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So, I love scribbling ideas on a whiteboard, like I'm sure most developers here do!

It's a release of creativity and a starting point for many sources of software I've developed in the past. And something that doesn't happen all too often where I get an overflow of ideas and put them on a board.

This week was one such rare week where the ideas just came streaming in and the floodgates weren't able to hold them back...

Then came the dam wall down river... MANAGEMENT!

They had already sold a product to the customer that didn't exist yet and tasked a junior developer (I'm talking fresh out of school) to deliver. Of course, this was promised last year already and now the customer had paid and is waiting for the goods!

Along I come with this design which will enable the product to grow, allow the junior development to learn, me to mentor and for us all to let the creative juices flow, all while I get to flex my web dev muscles.

But management wants something now! A temporary solution for the customer to keep them happy, seeing as they've paid some money, which is to be developed by the junior dev on his lonesome.

Meanwhile my beautiful design has been snuffed out and are mere streaks and smears on a whiteboard, and the creative juices seem to have dried up since.

I am feeling somewhat despondent at the moment...

Comments
  • 3
    I hate when that happens. It happens to me quite often.
  • 5
    @GinjaNinja, I write this knowing nothing about your situation, your software, or your co-workers and management. But all of us here know, there is no such thing as a "temporary solution." As soon as the client uses the code in production, it becomes the product. So find a way to lay the seeds for your design. Nascent features, interfaces not yet needed, classes that are just stubs waiting to grow. Use the bare bones of the architecture you envision as a foundation for the future versions of the product. Your ideas will be only be delayed instead of extinguished. With each revision the product will grow into what you see in your mind. And on your amazing white board.
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