Thank You for the post, mazex. I found it to be concise and informative.:cool:

No ones being offended here mate but yourself:rolleyes:

He makes a fair point!!

I too shall now get drunk....

And at this point being in the trash can I can also admit it was more than one friday beer ;)

Wow, you're so cool. I, no we all have to admire you now. Too bad you wenting your stress here doesn't help even a little bit.

I agree that communication is flawed. They admitted that however and now all it takes is getting used to it. Is that really too hard for a development manager? If the answer is yes then I pitty your company and the employees, seriously. Even little kids are easier to deal with.

Maybe you should just take a break from work and vent your obviously accumulated stress elsewhere? :-P And in case mr. super development manager needs a reading aid: luthier said that there is NO fixed release date already. What more do you need to be informed? :rolleyes:

Wow - I think I know someone that needs a break too ;) I was just having a joke about the fact that identifying all the stakeholders and keeping them informed about the progress is a normally a key factor for success as a manager/project manager. I do think that MG fails badly in this area and yes, that irritates me as I hate to see companies I wish success do mistakes.

Adding the part about me coming home after a tough week at work as a development manager was just to be a bit sarcastic about the fact that me and Ilya actually have rather similar roles at work and we both manage large IT projects with a lot of stress - so if I have the time to post about my hobby, why cant he post about something that concerns the future success of his company? I think it's a bad business move of him to not take that minute - be we are all free to differ in opinion here :)

Like I said 3 minutes after I posted too - (post four in this thread), it was rather childish of me to do this - but I was not that darn serious about it ;)

At work I do encourage my employees and customers to talk to me about whatever they feel needs to be corrected to deliver a better system to our customers or to make the developers feel better at work - especially if they are pissed off about something! I feel that works rather good.

Well, who said I was a super development manager that is cool and needs to be admired? As all other development managers (and all other people) I have lots of flaws, just like Ilya ;) Anyway - I really have no problem at all with the fact that they where not ready for the tentative date - but with the fact that he could not spend those 56 seconds last Friday and this Friday to just give us a quick update about the progress.

Normally I have also surrendered to the fact that their information strategy either does not exist or has priorities that has this forum in the bottom ;) Sometimes I just get amazed over how bad I think they handle that part of their business and a joke like the original post slips put of me - or some other sarcastic comment regarding development methodology or gold plating ... As you say that is really unnecessary as it's better to live with the fact that the forum channel has very priority for them right now. Making silly posts like mine in this thread sure does not make it better and it deserves it's place here in the trash can.

The bottom point is anyway that I want them to succeed, and when people/companies that you care about make mistakes it's sometimes hard to just be silent. For me the patch can come in a month, the important thing is that it works. But yes - I'm interested in the progress meanwhile, just like my kids in the back seat when we are late on the highway to some fun park that they are really looking forward to ;) Amazingly they are rather content if they get some reports about the progress and not just an angry "we arrive when we arrive and it will just be later if you continue asking!" - or worse, just ignoring their questions. I am a kid in the back seat waiting for a treat and that feels rather refreshing to being mr. super development manager at work all day - even though i love my work :) In my work role I have also realized that customers can take a lot if you keep them informed about why some feature does not work and when a fix is coming. If that date is missed they are normally STILL very forgiving if you just explain why and give them a new date... If you just keep quiet and don't give information to them they can get so mad that it hurts you business in a serious way for some crap detail - going to newspapers etc and you company is suddenly on page one.

+1 on all that, dude your get a load of people flaming you but likewise quite a few people completely and totally agree with what your saying

S

+1

I'm also a software developer project manager (while also working as senior producer and lead game designer at the same time), and no matter how busy I am, I still have time on each Friday to check IL2 CoD forum's for the patch. If I can do it, Ilya can do it too..

Thing is, that was just an excuse..

And if the patch was ready but needed more testing, why not just release it as a beta first to us on Friday, and only uploading it on Steam after all checks would have been done?

After all, we have more testers with more time in their hands and eventually even more WW2 sims experience in here than the testers they have at their office..

I think this was the shortest, most concise, most descriptive post for many Fridays!

Not insulting at all but, touched exactly the nerve! (judging by some reactions here).

Thank you for posting how I feel Mazex, +1
Actually, I went a step further, I re-installed IL2FB UP30RC4 on my machine and I can enjoy dogfighting again....


~S~

PS. I also do wish that they have success (I bought two CoD copies), it is not the bugs that annoy me, it is just the lack of serious (please, no balalaikas again...) and consistent communication that makes my blood boil.

I took the liberty of ordering you a drink to sup while you belittle other members obvious frustrations.

http://i55.tinypic.com/r20t8j.jpg