This is a dev’s worst nightmare.
Product management does not have a good way of surveying their user base so they just guess at what features need to be made. Product will also dictate how the development is done and the typical solution is to add more resources to the project. They’ll even demand to re-use old code that they think is extensible to solve other problems when in fact it is not and then cause bugs in multiple applications.
Often times the business analysis and the quality assurance falls onto the dev as well. Don’t bother unit testing or documenting anything; they see it as a waste of time. And mostly is due to the fact that you will get conflicting information on a day to day basis. You will make up for the ownership that would technically fall under other roles.
Transparency is demanded, yet never returned.
Estimates are treated as commitments.
Your ideas for improving anything will never be followed through. Basically being treated as another member of the factory line.
They’ve had several failed attempts at implementing agile until they finally said “we’re in the business of delivering software, not in the business of agile” (exact words). Although true, what they really meant to say was “we are no longer taking constructive criticism and will push for results at the expense of the devs”. The biggest slap in the face came when they hired agile consultants to come in, only to have those consultants suggest the same thing that was documented in 2 years of retrospective meetings from their dev teams. And even that process didn’t last very long.
The only ones that can help you are other devs but they typically have their plates full of spontaneous new high priorities.
