Software #2

When you read Proverbs enough, you get to the point, where for a particular situation, you can begin to quote an apt proverb... but then not be able to finish it correctly.

Like the cold of snow in the time of harvest
Is a faithful messenger to those who send him,
For he refreshes the soul of his masters.
(Proverbs 25:11)

So, I was getting LeTourneau's online course software Blackboard up and checking out the class discussion board in preparation to starting work on some reading and then taking a quiz this evening, when...

What! Somebody is asking on the discussion board whether the second part of an assignment was really due on June 20th or June 6th--today. The instructor replied with something like the following: "Oh, you didn't get the new schedule? A few things have changed."

Looking at the changed schedule, I saw that, yes, this massive part B of the present assignment was due today. I had to read a chapter and take a quiz already today. Furthermore, I had wanted to do some other reading I had never finished yet and polish up Part A that I had never really finished before I even started on Part B.

It turns out, if you ask, and lay out the situation, some professors (and I suppose managers) will re-evaluate the milestones you have to make. So, after emailing the professor to say that, I would probably not be able to make this deal go through and I also doubted the capability of my classmates to do the same, especially when the schedule change was unannounced... after all this, I got an email that was basically cold snow.

Two more days for Component B of Assignment 3.

Phew. Now as far as I have observed in software engineering, this also happens in the work world. But, seriously, it is a lot easier for a professor presiding over a summer class which he facilitates in an open-ended, uncertain fashion to move back a due date, than it is for a customer to move back a delivery on a multi-million dollar product.

Note to self: When it comes to software creation, think ahead and plan for the worst.