Faith-driven development
We are a team consisting of browser-based multiplayer game development specialists, as evidenced by the popularity of projects in which we participated. We are game designers, developers and generators of great ideas. But this is not directly related to the topic. So, having realized our greatness, we left the “uncle” and decided to make our own project better and more successful than the previous one, taking into account the accumulated experience and unused developments.
And now the bright future has come - a comfortable office in a prestigious office center, brand new laptops and a concept for a new project. Somewhere here the fatal mistake crept in, the purpose of which to tell about is this topic.
Due to the fact that the project should be “drafted” as soon as possible, it was decided to hire a specialist - with experience in developing multiplayer games specifically for Java, because there were no other Java specialists at that moment in the team. The choice of language for development is also irrelevant to the topic of the article; it is only part of the factors that influenced the outcome of the enterprise.
The invited expert already had one multiplayer game behind him, which he wrote almost alone, which made his approval process for the position of lead developer of a new project irreversible. This is where faith-driven development begins, the newest direction in the development process, which I and several other people who have joined the team from the outside have become an unwitting witness.
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By the way, about the project. 4 months after the start, alpha was expected, in another month or two - release. The specialist (the same leading developer of the new project) had a special trust - it was believed that this person would make the project qualitatively and on time. Allegedly, in order not to be distracted from the development process, he even went to work from home. It is not known for certain, but at home this man worked on the strength of an hour a day. This is evidenced by the fact that in a month there will be exactly one year, as the development process started, and the project still cannot be called even an alpha version.
Actually, here - the project is already almost half a year late. The budgets are “eaten up”, there is no project, and to the question “How is our project doing?”, The standard answer for a whole year has been “Work is underway, we will soon launch alpha and finish it”. Alpha is good. But since the server part begins to lag even with two testers online, the expectations are not very bright. The project code leaves much to be desired, there was no architecture design, therefore, when one thing is fixed, the other breaks. And this cycle of error correction does not end with the last date on which the alpha version was postponed - from November 2009. The release date, as it happens in such cases, is constantly postponed - first for a month, then for another month, then for two, etc. The team has long been joking about the release in 2012.
So, work on the bugs: why did this happen? Bad specialist? Perhaps, although it may not, I just did the project an hour with the “left foot”, and in the free time I was engaged in other part-time work, thereby mastering several budgets of different customers. After all, no one controlled him, and in the tracker tasks are created and closed, as if everything is normal. Why not realized it before? But the answer to this in the name of the topic is a development based on faith. The people who appointed this specialist believed in the success of the project, in the loyalty of the lead developer and in his professionalism. And the man, after all, is not from the outside, but is familiar to most of the team. It was believed that if he said that there were some kind of a hitch, it means they did.
What we have at the moment ... The project is closer than ever to the alpha version, the specialist continues to correct his own mistakes no longer in the fifth round in the standard mode “one has corrected - the other has broken”. Management believes that he will bring the project to the end better than anyone else. In the end, it's easier for him to figure out his code.
Meanwhile, the project launch date is no longer predicted ...
PS From the moment of writing the topic, events have moved off dead center, as read in the sequel. I will post soon.
And now the bright future has come - a comfortable office in a prestigious office center, brand new laptops and a concept for a new project. Somewhere here the fatal mistake crept in, the purpose of which to tell about is this topic.
Due to the fact that the project should be “drafted” as soon as possible, it was decided to hire a specialist - with experience in developing multiplayer games specifically for Java, because there were no other Java specialists at that moment in the team. The choice of language for development is also irrelevant to the topic of the article; it is only part of the factors that influenced the outcome of the enterprise.
The invited expert already had one multiplayer game behind him, which he wrote almost alone, which made his approval process for the position of lead developer of a new project irreversible. This is where faith-driven development begins, the newest direction in the development process, which I and several other people who have joined the team from the outside have become an unwitting witness.
')
By the way, about the project. 4 months after the start, alpha was expected, in another month or two - release. The specialist (the same leading developer of the new project) had a special trust - it was believed that this person would make the project qualitatively and on time. Allegedly, in order not to be distracted from the development process, he even went to work from home. It is not known for certain, but at home this man worked on the strength of an hour a day. This is evidenced by the fact that in a month there will be exactly one year, as the development process started, and the project still cannot be called even an alpha version.
Actually, here - the project is already almost half a year late. The budgets are “eaten up”, there is no project, and to the question “How is our project doing?”, The standard answer for a whole year has been “Work is underway, we will soon launch alpha and finish it”. Alpha is good. But since the server part begins to lag even with two testers online, the expectations are not very bright. The project code leaves much to be desired, there was no architecture design, therefore, when one thing is fixed, the other breaks. And this cycle of error correction does not end with the last date on which the alpha version was postponed - from November 2009. The release date, as it happens in such cases, is constantly postponed - first for a month, then for another month, then for two, etc. The team has long been joking about the release in 2012.
So, work on the bugs: why did this happen? Bad specialist? Perhaps, although it may not, I just did the project an hour with the “left foot”, and in the free time I was engaged in other part-time work, thereby mastering several budgets of different customers. After all, no one controlled him, and in the tracker tasks are created and closed, as if everything is normal. Why not realized it before? But the answer to this in the name of the topic is a development based on faith. The people who appointed this specialist believed in the success of the project, in the loyalty of the lead developer and in his professionalism. And the man, after all, is not from the outside, but is familiar to most of the team. It was believed that if he said that there were some kind of a hitch, it means they did.
What we have at the moment ... The project is closer than ever to the alpha version, the specialist continues to correct his own mistakes no longer in the fifth round in the standard mode “one has corrected - the other has broken”. Management believes that he will bring the project to the end better than anyone else. In the end, it's easier for him to figure out his code.
Meanwhile, the project launch date is no longer predicted ...
PS From the moment of writing the topic, events have moved off dead center, as read in the sequel. I will post soon.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/90151/
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