Hmm, the short version: got a client in Malaysia, only, the marketing drones (and some management types) promised to deliver something that we'd never heard of before.. typical.. Unfortunately, ppl knew I was familiar with Tk, so they made the obvious (err.. not to me) connection that I could do Tcl programming too.. on a voice enabled router, no less.. YIKES.. (oh, and all this in 2 weeks)..
So, the mission, should I be press ganged into accepting it, was: implement a complete IVR scripting solution and the Oracle forms and Radius server scripts that go with it in 14 working days..
Well, it worked.. sorta.. only the 2 weeks of development was dwarfed by 2 months worth of bug fixes, unsurprisingly..
If (or as soon as) you accept, it becomes your problem, not theirs. And at the moment this is very much their problem. If you make it yours, they're relieved of having to learn not to do crazy things like this again.
Recommendation: Ignore the deadline for the moment, and sketch out a plan and preliminary schedule. I assume it'll come out to much more than 14 days. Marketing is going to freak (and will probably accuse you of not being a team player), but you an counter that signing up do do something that you know you can't do is not "being a team player", and they had the opportunity to seek an expert opinion before they got themselves in trouble. If they keep pushing, saying "I don't know how to do that (build the system in 14 days). If you can find someone who does, I'd love to work with them so that I can learn. But I don't know how to do it, and it would be irresponsible of me to pretend that I can."
I said I couldnt do it, I was given a "try your best, it doesnt matter if it bombs out".. like McConnell said, developers are usually lousy negotiators compared to marketing ppl, so I decided to do it anyway..
In the end, looking back, its nothing that I would ever want to repeat.. it was scary hours (and I had the distinction of actually falling asleep in the elevator, on my way back to the hotel room
Now, if I say I cant do it, there are a LOT of ppl, even in marketing, who wont dismiss that out of hand (which unfortunately, happens all too often in this place)..it got me some credibility with that crowd.. plugging away at a lost cause wins you friends, it seems..
On a slightly more cynical note, though, the way the economy works right now, I think even if you advertise saying that the working conditions are 80 hour weeks, there will still be a deluge of resumes.. each time there was a vacancy in the team, there were more than 200 resumes for each position.. ppl out there are so desperate to get into a job, they'll sign up for anything..
