When head meets desk

[plonq]

We've been working toward retiring one of our older legacy systems, and I have been dragged (obviously not entirely by choice) into the process.  As I expected, the instances of headdesk are starting to mount up quickly.

The facilitator calls a meeting to discuss strategy.
... then postpones it at the last minute.
He sets up another meeting.
... then postpones it again at the last minute.
He sets up another meeting.
... then postpones it again at the last minute.
He sets up another meeting.
... and then blows us off without notice.  No postponement this time, he just didn't show.

This hasn't stopped him from pushing us to move forward, nor from hounding us for progress updates.

Naturally I haven't let this stop me from progressing work on a solution.  Even without this guy's help, we've managed to isolate three critical applications for migration.  For the past few working days I've been plugging away at a replacement application in one of the newer systems.  This application originally ran under a system that I'll call ABC, and I developed a replacement to run in the system that I will call XYZ.  I did this because XYZ is the system we brought in to replace ABC.

Today I was speaking with one of the systems specialists, and showed him the progress that I'd made.

Him: Um, you say you're developing it in XYZ?
Me: Yes.  Is there a problem with that?  I know he doesn't have it on his machine, but it's just a matter of getting it installed.
Him: Well, the problem is that XYZ is one of the next systems that we are looking to retire.  You should have designed it in ZYX.
Me: Ah.  The systems are similar.  The calls will be different, but the logic will be the same.  I'll just copy over the source.
Him: No you won't.  You don't have edit access to ZYX.
Me: What?  Then how am I supposed to migrate his applications to ZYX?!
Him: You don't.  It will have to be done by one of the system programmers.
Me: Fine, then to whom do I send the specifications and requirements?
Him: Actually there aren't any programmers available for that, and certainly no budget for it.
Me: ...!  You're aware that these are critical applications.
Him: [shrug] I'm just sayin'.

No knock against this guy - he's just the messenger, and not the policy maker.  Fuck all this.  I'm going to complete the migration to XYZ so that I can mark it as a completed objective on my profile.  It can become someone else's headache when it needs to be migrated again to ZYX.

Comments

[shockwave77598.livejournal.com]

I'm writing it in C.
- We want it in C++.
Is there a C++ compiler for the chip?
- We don't know.
Do you have money for a new Dev system in the first place?
- No.
I'm writing it in C.
- We want it in C++.

Lather, rinse, repeat.