Thursday, February 10, 2005
A New Method
So yesterday I was having a problem figuring out what was going on with a particular bug I was dealing with.
There are two teams working on the project I work on. I went to see one of the guys on the other team to ask a couple questions and make use of their knowledge to get through the problem. I have had many good experiences with this type of approach (which I will refer to as the "Mom-as-dictionary" approach, in honour of moms (and dads, gosh darn it - it is 2005) all over the western world who patiently go about their day while their young kids repeatedly ask them and "How do you spell this?" and "How do you spell that?")
This particular visit to the other team, however, my questions were met with a cooler reception. Not harsh, but to the point - "You don't have your facts straight about this problem and I don't have time to waste doing your work". Which was totally fair.
It was sort of like when Mom gets tired of being the dictionary and says "Why don't you look it up?"
I spent some more time, slightly rattled, trying to figure out the problem on my own. It wasn't really going anywhere so I moved on to some other stuff. I came back to it this morning, dedicated to the resolution of this bug. I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to solve it without some confirmation from the guys on the other team (it's not really important that they're technically on another team than I am, except that they have knowledge of a part of the product that I don't - which is technically true about everyone working on the project anyway) so I set to work laying out every aspect of the problem in the most concise way possible. I've been watching a lot of police/court television lately (3 different CSIs, 3 different Law & Orders, DaVinci's Inquest... it's hard not to) and decided that I should totally go Jerry Orbach on this bug's virtual ass.
Anyway, through the process of laying out every piece of evidence on this bug for proper presentation to my counterpart on the other team, I noticed a small discrepancy in the original bug report - an errant "-" character!! It turns out this was the whole problem all along. 4 hours of work to find an errant "-".
But I've definitely grown up about this stuff. I learned more about our project, I learned more about how to properly diagnose a bug, and I learned more about what the guys on the other team need from me before they can help me out with my problems.
So, no more "Mom-as-dictionary" for me. From now on, I will put on my Jerry Orbach hat when I approach bugs. Actually a cross of Jerry and Snoopy.
"But i, somehow, some way, Keep comin up with funky ass shit like every single day"
There are two teams working on the project I work on. I went to see one of the guys on the other team to ask a couple questions and make use of their knowledge to get through the problem. I have had many good experiences with this type of approach (which I will refer to as the "Mom-as-dictionary" approach, in honour of moms (and dads, gosh darn it - it is 2005) all over the western world who patiently go about their day while their young kids repeatedly ask them and "How do you spell this?" and "How do you spell that?")
This particular visit to the other team, however, my questions were met with a cooler reception. Not harsh, but to the point - "You don't have your facts straight about this problem and I don't have time to waste doing your work". Which was totally fair.
It was sort of like when Mom gets tired of being the dictionary and says "Why don't you look it up?"
I spent some more time, slightly rattled, trying to figure out the problem on my own. It wasn't really going anywhere so I moved on to some other stuff. I came back to it this morning, dedicated to the resolution of this bug. I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to be able to solve it without some confirmation from the guys on the other team (it's not really important that they're technically on another team than I am, except that they have knowledge of a part of the product that I don't - which is technically true about everyone working on the project anyway) so I set to work laying out every aspect of the problem in the most concise way possible. I've been watching a lot of police/court television lately (3 different CSIs, 3 different Law & Orders, DaVinci's Inquest... it's hard not to) and decided that I should totally go Jerry Orbach on this bug's virtual ass.
Anyway, through the process of laying out every piece of evidence on this bug for proper presentation to my counterpart on the other team, I noticed a small discrepancy in the original bug report - an errant "-" character!! It turns out this was the whole problem all along. 4 hours of work to find an errant "-".
But I've definitely grown up about this stuff. I learned more about our project, I learned more about how to properly diagnose a bug, and I learned more about what the guys on the other team need from me before they can help me out with my problems.
So, no more "Mom-as-dictionary" for me. From now on, I will put on my Jerry Orbach hat when I approach bugs. Actually a cross of Jerry and Snoopy.
"But i, somehow, some way, Keep comin up with funky ass shit like every single day"
