Clint Hill

Yesterday I wrote a bug.

That bug got to QA.

I fixed the bug, re-released to QA and QA then approved my code.

We should be releasing to PROD today.

My boss “questioned” my code.

There’s a lot more to this than what I’m bemoaning here. During the development of this application I had to be involved in all aspects. From the business to QA and PROD operations. While I still don’t know a lot about the environment, I was asked to assure the success of the release of my code to brand new servers. And all of the dependencies. And all of the network ports being open. And all of the URL routes.

On top of this I learned a critical lesson about the process here. The UI/UX team has final say on everything. This is good information. See during development when I was working with the business (those who actually asked for the app) they requested changes to the UI. I obliged. This was, as I have learned, the absolute wrong thing to do.

And that’s where the bug came from. I had code written to accommodate the business requests. At the 11th hour I had to change it back to accommodate the UI/UX team.

In a rush I made a mistake. Not a mistake I would normally make. A mistake that makes me look as though I have only been writing code for the last year (not 10). My boss questioning my code stings. I take ownership of the mistake – but I want someone to take ownership of the process that led me to make it.

NullReferenceException is an exception that occurs when you try to perform an action on something that doesn’t exist.