finished.
Sadly not. This post comes after my frustration of this same exact meeting, and now the project is delayed by a nebulous 2-4 (or more?) months. Sounds like I may actually be moving off of it temporarily since it’s been pushed so far back, to another, slightly less ambitious project that’s getting started. To be determined if I can help this next project go much better.
A big fear I had was that a failed project would reflect poorly on me looking for jobs. But hearing how common dead projects are, I guess it’s no surprise that many people go so long not seeing a successful one.
My project fits both. It took about a year before this was shown to more than a couple business users. But we still had Scrum sprints and pressure to get items done at the sprint, even with no deployment or demo for feedback.
I agree that I tend to enjoy my personal projects far more than anything at my company. My typical problem is that I burn out quickly once I get really into anything long term. And frustratingly, I tend to want to work my own projects most when my work gets most stressful.
I guess it’s just hard not to get attached to something you spend so many hours working (and unintentionally thinking) of. But this sounds wise advice.
Feeling stuck on a never-ending software project
Scene: Surprise meeting with the project owner 0-3 days before the go-live date...