As often happens, because he thinks for nearly everybody in his company up to and possibly including the CIO, DMc gets called onto a bridge after hours. This one is to help estimate the time to build some new alleged emergency servers for a group that has escalated up to the C-level because they failed to plan ahead while IT resources have nearly disappeared and now they have a massive, costly vendor-based timeline problem. (So, just like nearly all companies ever, amIright?)
DMc’s Manager: DMc, I need to know what your thoughts are on how to handle cloning these servers and how long it would take you, Co-worker A, and Co-worker B to get it all done and handed over.
DMc: *asks a few pertinent questions for background* Well, assume 30 minutes research on names, IPs, patch levels, non-standard installs on each box. Then at least 2 hours per to clone…
TMc: (calls from the kitchen) Assume NO interruptions!
DMc: Yeah, that’s per box, effort NOT duration, because you gotta assume zero interruptions but that never happens.
DMc’s Manager: Yeah, yeah, she’s right, no interruptions or we’ll have to what, double the estimate?
TMc: (calls from the kitchen) Yes, I’d double it to be safe, you know how interrupt-driven the team’s days are right now!
Nearly Everybody on the Bridge: Yeah, yeah, that is SO true!
Random DMc Co-worker: Wait. Who was that lady talking?
DMc: My wife. She absolutely knows what she’s talking about, and she’s the only reason I’m still working here. Just roll with it.
DMc’s Manager and Co-worker: Fair enough, OK!
TMc: (in the kitchen, sotto voce) Damn skippy, children.
At any rate, I’m still trying to decide if it’s less fun, or more fun, now that I’m not getting paid for it.