End of One Era, Beginning of Another

I don't like to think of myself as a work-obsessed person, but it is becoming more and more apparent that the possibility exists, especially when that work has some measure of enjoyment attached to it. My current work assignment has just such an enjoyable aspect, that of writing some really cool code and making it work with some really complex hardware. I could do this forever and not get bored.

But ...

I took on this job because someone else was overloaded and couldn't get it done. And the job was not given to me with the intent of forcing me to spend countless hours writing code. In fact, I was given a team of six people to do that part of the job. My task was to manage these people, to push the project forward from its stalled position, and get it done in the allotted time. (It was already way past budget.)

And I'm proud to say that this is nearly accomplished. We have made our milestones. The product is functional, and nearly complete.

But ...

I can't stop going back and cleaning up the code. It was a hack to begin with, and I can't stand hacked-up code. I want it to be beautiful, elegant, orderly, concise. So every night, here and there when I get the chance, I review, rewrite, recompile, and repeat. After spending all day long trying to get it to work correctly on the hardware, my evenings are spent making it read correctly.

It isn't in my job description, but it's what I love to do. And it has helped the product become better, tighter, more manageable, more maintainable.

I would even say that it has helped us to get the job done faster, on schedule.

But ...

Someone upstairs (and I don't mean that in a spiritual sense) noticed that we (my team and I) had actually done what we set out to do, and this started them thinking that perhaps we could do it again. Perhaps we could take on another project which is way over budget and way behind schedule and way understaffed, and make it work. And perhaps I could lead that team as well.

Well, that's not bad, is it? Management responsibility again? Leading a team to victory?

Except that the person whom I would replace is the same person who was overloaded before, who was supposed to be able to do the job after having had the load reduced, who has apparently been unable to motivate his team to accomplish their objectives, who has not been able to make a plan and stick with it.

This upcoming assignment is similar to the one I am in the process of completing, only multiplied by a factor of four or five. It's huge. And it involves certification of both hardware and software. Lots of documentation. Lots of testing. Lots of financial and management meetings. Lots of Project Planning. Lots of customer oversight.

Lots of overtime.

I'm not thrilled. I just want to be a happy programmer, writing and testing my code on little platforms, writing the best, the tightest, the most efficient code in the universe, complete with documentation that can be read and understood by the most ardent techno-phobe.

Managers don't have any fun. They sit in boring meetings. They make unrealistic plans and goals. They whine and complain about money, and have to go up the chain, begging for more. They are not seen as real engineers anymore. And, worst of all, they don't get to play with the toys.

But ...

The job has to get done.