Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Fastpath seems more like a visibility play than fixing the real isues of troops in the foxholes

Ordered teams to start replacing all cisco gear on Friday based on this https://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/07/12/cisco_switch_staros_voip_patches/

Can't have my company dependent on poor quality products.

So to you having "people" Skills means BSing the Customers into buying broken code?

I work with the customers, so the engineers don't have to.

I have people skills.

One VP in BU once said: "XR code is spaghetti code". That was 4 years ago before I moved to Sales. What's the new analogy for XR these days?

when you reach a certain level what is even the point to code anymore just so it compiles? everything else breaks but at least the code compiles, there is seriously something wrong with that mentality.

I once worked at a company where the Engineering VP came up with the idea that software developers should not do any testing. All the developers were responsible for was code that compiled without errors at which point it was turned over to the test groups. You can imagine how well that idea worked.

yea pointing out failures is depressive as hell, i could not agree more, lets all be idiots its easer that way....

@U2WgD8F-2bcs: Nailed it.

God what a bunch of depressives. Cheer up folks.

Its a problem for all large systems. Eventually the entire codebase needs redesign/refactoring. Few companies have management that can go a year with no new features while engineering rebuilds the system. Test needs to be designed in too not just scaling. Apple did it but you have to have a powerful founder like Steve Jobs to pull it off. Who could do this at csco?

Imagine being a new engineer giving unreal dates for new features. Hey structured programming yea! You have no time to look over 4000 routines in that mess of a library so you create all new duplicate code. It does happen and that pressure to deliver really trashes the libraries.

Third and last issue is Agile. Agile simply does not work for large scale code bases. Multiple teams working all over the world will not and really can't closely communicate all over the world. Agile really is a single team focus for smaller code, on that it works well. Large code bases are trashed at lightspeed. All you care about is finishing your piece quickly and quality code is not the goal, fast delivery is.

In order to sell to Google, FB and web companies service providers, SPNBU aka XR need lighting speed delivery. However, quality is flagged that commit is a hassle; instead of looking at root cause and reduce the debt, developers look for workaround to commit. On top of that, the sanity is even more automated, more and more tools heavy process to qualify commits are imposed; the sanity suite itself is unstable.

Agree 100% with OP

I would add that when Fbook and Google become the baseline comparison of everything then you hit a new low, this is wrong on so many levels its not even funny anymore. Its based on stupidity and lack of or willingness of understand how to maintain or develop proper code. Now everyone is a marketing idiot there are no longer Network architects, just marketing and sales the reasoning is no longer technical its just "copy paste" whatever the competition has even if it does not make sense and if the customer does not want it well we don't care, we are too busy copying and making pretty power points.

Also adding Agile for software dev does not help, sure looks great in paper , havent seen 1 company that has profited for implementing Agile , code quality allways decreases with the addition of poor quality control its a mix for desaster.

Problem is not with less or more test but messed up code, faulty design , race conditions , timing issues at scale and none able to visualize complex interplay of components nose to tail. Things which work great in simulator may not on real hw. Xr is after all a loosely coupled message passing system.

Test can only catch some of it and that late in the game

I wonder how other cos with large systems like xr keep quality? Surely others have faced this before csco

this all started several years ago when Gary M was still the COO and sought to cut costs by reducing testing and making the bet on customers testing the code. anyone else remember that? still shaking my head that an executive would say that