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The Butterfly Diaries 14 - Design Dilemmas

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When one designs a system, there are some patterns that are often seen to repeat themselves. And so it is when one designs one’s career. With mom breathing down my neck, I had to come up with a pattern that would win her design approval. The IT Gold Rush pattern was too plebeian for my mother’s taste, and it required me to be onsite by now. The American-educated specialist pattern required me to admit the last two years were a mistake and get back to my core subjects. Mr. Zest had opted for the foreign-educated generalist pattern. But our family finances did not allow me that choice. It was sad to have to say goodbye to the one person who had been with me from my first day in the company. That left the Indian-educated generalist as the default choice. With my new expertise in client-side technology and the premium module, my focus shifted from bug fixes to enhancements. Starting with testing, I had worked my way upstream to finally reach design. One day, as I was thinking through how I...
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The Butterfly Diaries 13 - Quality Quandries

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When I was young, dad would start teaching me only on the night before the exam given his tight schedule. But instead of focusing on stuff that would help with the exam the next day, he would always start with the fundamentals. No matter how little time we had, that was the only way he could do things. That was how it was with this gentleman Mr. Systematic as well. But luckily, time was something we had on our side, despite him having to start all over again with me due to Mr. Ambitious resigning. By the time he was done, I was fully confident about handling the role of configuration controller. Not that it was rocket science. It was just the role of an archivist – maintaining project artifacts. As he said, “ The real devil lies in the detail. From the folder structure to the document naming convention, everything should follow a well thought out strategy. ” But this served as a doorway to other opportunities. The first was related to increasing the project’s capability maturity – the ...
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The Butterfly Diaries 12 - Maintenance Maladies

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My mother used to say I needed correcting many times before I did what I was told. Programs are no different. And there always remains some room for improvement, even in the simple ‘ hello world ’ program. Say, the font. So, it did not surprise me when our project did not deliver software to the client’s full satisfaction even in February. But the boss lady was honest and persuasive, and she convinced the client that this was the best they could get, and the rest would evolve through a five-year maintenance and enhancement contract. And surprisingly they signed up for it. And before we knew it, we had moved from development into maintenance. And I was part of a bug fix team led by Mr. Dependable. The other members were Mr. Ambitious and two new freshers – Mr. Noisy and Mr. Quiet. Suddenly I found myself the seniormost developer on the team, lording it over the youngsters. But my good friend Mr. Noisy begged to differ. “ Having been on the project longer does not make you special. Give ...
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The Butterfly Diaries 11 - Production Problems

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It was time for the batting side to bowl. And bouncer after bouncer, the client-side programmers bowled at me, making my code resemble our old moth-eaten rajai when mom pulled it out of the loft. I hung on to the crease, taking on one delivery at a time and finally managed to take the code through the final over. But the match was not yet over. The real test came when everyone’s code was integrated and loaded into the client environment. The moment that happened all kinds of new bugs began to crawl out of the woodwork. It was another round of slogging to get it all to work together outside the simulation environment. Then finally the D-Day came, when the final working application was to be demonstrated to the client by our onsite team. Within ten minutes, we began to get frantic calls. The application had crashed, bringing up what we called the tube light message – a message box stretching from one end of the screen to the other like a tube light, filled with one long line ...
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The Butterfly Diaries 10 - Coding Conundrums

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Things move slow at times, fast at others. I had expected things to slow down after the release. Instead, things began to move at breakneck speed. A lot of new folks arrived out of nowhere. And before I knew it, I found myself with them in a conference room attending a training. Apparently next week the second phase was to start which required many more people and I was to be one of them. I found myself drowning in a sea of domain and technology knowledge that week. The only driftwood that kept me afloat was the hope of an interesting role. And with the coming of new folks, I had a chance to make friends of my own. What aided me instead of Mr. Zest’s charm rub-off was the one remaining relic of my Chennai days – my smoking habit – by inducting me into the fellowship of the tobacco fumes. The following Monday, one of the old timers greeted me as I entered the office. “ I have some good news for you, ” he said. I hoped it was the one I was waiting for. “ Welcome to the Contracts team. Yo...
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The Butterly Diaries 09 - Testing Troubles

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I was nervous as I entered boss lady’s cubicle. “ So, ” she said. “ You were actually earmarked for a project that is due to be signed soon. ” “ Oh, no, ” I thought. Not one of those again. “ However, our testing lead is keen to retain you. I have spoken to the manager of the new project and made alternate arrangements. You can continue here. ” Now that I was assured of my place in the project, my mind began to drift towards the possibilities the missed project represented – the allure of the road not taken. Initially testing seemed a mundane activity. Just read the business scenario and the test cases and execute them. But over the days, it began to look like a game of cricket. The coders were the batsmen and the testers the bowlers. My job as a tester was to find maximum bugs and send the coder back to the pavilion. To do that I could not just stick to the letter of the test cases. Edge cases provided the swing and spin. Like the bowler reading the mind of the batsman, I needed to re...
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The Butterfly Diaries 08 - Migration Mistakes

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The series of events that had started at a 5-star hotel was coming to an end at a railway station. Six of us stood in front of the train. It had a bit of déjà vu for me and my Malayali friend – once again a bachelor home being split right across the middle. Ready to board the train with me was our fourth roommate. Unlike me, he was excited about the move. Meanwhile another scene was being enacted right next to us. A girl from our batch had come to send off Mr. Zest. She had successfully warded off the attempt to separate her from him during the Pune transfers. But not this time. Her eyes brimming with tears, she flung her arms around him as he got ready to board the train. The three of us stood in a silent huddle. The sixth person on the platform stood apart and watched. I wondered how it would have been to have received such a farewell from that ‘ her ’. My Malayali friend seemed to have read what was going on in my head. “ Dude! ” he said. The other’s eyes sparkled mischievously. It ...
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