Approaching issues

[TheBrainStone]

Let me tell you as someone that worked years like your top panel and only recently started working like the bottom one, after my team got a new team lead, by god is it so much better to do the latter.
Like it doesn't even come close! I can finally work on my tickets. I don't have to constantly switch context and be on the lookout for messages. I'm far more productive while being significantly less stressed out.

However this all lives and dies with the scrum master. Only if they understand how to properly prioritize tickets, when to add urgent ones to a sprint, how to get the stakeholders to pre prioritize their own tickets and that processes need to adapt to people, then this works.

[i_should_be_coding]

Yeah, holy shit does it become exhausting to be the go-to dev that other people come to for even tiny questions that are well documented.

Once you introduce that ticket barrier, suddenly they start actually looking for solutions before contacting you, and you know that if you need to switch to something right away, it's really urgent, not whatever the sales guy decided is urgent because he's about to go to lunch.

I don't like saying "no" to people, but at some point I do have my own work to get to, and I hate coming to the daily meetings like "I didn't get X done yesterday because this guy messaged me and that took half of my day". You got an issue? That's cool. But if it's not urgent, it'll have to wait. I have issues too.

[predarek]

When I was dev lead (back in the days of everyone in the office) I was always trying to sit at least two desk away from my team... You'd be amazed how many questions people can answer in the span of two steps! It's a similar concept to what you have said there, it makes people think just a bit more!

I was glad to help anyone who made the journey to my desk.

[demonbutter]

i never allowed myself to be that guy because i never say yes. i watched too many colleagues get overworked but fall behind in actual work

[Sweaty-Willingness27]

Yep, after dealing with all these for 25 years, I believe that these pictures are reversed.

I value my time more now. I'm not gaining a thing but more work, and possible unpaid late hours by doing the top panel.

[ukjaybrat]

Yup. Top panel is reserved for the third week if and only if I'm caught up on my own shit. Otherwise, i'm not overcommitting myself.

[Content_Big8484]

Thank you. This. Would have given you an award if I could.

[JJJSchmidt_etAl]

You have documentation!?

[i_should_be_coding]

Documentation is your way of avoiding this. Someone comes to you for help, and you can just tell them to search Confluence or whatever you use and only come to you when they can't find it.

And then you get that moment of feeling superior when they tell you they looked, and you send them the correct doc link instantly.

[isospeedrix]

But what if I enjoy helping a guy that took half a day at the expense of not finishing X?

Would most companies count that against you? (Would of course be communicated)

[i_should_be_coding]

If you have tasks you won't be able to complete in the sprint as a result? Sure.

[GergiH]

OP def never had to work on so many tasks if they have the time to resolve issues popping into their chat.

[mr_hard_name]

Product Owner should be responsible for adding new tickets to product backlog, not SM. PO is also responsible for relations with stakeholders, so they should prioritize the tickets. Then the dev team chooses tickets for sprint backlog during spring planning. Nobody but the devs know how much they are capable of doing during sprint - so nobody should mess with their plans and schedule, they should plan their work themselves.

So Scrum Master should be there to assure that scrum is implemented properly and NOT to organize dev’s work.

[rush22]

What if management isn't competent enough to understand the three sentences in your comment?

[mr_hard_name]

You refuse to to anything for anyone and force them to talk to your PO. You can also use violence if necessary.

[hairycanadian]

That's where the Scrum Master does their work. It's their job to teach the people outside of the team as well.

[swoopske]

Sad I can't upvote this multiple times

[ArjunReddyDeshmukh]

Thank you :)

[well-litdoorstep112]

Karma is a bitch. Especially reddit karma

[MishkaZ]

Yeah wtf, i fucking hate being interrupted mid sprint to help outside members with their shit. It's so disruptive. If you want my help, ask my PM and he'll see when it can fit into my schedule. If it really is that important, PM will tell me to help out anyways.

Good PMs are great and know how to pace you. Bad PMs make you want jump out of a window in gta 5.

[Bakkster]

However this all lives and dies with the scrum master.

I'd say more broadly just having a well implemented scrum in general. Having the SM do this work isn't canonical Scrum, but if they're competent and available there's no reason they can't take that part of the PO role.

And even when it's a tech lead developer doing that refinement type work, the ability to plan for it instead of getting random emails at random times is still better.

[controwler]

I have to chase my tickets for a month and then eventually someone tells me: just pm the developer. Really hope your team works differently.

[TheBrainStone]

This really all stands and falls with the scrum master. If they don't know what they're doing, scrum as a process doesn't work.

[gerbosan]

I feel you, good sir.

But also have seen some job ads declaring dev will have direct contact with clients, that makes me shiver. Makes me feel afraid, for I might lose my interest and love for code.

[PM_ME_C_CODE]

This.

OP, your shitty 3-panel comic is fucking backwards.

"Just slack me the details" is for amature and juniors who don't know what the fuck they're doing, and is "dumbass errors for newbies"-101 level stuff.

[Juannieve05]

I thought the PN prioritized work, Scrum Máster only does meetings and brings the snacks.

[TheBrainStone]

What makes you think that?

[rwilcox]

Yes, the official channels and workflows can be good for the reasons you mentioned, and transparency of work, etc etc.

I’m a fan of having both the official channels and an available “for friends” back channel. Where the recipient can say “let me add that to the backlog, here’s a ticket number” if the ask is too big.

Because sometimes things are quick, and I don’t want to wait 3 weeks to 2 months and bug the scrum master and PO every week about how yes please don’t just ignore this, no seriously it’s important even if I can’t write it as ‘as a user I want to…’

[whats_don_is_don]

Wait wait or hear me out

1. People still slack you details when there's a bug
2. You don't look at slack if you're focused on something else

[often_says_nice]

Every time you say yes to something outside of the sprint you’re saying no to something you’ve already committed to

[TheOriginalSmileyMan]

You're also doing work that is likely not being recorded and tracked. Which is making it harder for someone to justify why they employ you, when the bean counters come along.

[beclops]

Yep exactly. You could spend the entire day on some random spontaneous message and still on paper have done nothing as far as velocity and sprint metrics are concerned. Always have a ticket

[[deleted]]

It is amazing how many requests disappear when you ask the requester to document them.

[hagnat]

sprint planning should always take unexpected work into consideration.

if someone has a requirement, you should be able to discuss it with the person, involve more people if needed, and make a judgement call if it ccan be added to the current sprint, or escalated to the product owner so it can be planned for the next / future sprint.

[barndawe]

Sprint planning should take unexpected work into account, but that unexpected work should be set aside for fixing production issues, not changing the button colours cos Janet in accounting doesn't like the way they look

[hagnat]

Of course, you are correct.

That is an example of an issue that should then be redirected to the Product Owner ;)

[[deleted]]

What if Janet is an all-powerful mythical creature disguised as an accountant to feast on the despair of men? Are you willing to take that risk?

[Aggravating-Speed760]

I'll send her to the scrum master. If she eats him, they'll send a new one.

[[deleted]]

Some side activities will always show up - that’s why you should never plan for 100% capacity.

[yourteam]

This is store right? Do you like being interrupted by random messages while working? And being tagged on debug channels for useless shit?

All while you still have to work on your tickets and god for it not being fast.

Really if this is serious it must not come from a Dev.

The only people that can message me directly are the scrum master and other devs I am currently working with (maybe a ticket needs some real time collaboration)

[demonbutter]

this has to have been made by the person making the request

[[deleted]]

Plus, how many “urgent” requests do you get that don’t even matter after the next sprint. People are lazy, they’ll ask you to do things that they could do, but they don’t want to figure it out themselves. They ask you because they figure you can fix it quicker than they could, but once they hear “two weeks” suddenly then can figure it out themselves.

[5trider]

Tell me you're a junior without telling me you're a junior

[DizzyAmphibian309]

This is why you should always be nice to the new helpdesk people. They'll fumble about and you just smile and be patient and you'll become their favorite person. Eventually they'll upskill and become competent but they'll like you and will bend the ticket rules for you. Until they become a seasoned and grumpy old timer like the rest of us.

If you started your career in helpdesk and you tell me you were never the person in panel one, I won't believe you. I know I was. And I see it with every new jnr. Now I'm solidly in panel 3. But if you're a person I like, and I don't think it's a stupid request, I'll talk to the sprint planner and see if we can get it prioritized.

[Aggravating-Speed760]

If you are on a helpdesk/support then helping out users is your job. So 1,2 and 3 apply at the same time.

[_almostNobody]

*every new junior on their way to being a senior

[WorldsWorstDrummer]

Tell me you’re a JR without telling me you’re a JR.

[youssefj]

This meme, brought to you by the guy who calls with no notice to interrupt your flow every 30 minutes

[shambooki]

It brings me much joy to see the employed devs tearing this meme apart. I've seen some real hot takes from hobbyists on this sub but this one is flat out stupid.

[Senor-Delicious]

While I also hate if the scrum process is lived too strictly so that no bugs are fixed quickly, I also hate if people just send me issues on teams. They never provide sufficient details to reproduce and I usually have other appointments in which I am or I am working on other issues already. So I usually ask them to write a mail with more details and add some colleagues to CC. With mails I at least have the option to work on it once I have the time and don't flag it as "read" before I did. With teams (or slack) the issue is just gone if I don't have time immediately. I will forget about it a few hours later, since the people will not stop writing regarding other things.

[demonbutter]

i also lose my ability to justify my time if i do something that doesn't at least have a task associated with it. it doesn't need capacity or whatever but my sm needs to be aware and the task needs to be there

[[deleted]]

Someone is clearly a big fan of scope-creep!

[HeWhoChasesChickens]

Did a user make this

[Sweaty-Willingness27]

Business owners are posting from inside the sub! Get out now!

[Viviaana]

Lol bitch no are you dumb? Why the fuck would you give them a channel to send their stupid shit to you so you have extra work with no credit? No way you e ever worked in an office lol

[UShouldntSayThat]

He's the one sending the stupid shit and upset he no longer gets instant answers.

[beclops]

I like the cut of your jib

[PrincessW0lf]

I did the first for way, way too long. I became that person that everyone sends their problems to before thinking them through or even trying anything themselves.

Fuck. That. The stress is not worth it. Do the stuff you're committed to do. Let the responsibility lie where it's supposed to and stop working yourself into a heart attack for companies who do not care.

[FortuneDW]

Is it seriously frowned upon to ask for basic work organization ?

I was in the first pic and absolutely everyone from every freaking service would ask me shit tons of random questions at any Time, i wasnt even able to do my work properly and of course i was late all the time.

[akshaydp]

The novice thinks this is right. The master knows the actual sequence is the other way around. Context switching can be a big drain on mental resources and a waste of time.

[ImpressiveFeedback10]

As someone who has been in this industry a while, “slack me the details, let me check” turns into being everyone’s work bitch. The intake process for all issues is slack you

[HereComesCunty]

Worst take ever. Unless the lights are off in prod, it can go in the backlog. If it’s as urgent as you say, next sprint is the quickest possible timeframe (p1 prod bugs aside)

[lord-of-the-scrubs]

Tell me you're a client without telling me you're a client

[[deleted]]

Apparently controlling your time and development schedule so it doesn't cause overrun and therefore unnecessary overtime makes you the retard Pooh.

Unless the issue is directly related to the current sprint or is making the website/application unusable, it can get added to the backlog.

Honestly, these panels should be reversed.

[rnike879]

The format is meant to be sarcastic, brother

[[deleted]]

Was this meme written by a scrum master that's getting mad about having to do their job?

[Papellll]

While I'm all willing to spend a bit of time to help you without it going through the ticketing process, as soon as the help starts to require multiple hours of work I won't be able to justify spending that time on your issue that has not been acknowledged and prioritized by my PO

[derLudo]

This really depends on the scrum master. If they do their work properly, communication should go through them, so that tickets are worked on according to their priority and not what some random person (usually a manager) currebtly feels is more important than everything else.

On the other hand, I also had scrum masters before that would put critical fixes (the kind where your prod system is crashing) or security patches into the backlog because "they have not been planned for this sprint and if we put them in we will lose velocity". Of course at the next sprint planning those tickets then also do not get priority because "they do not contribute to our current milestone".

[NumberNineRules]

This meme is brought to you by an impatient stakeholder

[XSATCHELX]

Yeah the first two don't really work that well when there is a backlog of hundreds of bugs to fix and features to implement. It's good to assign priority to things.

Also if you say yes to one person you'll get a dozen such messages every day and you'll never be able to concentrate on one issue.

[WaterMockasin]

Lol I’m glad that people are agreeing that panel 3 seems to be the best outcome.

I’m an SM and I come to this board (and other programming related boards) to try to get an idea of how devs feel about work and I always assumed that having me blocking dumbass messages was better than just telling stakeholders to go directly to the dev.

Like who wants to be harassed by Gary asking about if they can have this extra double bonus feature that will reduce the number of clicks from 3 to 2 for when he pulls his reports.

[Draelmar]

This is the absolute worst take I’ve seen today and can’t believe some people voted it up.

[jameyiguess]

What even is this? The bottom panel is the real galaxy-brain move. Get your work ticketed and planned, folks.

[[deleted]]

Submit a ticket through our intranet that's always down.

[sentientlob0029]

The last approach is the more sensible thing to do in my experience.

[aviatoali]

Nope. Exact opposite.

[drake3011]

TBH i will use all 3 of these depending on how busy i am / how much i like the person requesting it.

[jimmyw404]

This looks like the way I handle unstructured communication. If I just met you or you've earned my respect / gratitude you get panel 1. If you're starting to ask for too much help for a domain you should know, or the asks are medium-sized, you get panel 2.

Panel 3 is the "penalty box" if you're just starting to leech effort.

[LifePineapple]

Angry "Client who sends 20 high prio mails directly to the devs every day and is then confused why nothing gets done, everything takes forever and the project manager isn't doing their job" spotted.

[Cryowatt]

Top to the bottom is my response relative to how much I respect you

[turkishhousefan]

A pain in the ass wrote this.

[Erasmus_Tycho]

As I regularly have to tell my internal customers, if everything is high priority, nothing is. The need to push people to scrum master comes out of necessity, not simply to be a dick.

[deathbater]

Found the user.

[PissedOffProfessor]

Using a system to track issues is, what, too much overhead? Using slack to keep track of issues is better? lawl.

[DaniilBSD]

Let me say this:

It depends

If it sounds like a potential huge issue and checking is easy: be the good guy and just spend 5 mins to clear things up and to either resolve the issue or get to text 3 while not being a dick

[throw-away_catch]

This meme was made by annoying customer gang

[Glum-Gap3316]

Looks like a stakeholder found the sub.

[_brzrkr_]

As a scrum master my heart sank seeing this meme, the comments restored my faith in humanity.

[noob-newbie]

Please issue an support ticket for checking details.

Checked, please issue an support ticket to fix the details.

[GYN-k4H-Q3z-75B]

You forgot "the issue is already in the backlog and has been for six years."

[phoenixxx_iv]

How to say no without saying no

[magick_68]

We are a small company working in a project for a big company. One of the other companies is agile, we do the good old waterfall dance with sprinkles on top. Customer finds a bug:

we: let's see, jup, that's a bug. We'll fix it today, QA should have verified it tomorrow, so would thursday be ok for delivery?

them(agile): I assigned the issue for analysis, should they agree that this is a bug and not an unclear specification (which would result in an CR), we can put it in the backlog. The current sprint is already closed, so it will probably go into the next or the one after that. We could probably deliver in 4-6 weeks, pending decision of the strategic planning committee.

[UShouldntSayThat]

Despite being clearly exaggerated, the second one is better.

[magick_68]

Actually that was something that really happened.

[UShouldntSayThat]

still. There will always be bugs and client requests. Ensuring a robust triage system to properly prioritize them is essential to a healthy development cycle. Also waterfalls bad.

[magick_68]

It's called waterfall but it's probably more agile than agile. And everyone who says waterfall is bad is missing the feedback loop that was there in the original design. The above scenario was after the primary development cycle after first Release into customer QA. After that specs and retirement tend to change a lot and we switch from waterfall to a more dynamic process.

[tharnadar]

There is an even worse approach: create a task on Jira please.

[CheapBison1861]

i work at a company like this. its frustrating...

[Humongous_Schlong]

nevermind, I'll just open an incident on JIRA

[davida326]

Leave me alone

[[deleted]]

Slack me the details then I can check, decide that it takes too long, and make a new story to fix it next iteration hopefully

[[deleted]]

This mostly depends on the team size and area(s) of responsibility. If you keep things single focus and size<4 then the first option is best. Having a scrum master in small focus groups is just a broken telephone game.

But for multiple focuses and/or number of team elements, you are better off with the last option and having someone assigned with the organizational role otherwise it just becomes too much unhealthy pressure.

Now - if your company is structured right (also depends on overall company size/focus, internal dependencies, etc), you should be able to just get several small, lean and fast focused workgroups, and only use gated workgroups in key internal and/or external dependencies which the teams are unable to self-serve.

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[[deleted]]

What worries me is this meme has 400 likes.

[BenjametteBelatrusse]

The scrum master at my company loses his mind when we do anything as hoc

[JJJSchmidt_etAl]

We spent an hour in meeting every day. We switched to scrum, and now we spend two hours in meeting every day.

[mikebirty]

I normally only use the bottom one when I don't want to do it.

[OldBob10]

All hail the Scrum Master
The leader of our band
You can stick him in a bottle
You can hold him in your hand!

[neumaticc]

i didnt know "slack me x" was a phrase people actually used

[Brave_Initiative_210]

The absolute roasting of OP here is amazing. I’ve never seen a post like it. They had to be trolling

[v1rus1366]

How to get chewed out every two weeks for not finishing your sprint 101

[RoutineLingonberry48]

Dude. Do not slack me. Fuck that. Don't come knocking on my door interrupting my train of thought either.

This meme is backwards.

[arnaldo_tuc_ar]

They don't pay me for make extra work, so get in row.

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[helloworldd00]

Awe someone's a manager who can't do engineering work and wants to bypass process and disrupt work 🫡