It's Alive!

Well, this is just a quick post to let those that stop by know that I'm still around and still posting (once in a great while). I've been incredibly busy at work, so I haven't had time to post anything at all. It's the same old sad refrain for me, but worse than usual. I've been working, literally, 12 to 14 hours a day for several weeks. In the past two months, I've only taken one full day off. It's getting really old, really fast, but there is some light at the end of the tunnel. The final code freeze for the project I'm working on is coming up in just over a week. Then we go into a test/bug fix cycle, and general availability is (the product formally goes out for sale) at the end of June

It's been an incredibly stressful time. Those of you that are professional software engineers/developers and work on commercial products know what I'm talking about. This phase of the project is often called the "Death March." If a software project is very well planned from the beginning, the Death March phase can, at least sometimes, be avoided. All too often, though, circumstances overwhelm even the best plans and best intentions, and you end up in a Death March towards the end of a software project. If things go well during the Death March, you ship the software on or near the planned date. If things go poorly, despite almost unbelievable effort by the software engineers, developers, and testers, the project schedule slips uncontrollably and the project fails. Management, sooner or later, decides to cut its losses and cancels the whole sad affair, leaving everyone involved frustrated, angry, and bitter.

We aren't at a point where our schedule is slipping out of control, yet. I don't think our project is going that bad, but the developers are working extremely long hours - well over 60 hours a week in many cases. We are getting pretty close to completing the major functionality, so I don't think the project will fail, but if our test/bug fix cycle gets out of hand, things could get ugly. People get fired or quit their jobs in these kinds of circumstances, due to the financial and emotional stress, so pray that everything turns out okay.

Well, I wish I had time to comment more on what's been going on in the world. I will make note that Syria has pulled its troops from Lebanon, for which I am very happy. Let us all hope and pray that the democratization of the whole Middle East will proceed rapidly and peacefully, leading to a better world for us all.

And with that, I must wish God's blessing on you all. Hopefully, I be able to post again before too long.

Permanent link