It's never easy

Non-developers (or developers unfamiliar with the details of a particular feature) sometimes say that a seemingly straightforward change “should be easy to implement” without knowing whereof they speak.

Usually what they mean is that in the perfect world that exists in their imagination it should be easy. Sadly, this is an imperfect world full of shitty code, and even when the code’s not shitty it may not always be possible to accommodate new requirements without refactoring.

Never tell a developer something should be easy to implement unless:

  1. The universe is perfect, or
  2. You plan to implement it yourself

This blogget was inspired by my hellish week and a coincidental tweet by @AptanaLoriHC.