Joining the dev group has been inevitable, but I wanted to hold out until the new chief of dev came along ( I was told January, but I guess they didn't get their budget so they have to fix their problems now ) solve: bob needs newspaper development given: glenn is a newspaper developer solution: glenn does newspaper development
Simple enough, but there are restrictions on doing any sort of developement.

solve: glenn does development given: only dev does development solution: glenn joins dev


but bob doesnt trust dev, so... digraph trust1 { bob -> glenn -> bob ; dev; } solve: bob trusts dev given: bob trusts glenn solution: glenn transfers trust to dev digraph trust2 { bob -> glenn -> bob ; glenn -> dev -> glenn ; } I'd be fine if we could just stop here. It's what I want to do, it's where I want to be -- a direct relationship with dev and the customer.
which leads to: solve: glenn imbues dev with bob's trust given: glenn joins dev solution: glenn trusts dev and dev trusts glenn digraph trust3 { bob -> dev -> bob ; dev -> glenn -> dev ; }
So now it it gets down to the interesting part. How to solve for mutual trust between glenn and dev? solve: glenn trusts dev dev trusts glenn given: glenn mistrusts dev dev mistrusts glenn solution:
bob's desire to control compensation implies that bob doesn't trust glenn breaking the chain even earlier than this unsolved triplet. if bob's control over compensation builds trust, then the control should be both ways in order to be mutual. It also folows that he should control dev's compensation because that is the trust he needs. let's say Glenn, Bill and Bob are sitting at a table. The salt is behind the pepper from Bill's point of view, and so cannot be seen. Bob asks Bill for salt. Bill replies, he cannot give Bob any salt. Bob, wondering why he cannot have any salt, asks Glenn for the salt. Glenn should first ask Bill about the salt. Glenn cannot look for the salt or offer opinions about what might seem obvious about the salt. Glenn replies, "If Bill said no, then, no. If Bill said yes, then, yes. Either way I cannot comment or perform any function related to salt unless those directives come through Bill." It could be argued that this is justified because I don't know that the salt is needed for a later course of the meal. But if that were the case, rather than telling Bob there is no salt, Bill should explain he is saving the salt for the later course. Either way, I dare not hand any salt to bob. The situation, as has been explained to me in the past, is that it is my job to consult with Bill about all things I am asked to do, and to train the askers not to ask me. It is not Bill's job to ask me. To show that this analogy does map well to reality, consider instances where the premise was broken: Bob asks about easing FF article feed integration if the site can supply its articles in NITF format. I reply it should ease the article feed integration substantially. The most recent rollouts validate this statement. But I was reprimanded for this opinion. Beth asks if her recipes can be fielded so as to be usable for the recipe apps she wanted. I told her not quite, but more 65% could be and the remainder could be ranked as to how badly they needed human intervention. I made it clear that I could not do the work for her, but that I had validated the strategy. I was reprimanded for this opinion as well. When dealing with large amounts of money, Ron, Bob, Beth, etc would be negligent not to seek a second opinion. That fact that they ask me is a reflection of their trust/respect. They could just as easily asked anyone else, including outside vendors, which I would assume they will do more of once I am in dev. Bob also has to be careful - by saying that I am dedicated to Newspaper, that means that others are definitely not dedicated, and opens the doors to each other division receiving dedicated developers. Then we are back to where we started, except all of the developers for different divisions are mucking around in the same sandboxes. But there are pluses, if this can be viewed as a promotion of sorts - I go from being an island to a plugged in entity. I guess this leads to the ScrippsSolution to the ScrippsPuzzle