How quickly can you find those responsible?
Posted by HademLeFashie@reddit | ExperiencedDevs | View on Reddit | 15 comments
I keep running into this scenario at work, where I need a task done by someone from another team (deployment setup, certain privileges, cron job orchestration, etc), or I need to talk to someone from another team to discuss something or gather knowledge.
The problems I run into are the following: - I don't know who belongs to what team, so I end up having to ask someone, who then directs me to someone else, who directs me to someone else, and so on. And if they're not available, I'm stuck. Or I hope it's in my chat history. Or I ask my manager and risk looking clueless. - The knowledge I get is usually second, third, or fourthhand, so I'm not sure if it's reliable. But my manager thinks it is, so I have to either dismiss my skepticism, or risk wasting time double-checking info. - It's not always clear in our internal ticketing system which tickets go to which teams, and there's no guide or template as to the kinds of requests these teams will fulfill.
It's a decently-sized (around 500 employees), though not very large company. Compared to most of the employees, I'm one of the newer ones (2.5 years compared to decades), so it has this vibe of "You just gotta know who to talk to" to get things done.
What annoys me is that "teams" aren't neatly organized. Someone can be in X team, but also part of a larger Y team, and then also part of a Z team with members from other X teams. There isn't an easy way to learn this, the org chart doesn't line up all the time.
How big does a company get before this causes too much of a communication overhead? Or am I just overreacting and I should suck it up?
Sharke6@reddit
Wow. I almost want to name my own company because it sounds like we're colleagues. But I suspect it's just the same everywhere.
This has been my gripe all through the 20 years I've been here. You need a question answered but there's simply no way. No way to even find out who or how to ask. Relies on luck & it's no way to run a railroad. And almost worst of all, if you're of a helpful disposition, you eventually become the guy that people bring their own unfathomable queries to.
PsychologicalCell928@reddit
Some thoughts:
A) Assign a task and see who handles it. Rinse and repeat. Document who does what.
B) go to the person that manages the task management system and ask how people are added/deleted to a workgroup. Then ask how to see the workgroups.
It may be that you want to ‘talk’ to someone when there is a system in place that eliminates that need.
Have you asked your manager about this?
Ask the sys admin if there is a log of completed tasks? Troll through them and see if there are discernible roles.
oofy-gang@reddit
The problem of having complex org structures is inherent to large companies. Never seen one where there wasn’t at least some complexity.
Your manager and PMs should be figuring this out for you. They are the people-people.
aristarchusnull@reddit
Ah, but what if there is no PM?
failsafe-author@reddit
We have an engineering org of about 100 people. It’s not hard for me to figure out who to talk to. I have no problem asking my manager and I don’t fear looking clueless. Usually he, or someone else, can direct me tot be right team, and then I can zero in on the person I need to talk to.
CpnStumpy@reddit
Buddy. Step 1 to all engineering is: be clueless
If you aren't down with step 1, the rest of the steps get infinitely harder. The number of engineers I wish would just ask me things instead of guessing their way through when they're out of their depth ugh..
The most senior engineers always ask right away. Always
PhilosophyTiger@reddit
Being clueless is much worse than looking clueless. When you need to ask, ask. A good manager will understand.
khedoros@reddit
We've only got like 5 teams. Typical thing is that we go to the team lead of the appropriate team and they pull in whoever needs to see it. But when I don't know who to go to, that's something to ask my lead, and I'll usually get an introduction that way.
But I guess my product is fairly small. I've worked on larger projects before, and sometimes had to ask around until I found whoever was the actual owner/SME on some specific thing. The longer you're there, the less often you have to ask.
Kolt56@reddit
Right click, git blame.
Complain to said person in dev
Or
Complain about said ex employee in dev sync
F1B3R0PT1C@reddit
Yes, finding and establishing working relationships with key personnel is a soft skill. Some people in organizations become nexus points; people who know lots of people in the org and can always point someone in the right direction. These are valuable traits.
DeterminedQuokka@reddit
Have you tried using pms? They are usually pretty good at doing the telephone part for you
flavius-as@reddit
Each of your 3 points looks like a management failure.
Instead of assuming responsability over your manager's actual responsability, ask in writing (e-mail or tickets), for the information needed to your manager.
It's HIS job to tell you precisely who to ask.
If he tells you to ask Joe, then Joe tells you it should be Mike, you don't go to Mike.
Instead, you tell Mr. Manager that Joe said it's Mike and ask him to clarify since this conflicts with your Manager's understanding of your organization.
mgudesblat@reddit
I look at the confluence docs, and find the people who last edited the doc. Then I bother them. And if they're no longer related to the team that owns that doc, they point me at the team that does. Then I find their confluence team page. Then I bother the TL/Sr dev. Or sometimes it's looking up the repo in GitHub and find the most prominent contributor.
AppointmentDry9660@reddit
I create tickets when I can't find people through word of mouth or an org chart
Ok-Regular-1004@reddit
git blame