How Fast is Your Turnaround Time?

petrus.burdigala writes "I work for a mid-sized commercial software company (~20 Mloc) and we are frequently challenged by our supervisors to get fixes around the clock. Overall, we manage to get a 'bullet-proof' patch in about 4-5 weeks (from coding->QA->Build/Packaging->shipment), which I consider not so bad. But the other day, we got an urgent request from our support team to come up with a decent fix in 48 hours. I think they're a tiny bit unrealistic. So I wanted to get feedback from my peers: are we doing that bad? It takes months for other software vendors to issue zero-day exploit fixes, are our customers being unreasonable?"

Definition

[ShawnCplus]

aren't our customers being unreasonable

It may just be me but I think that's why they are called "customers"

Not Too High!

[Hanging By A Thread]

How much of that 48 hour deadline did you waste reading /.

Get back to work!

Hmmm.

[Stanistani]

What was that exploit again?

How much time do you spend on TPS reports?

[Joe The Dragon]

How much time do you spend on TPS reports?

The last time I did one I forgot the cover page and my 7 bosses all bugged me about it.

Re:four or five WEEKS?

[Tozog]

In that case, 5 weeks is not enough time for a marketing team to decide on a new name.

Re:Not Too High!

[Fred_A]

I don't know about you but my turnover time can be pretty fast especially if customers call me in the middle of the night. I'll even put my pillow on my head for free.

The Real Meaning of Bad

[soloport]

Our running joke used to be:
Marketing: We need it real bad!
Engineering: How bad do you need it?
Marketing: <puzzled look>
Engineering: Careful what you wish for... OK, Ops. Ship it!

None

[EmbeddedJanitor]

I made them believe it was a hardware problem!

Maybe CowboyNeal

[SnoopJeDi]

does business with this company.

Re:Small Startup Experience...

[Anonymous Coward]

I work in a small company doing support (amongst other things). I've been there longer than most of the developers due to high staff turn over.

A common scenerio for me goes like this:

1 - client reports a problem.
2 - spend 2-3 hours on phone with client identifying what's really going on.
3 - spend an hour or so in SQL Profiler/Delphi debugger to find the root cause.
4 - half an hour documenting what the problem is, causes & how to replicate in order to hand it off to a developer in an off-shore office

... wait a week or so for the client to get really cranky ...

4 - have my supervisor ask me Monday morning if I can look at it because the client is cranky & the developer is sick/has quit/has family crisis/there is a public holiday in that country.
5 - fix the damn thing which only takes a few hours to code & test & delivery after all the hard work was done in step 3
6 - wonder why the hell I am still with this company

Re:Can't compare

[Applekid]

"How long is a piece of string"?

Why, twice the distance from its midpoint to an end. Pfft. Easy. ;)

Re:How much time do you spend on TPS reports?

[jonadab]

> How much time do you spend on TPS reports?

Didn't you get the memo? TPS reports are out. The total quality studies showed that they didn't improve overall synergy, so the management had a think-outside-the-box session and did away with them. Now instead we're filling out TPC cards for every fifteen minutes, documenting what we did with our time. There's a peer review program for the TPC cards as well, so we can cross-evaluate our coworkers' productivity.

Re:Lack of information

[techno-vampire]

If it's a windows vista security patch, then 48 days would be unrealistic.

It doesn't take 48 days to burn a Linux CD and send it to the client.

Re:That works both ways.

[Fulcrum of Evil]

You sell toilet paper and control reactors with the same machine?

Re:We don't do "box" software

[Stochastism]

<quote>An apostrophe means "look out, here comes an 's'!"</quote>

No it doesn't.
           ^

Re:Parent is right.

[TheThiefMaster]

I unreasonably expect this post to be modded +5 insightful.

Which is of course why you got +5 Informative.

Re:Not Too High!

[dintech]

Anyway, why are you asking Slashdot? Should you maybe be writing code right now?

Re:That works both ways.

[Jesus_666]

You have no idea how the real world works.

Sometimes I long for the easy days before I got that PhD in Nuclear Science/Tissue Engineering. Before I knew how the nuclear power/toilet paper industry really works.

Re:That works both ways.

[Sanat]

Mistakenly install the roll backwards just one time and you will never work again in the toilet paper/nuclear power industry. They don't forget nor forgive. They just wipe up the mess and insert the rods again.