Project Smells: The Nine Billion Names of Order Manager Pro Gold

“Look,” whispered Chuck, and George lifted his eyes to heaven. (There is always a last time for everything.) Overhead, without any fuss, the stars were going out. —The Nine Billion Names of God, by Arthur C. Clarke

OK, it’s not that bad, but I have noticed something weird on a project I joined a few weeks ago:

Nobody knows what it’s called.

In the short time I’ve been on the project, I’ve heard it called four different things. I’m not exactly sure what this means, but I have a feeling that it’s not something good.

In particular, PHB doesn’t call it what “everyone else” does. Of course, everyone else doesn’t know what to call it either.

For myself, I don’t call it anything. I don’t need to call it anything. I just need to know what feature I’m supposed to be working on, and what it’s supposed to do.

If you include whatever the users call it, there may be five names. I’m not sure, though, since I’ve never met one.

Sniff.