Being overpossesive

Question

I work for an 80 strong IT department (including BAs, project managers etc.), in a 2,500 person organisation.

I'm a solutions architect, and my focus is on writing software for use within the organisation, mostly within the IT department.

Before me, internal development did not exist here, and I've shaped my role somewhat myself. My accepted development plans are assigned a project manager, and pushed through some semblance of a product life cycle.

We're about to finish the roll out of a very cool piece of software with a relatively complex data model that I designed myself.

My problem is I seem to be too possessive of my software.

As it stands, user acceptance testing was successful, a training programme was written and organised, a user guide was compiled, and several meetings took place without my knowledge.

Is it wrong of me to want to be kept firmly in the loop?

Answer 1

People are doing (apparently good) work to help get your application deployed without needing to be asked to do it or told how. Does it get any better?

Answer 2

No matter how hard you try, you will not be able to control every single event around your product (training, testing). I think they are doing the right thing in not involving you with every interaction with your application. Presumably they will know when to invoke your expertise. It seems they sent you a user guide. Did they ask for your comments?

Having said that, you should have some say at least initially around the technical details of you application because you understand the data model and other implementation details the best.

Answer 3

I don't think you are wrong to want to be kept in the loop. I sounds like you spent serious time and effort on that software. Staying in the loop is good for all involved since you can insure that other people do not alter it's quality. Furthermore, it gives you feedback which will help you become a better software developer. I would argue that a company which excludes you from this process is likely attempting to hide how much profit/acclaim you provide the company with.

Answer 4

I think it is completely normal to feel that way. I do with each piece of software I create. I think creating a program is like writing a book or creating any piece of art (for the most part). That being said, you can feel that way and still let it go. (although, I have not found out how to do that yet)

Answer 5

I like to see Management as an abstraction layer (great article) that makes it unnecessary for me to do anything but code. Every thing they didn't tell you was more more needless interruption.

Obviously you know about these things now, so nothing was hidden from you, right?

Answer 6

Try to stay on top of what's happening. The reason is you may already be considered responsible for the code. That means if someone else breaks it (bad code, bad manual, bad feature) the blame, or at least the responsibility to fix it, could still end up on your desk.

Just try not to step on other peoples pride while you do it. You want to be helping them, not ordering them around. If you do it right they will invite you to the discussions instead of feeling like you're a possessive git.