I'm just fixing bugs...

The product I work on is a large ERP-style application. It's been around for over 10 years and whilst it is a world class product, it has built up a bit of baggage over time. I'm talking about large numbers of bugs & feature requests. While it would be nice to always spend your day breaking new ground and solving new & interesting problems, unfortunately our current reality doesn't allow for that - those bugs aren't gonna fix themselves.

In an attempt to inject a bit of passion, perspective and (alliteration don't fail me now) a public paroxysm of praise, my fellow Skunkworks members introduced a monthly Showcase Session involving the entire R&D team for the product (~45 people). The core idea of the Showcase is that anyone from the team is welcome and encouraged to do a short presentation (5-10 mins) on anything new, interesting or exciting that they've been working on (or are about to work on).

I've now been running these for about six months and feedback I've received indicates that the team really finds these sessions valuable and interesting. The difficulty I now face is the struggle to find people to volunteer. A bit of a pattern is already emerging with The Usual Suspects being relied upon to step up (and I'm extremely grateful that they do). A bit of prodding for people who I thought perhaps were waiting for that slight shove into the dance floor before they bust out a big move instead resulted in a comment that kind of floored me: "I'm just fixing bugs - I don't really have anything interesting to talk about".

As I said, this kind of floored me until I remembered that perception is reality. The developers were seeing a series of bugs pass by their door like cans on a conveyor-belt. Individually the bugs may be small annoyances, but put together they have the potential to give the perception to users that our product is... not so good. When your day is spent getting the next fix out the door as soon as possible, it can be hard to look at the big picture of what you've been doing and then realise, "this will actually make a difference to our users". The edges are being smoothed, the polish applied and the overall user experience improved.


So I think I've found myself a topic to present at the next Showcase Session, and until then will continue to fight the good fight to inspire the team to show-off their work and gain some recognition.