I work in a small IT department (4 people), and two of the 4 of us are software developers. The company is behind the times in terms of IT solutions and technology in general. So my coworker and I are developing software to ease paper and pencil documentation, product tracking, cost savings solutions, and QA solutions and tracking. The other developer and myself work really well together and we are very good at making the software that is requested from the higher ups.
Our problem is that we get a project to 98% completion and our manager comes to us and informs us that our focus is now to be shifted to a new project or to go back to working on a previous unfinished project. Since these focus shifts come from a top tier boss we don't have much choice than to shift focus. But being thrown between new projects and having to revisit and pick up our thought trains on old ones months after we've left the project is becoming really troublesome. Myself and my partner are at the point where we are becoming jaded and we don't work nearly as hard as we used to on projects. Because we just know that we won't get to finish it. Add to that, our manager telling us that it appears that we aren't working because we haven't pushed anything out and that we are making the department look bad. It's just a really weird cycle that I think I'm the only one who sees it.
So, I'm here to ask you fine people if there is something we can do as developers to change the status quo? We've brought it up to our manager who has basically told us that it's just the way it is. Is there a way we can help keep the higher ups focused on current projects and not like kids with ADD who can't keep their mind focused for long? I understand that they are excited at what these solutions can do for the company but they just can't grasp the concept of the process of concept to completion. My partner and I would really like to get to a place where we can complete projects and implement what we design.