Hacker News Reader

I’ll probably get downvoted to oblivion, but I wish it were the same for software engineers (not programmers, or developers though — but people who explicitly label themselves or be labeled as “engineers”).

View on HN

We all know that can’t happen until and unless software engineers get the ability to say “no” to random changes in deadlines or specifications. We’re talking about an industry that invented agile so it can skip the spec..

You already have the ability to say "no", unless someone is holding a gun to your head while you write code -- but most of us don't work in Swordfish type environments.

If you are worried about getting fired for saying "no", create a union and get some actual worker's rights; at least in the US, unions have far more rights than workers.

The industry would have to change drastically for that to occur. I don’t think it would be a bad thing, but it would be a fundamental shift and drastically raise the cost.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com