- No training process
- No quality assurance
- No testing process
- No long term plans, goals, or vision
- Learning about new technologies is discouraged
- Use of new technologies is strictly forbidden
- Very high turnover -- talented workers leave very quickly
- Below average pay and benefits. Cost of living raises only.
- You cannot get a promotion unless a higher position is publicly listed
- You must apply for higher positions the same way as people outside the company
- You must supply your own keyboard, mouse, monitor, etc.
- "Cube Farm" office building
- Developers are also the front line for user support, and carry pager 24/7
- Projects are approved based on lowest initial cost with no consideration given to long-term costs
- Managers and directors regularly contribute to the code base, make deployments, run schema changes, etc.
- Development is done directly on production environments
- Resources are shared between teams. Communication between teams is forbidden.
- Communication between team members must be kept to a minimum
- Customer data, including IP addresses and passwords for their production systems, is not secure and is not treated with respect
- Customer contracts are not accessible to IT so that we can claim "plausible deniability"
- Networking bandwidth, disk storage, laptop capabilities, etc. are extremely limited
- No recognition for work well done
- "Cowboy Coding" mentality prevails, no plans or processes are ever provided
- Management is not aware of industry trends or standard practices
- Constantly use the wrong tool for the job. Consistently re-invent the wheel.
- Management does not see any of the above as problems, but even if they did, they would be powerless to change the situation
