lol welcome to hell. Guaranteed joel test score of ~6.

The stuff I needed to be pushed is the first "good" commit that gets stuff to the database in a managable way.

It's a thing that interfaces with the PUBG API, an online computer game that I play a bit. Their data is voluminous to say the least, around 10k events per game. Getting it into a manageable format has been pretty tough. I have something that sort of works.

Thinking about putting it into AWS redshift, except I probably can't justify the cost.

You have 2 choices:

1) Optimize for company success/production
2) Optimize for the devs liking you

Both will be fraught with pain and misery.

Remind me - is this the company that makes games for older cell phones or am I remembering something else?

No - they were very stoked on me but i took larry’s advice and decided they were a dumpster fire

Lol, this feels like its gonna be so true

This company is going to be a great learning experience, but ultimately, expect to be working with very very smart people who are not very good at the business side of things. Be prepared for that, and don't let it frustrate you.

I mean they're entrusting the formation of their engineering process to a ferry captain with a freshly minted CS degree. I'd run as fast as possible.

They allow you to work on personal projects at work? You don't have to fill out a timesheet?

That’s pretty insulting

ya this is completely rediculous

ya but its true. I mean, wtf do you know about sprints and sprint planning? and its not even close to a 2 person job. theres like an entire industry for this sht. companies pay millions of dollars to undertake such changes. there are tons of "agile" and "lean" consulting companies that go in and set up such processes for all sizes of company.

our company has an entire department that trains every single person on the sprint crap.

I mean, that is only one small sliver of whats effed up about your situation. as blackize eludes, they bring in a young college kid with no experience to manage the veteren devs. seems ripe for pushback.

I dont have any advice, but keep us posted bc this is pretty interesting. I mean, I guess my advice would be to find books and information on the type of "sprint" system your boss wants and then learn about it and then have some sort of seminar to show the devs the new process.

He’s completely supporting me, it seems like he’s doing 3 or 4 jobs himself and wants some help. He said if i need classes or books or anything he’ll get them for me.

Idk i dont think it takes a rocket scientist to organize scrums. The hardest part is going to be getting caught up on the projects. The code base isnt that large but it’s fairly close to the metal

The devs are definitely talented at least, theres no dummies here

Jmakin, there is an entire industry of consulting firms that help companies institute scrum. Maybe it's all bs.

Like all consulting, it's at least 50% BS :P

But jmakin I don't think you should be insulted. The insinuation isn't that you're somehow deficient. All indications are that you are far more talented than the average new CS grad, and I wouldn't even bet against you succeeding at your current challenge. Although the hardest parts are probably organizational and managerial and not technical.

But I'd still be worried that it seems like the sort of task they shouldn't be expecting of someone in your position.

Congrats on being a Product Owner!

A timesheet? I can't tell if that's a joke or not.

I don't know if I'd say they "let me" but if it's not that uncommon for me to mix work and personal hours (both ways). If my work gets done, and it does, I don't think anyone really cares.

Yeah I wasn't trying to be insulting to you jmakin. Just trying to illustrate that what they're asking of you borders on absurd.

But he has a good heart for the job...

Seriously though, look up backlog grooming and figure out who at the company has the authority to prioritize what in the backlog gets worked on first. Put it in that order and let the devs pick them up from that list, just make sure they are in order. Every other week groom the backlog to make sure things are still in the right order.

There’s 5 devs and me and my boss, idk, it’s a pretty tiny operation

It sounds like it’s gonna be really difficult if not impossible, but i think i can do it. I mean i’m either gonna last 6 months and fail spectacularly or try to make it work

i think he saw the look of panic in my eyes when he told me what he wanted to do, because he told me there's no time pressure and things are working fine now it's just really disorganized and something he wants to deal with eventually. we're going to have 30min to 1 hour meetings every day I'm there to plan stuff out.

he said he doesnt want something strictly regimented but better than their current system which is a free for all.

Yeah, making a working sprint system is not at all hard if you care about the important parts and not about seeking expert approval for using scrum-certified, fibonacci playing cards. The hard part is making sure its useful and that everybody involved thinks its useful.

I actually think its a bad task to give to anyone new (regardless of experience / title) because its almost impossible to make a new system better for everybody involved in all ways and so its hard to pull off without personal relationships and a good understanding of everybodys point of view.

Whatever you do though, keep it simple. Do NOT go process crazy.

Edit: Just saw your above post, that sounds good. Small changes that address real pain is a nice way to evolve to a better system too.

I'd take a random 6 company over a random 12 company any day of the week.

The joel test is pretty outdated and even looking at the spirit of the post was never particularly good, imo. I mean, its a good list if you're trying to sell bug tracking software to companies.

yea the thing i'm most concerned about doing right now is developing a good rapport with all the devs

did i mention i have 3 projects too? lol. they have a bizarre amount of confidence in me. I finally met my the guy that got me the job and he placed the face to the name and he pulled me aside and said everyone's been saying really glowing things about me. so that's good i guess.

eh I disagree, its still applies pretty well for stuff I do even 20 years after it was made. I don't agree with "don't work at a less than 10" but certainly if you're below an 8 its going to be painful. Maybe its more relevant for what I do and not for what you do (whatever that is).