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I'm working as an offshore ERP Development Lead with a BPO Company and have a Onshore Manager ("MM"). Apart from being a developer, I also do a lot of Support and Testing work, since we're a bit short-handed.

MM and I regularly discuss about my tasks at hand over Skype and he would often ask for an estimate on when I can finish my tasks. Whenever I give him an estimate, he would always disagree and say that it should take less time. Sample is as follows:

MM: "So what are your current tasks right now?"

Me: "I'm currently finishing up the development of Project X and should be done with tests within two days."

MM: "Two days? Why would it take that long? Shouldn't it be just a line of code that you have to modify and quickly test?"

Me: "Its a bit more complex than that. I would have to look into Scenarios and do Regression Test to ensure it does not hit other downstream systems."

MM: "No, you're over-analyzing things, its a simple fix and it shouldn't need regression testing."

He would always say that its just some lines of code and once integration testing is successful then its good for Production. Sure enough, a fix we deployed with minimal analysis and testig affected a lot of downstream systems and, of course, i had to fix it. This has happened every time we have a meeting to the point we're already arguing because I am trying to convince him that these changes require a bit more analysis and testing, but he keeps on saying i'm taking too long and over-analyzing things. I believe that quality and efficient code take a bit more longer to write and test.

It seems its been the company culture wherein they don't adhere to IT standards and policies (My Manager violates IT policies and does not adhere to Standard Practices).

Is this something I should escalate? And what better approach can I take to convince him that these types of changes need more time to analyze and test?

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    isn't programming simply typing on a keyboard? </sarcasm>
    – Rémi
    Mar 28, 2018 at 16:52
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    Just as an aside, the "MM" in this series of questions is not me. :)
    – Masked Man
    Mar 28, 2018 at 16:58
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    ERP solutions, namely from a German company in that field, are infamously notorious in these parts on how every change breaks the entire system on a huge scale (CEOs have been fired, companies have lost 10% market share, 3 months of lost sales, etc). So ERP does not automatically mean more thorough testing ;)
    – Juha Untinen
    Mar 28, 2018 at 18:04
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    Possible duplicate of How to politely but firmly stand my ground on task scheduling requests that are unrealistic?
    – gnat
    Mar 28, 2018 at 20:49
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    You are offshore and your on site manger just wants to get things done as quickly as possible and doesn't care about code quality after he hears it will take longer, quite frankly I'm shocked.
    – Snickers3192
    Mar 29, 2018 at 0:00

2 Answers 2

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Is this something I should escalate?

No, I would not go over your managers head for this. Unless he is a brand new manager, his boss will take his word over yours and your direct manager may find out you went over his head which could be career limiting to you. Definitely do not go to HR over this, as this issue isn't something they will be very helpful with.

And what better approach can I take to convince him that these types of changes need more time to analyze and test?

I think your best bet here is the next time something is broken in production, where applicable, explain/demonstrate how a proper testing plan could have saved the embarrassment.

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    I would add to this - sometimes, it can be helpful to have discussions about standards and methods separate from discussions about priorities and task lists. It sounds like the OP is combining the two (perhaps unintentionally) which never seems to turn out well when the standards are ambiguous, especially if you're talking to someone primarily responsible for timelines versus quality.
    – dwizum
    Mar 28, 2018 at 17:22
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Stay vigilant in your estimates and testing!

The longer you work on a piece of software, the better your estimates will become. You know, better than your boss, the amount of time required to implement features and fix issues so continue to estimate to the best of your knowledge. I too, implement code changes that I have to personally test and therefore I like to multiply my time to fix/implement by 1.5 or 2 depending on the issue or feature. Fortunately my boss understands this because he was a software developer.

What are the consequences for not reliably testing your software before committing them? Technical debt. We as developers (should) know this!

This will accrue overtime if you were to do it your manager's way.

Who is going to be the one responsible for cleaning up that technical debt? It sure as heck won't be your manager. It's going to be you and you alone! Keep pushing back as to protect the company and most importantly, you!

Even though I like the idea of keeping a paper trail about issues that occur and how they could have been prevented... Those issues will need to get fixed regardless... At the end of the day it's your time which will be wasted having to go back and fix the issues!

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