Image: NASA - Walt Disney and Werner von Braun
Web development is hard… but like the idiom says, “it’s not rocket science”.
But what if it was? Imagine this: Your team has been toiling for months and it’s just a week from the launch of the Neptune probe. You’re busy checking and rechecking the launch details when you get the call from the marketing manager: “Sorry to do this to you guys, but there’s a few last minute changes. No big deal, I’m sure you can handle it before you go home tonight.”
“No big deal…” That’s never a good sign. You wonder what it could be this time?
“Yeah, so… we signed a deal with Disney and we need to go to Pluto instead. Yeah, it’s gonna be sweet! Besides, I heard that Pluto is closer than Neptune now.”
Facepalm. You try to explain that even though Pluto was closer, since 1999 it has been getting farther. Not that it would matter, Pluto is in a completely separate part of the solar system. The gravity assist we planned on wouldn’t get us that far on limited fuel.
“Don’t worry… this deal is HUGE! I’ll get you all the fuel you want!”
Sigh. You’re not getting through. Trying a different approach, you ask what we would do once we get there. The mission was designed to study the atmosphere of Neptune.
“Atmosphere… whenever I ask for something simple, you geeks start throwing around these technical terms! It’s cleared legal, so there should be no problem. No more technical mumbo jumbo… I want results!”
Dumbfounded, you just stare at the manager.
“What? We can’t change this now… We’ve already scheduled a press conference.”
You switch off your computer.
“Hey… don’t worry, I’ll order a pizza. I can expense it!”
Note: I’ve never experienced this sort of horror story first hand, but I’ve heard a few chilling tales and I’m an avid reader of Clients from Hell. I am sort of sick of pizza though.