This is something that took me 2 years or so to learn. One day I realised nobody was really looking at my timecards in depth so I started allocating extra time to things and using the extra time to fix the things I thought needed fixing. Once I started delivering on this I showed my manager who agreed that it was a good use of time. I was given free reign to fix anything I felt would add maximum value, provided the bug fixes continued to be delivered without any major compromise.
Since that time I have refactored quite a few of our codebases; added unit tests, fixed some build processes, improved performance and generally feel happier at work for getting things done that are important to me.
Dont get stuck in constant bug fix mode would be my suggestion. If you cant get approval to fix things then change jobs because bug fix after bug fix is depressing and will bring you down.
Yep - I learned it in my first job after college. We had a hacked-together app that was 99% complete. It then remained 99% complete for the next 2 years as we fixed bug after bug after new-bug-that-was-introduced-by-the-last-bugfix.
The codebase was unstable from the very beginning. It did eventually ship when we had added enough duct tape, but it never turned into a solid app.
Towards the end of year 1 I already knew that most of this simply needed to be re-written and done differently, but I was overruled by more senior folks who were responsible for this mess. It was always "we can't do this now, because we need to ship as fast as possible".
Sure, but considering this is the author of the article we're commenting on, I think an exception is reasonable here. I'm interested in which comments the author's aligned with. It's a discussion, after all.. one that this person started. I'm not saying vote up.. but we could lay off the down arrow.
Since that time I have refactored quite a few of our codebases; added unit tests, fixed some build processes, improved performance and generally feel happier at work for getting things done that are important to me.
Dont get stuck in constant bug fix mode would be my suggestion. If you cant get approval to fix things then change jobs because bug fix after bug fix is depressing and will bring you down.