A New Post

Pardon me for a few moments while I spout off about work-related things; it's been on my mind quite a bit lately. And, as you can tell, it has been taking up a large portion of my time.

The current project was supposed to have been completed a year or so ago, and yet here we sit in our cubes, still slaving away at the code, trying to get it done. Part of the reason for this was budgetary; a reduction in the allotted funds per year translates to a stretching out of the overall schedule. Part of the reason is technical - biting off more than we can chew, underestimating the scope of the work, jumping into the puddle and finding ourselves in water up to our necks, if not over our heads completely.

Engineers are generally bright people in search of a challenge, and tend to lose interest if they are not kept challenged, or if the work drags on and on without any sign of closure. We have lost a number of engineers due to this phenomenon; they have moved on to other, more interesting projects. The net result of this is, of course, that we have fewer engineers to do the same work. Thus my promotion to Technical Lead in another department.

I had already been the Lead for the Training and Support department, but since that department consisted of only myself, it was not considered much of a leadership role. All those who had been promised to me, to assist in the duties of providing Training and Support, were pulled away due to other, higher-priority concerns, leaving me with a huge amount of work and none but myself to accomplish it.

Such is the nature of the business.

A few weeks ago, it was brought to light that one particular individual was overburdened with too much responsibility - he had charge of two departments, both consisting of multiple engineers with complex requirements - so it was decided that half of his duties would be given to me. This, right before a major Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) with the Customer; which meant that I spent the better part of two weeks getting up to speed on the project, revising planning charts, calculating new completion dates, scouring the land for required engineers to assist, meanwhile continuing to attend to my pre-existing duties.

It has been a hectic couple of weeks. I was scrambling to get up to speed on everything, and do a lot of last-minute planning.

We survived our TIM, relatively unscathed. The customer's only concern was that any departure from our new schedule, with our current short-handed staffing, would create havoc with the schedule. My only response was, we'll deal with it when it comes.

And we are dealing with it, in our own way. Truth be told, we're in a constant state or re-planning, trying to meet impossible schedules with insufficient staff and far too many complex requirements. My team has their work cut out for them, and they're going to be working a lot of overtime.

Good thing they're mostly contractors. (That's why they get paid the Big Bucks.)

In the meantime, not only am I tasked with managing a team of overworked and cranky engineers, maintaining budget spreadsheets and progress charts, attending far too many "status" meetings (I'd have better status if it weren't for all these meetings!), and trying to keep everything going smoothly with team members who go together like nitro and glycerin, but I'm STILL trying to keep up with the User Manual updates.

Thank heaven for caffeine!