The Gatekeeper War
I was brought in on a new project last month. Well, it was anew project for me — a couple of people had already been gathering requirements for four months and then spent three weeks writing some code (one “sprint”, in the terms of Agile Development). One person is even the lead — they have met with the users to understand the business problems we are trying to solve and how they want to fix it. We will call that person the Gatekeeper, because they hold the only way into the requirements for this project.
When I got started on this project, I had thought that the requirements were known and all I had to do was read them. Then maybe have a few meetings, and the get the two other developers input on a few simple matters. But, boy, was I wrong. You see, the Gatekeeper doesn’t want to share the way into the gate — they want to keep it only for themselves. Which makes it hard when you are new and need to be productive right away.
I should have been warned when one of my first assignments was to make a process out of our BPM software. I asked the Gatekeeper if they had the document of what this process was supposed to do. They looked at me incredulously — “That’s for you to define!” Oh, great. So you have been talking to customers and subject matter experts for months and now I’m expected to talk to them, too? And do you think I even got a list of people to talk to? No!!
So, instead of working on BPM, I did some coding. And I had to pry around for the business rules for that, too. I got little snippets here and there and formed some idea of what I was supposed to do. And then I’d ask a simple question and then get a long spiel back that not only answered my question, but also caused me to ask many more. It seems that the Gatekeeper is only interested in giving as little information as possible as to look smarter. Or to be the One Source of All Knowledge. It’s crap, of course — we’re a team and if the project fails, we all fail. If it succeeds it’s because we all worked together — not because one person had all the information and doled it out when they saw fit.
In the midst of the coding, I put pressure on to get a Visio of the business process I needed to make. I told them I need a node-to-node relationship, but a general idea on things should work. And I got a four-page print out of the process in all possible states. On closer inspection, though, there are sections of “TBD”. Okay, fine, I’ll ignore those until the Gatekeeper determines to share that knowledge.
Then, finally, I have a code review on my coding task. Ever had a code review where there is a greedy Gatekeeper? It’s ain’t pretty. The Gatekeeper gleefully informed me on what I was doing wrong and I shot back, “How was I supposed to know?” At one point, the Gatekeeper asked, “Why did you do that?” I retorted, “Because you told me to.” and gave them the day we talked about it. The response: “Well, I misunderstood you.” Therefore, I came out of the code review feeling like an idiot but I consoled myself that it’s the Gatekeeper’s game. They want to feel like they are in charge and will only give out the requirements when they feel it is necessary. Well, that is a game I can’t just simply sit quietly and play along.
We have a wiki where we are supposed to put our technical documents, etc. And the Gatekeeper ignores it’s very existence. So I sent out one plea to say, “Let’s try to put our docs on the wiki, then everyone can know this.” I got a lame email back from the Gatekeeper, saying that they used to but suddenly stopped for one reason or another. But I didn’t send that email out expecting change — I sent it out as a warning shot.
Now, whenever the Gatekeeper sends out their long email filled with business rules, I copy-and-paste it into the wiki. I then do a Reply To All and say “I copied-and-pasted this email into the wiki at . . .” and give the address. Nope, it’s not subtle and it’s not meant to be. It’s meant to send a strong message that says “We are supposed to share this information with the whole team.” Instead of complaining about the lack of information, I’m putting whatever I get from the Gatekeeper (and anyone else) on the wiki and let them know that I did it. It’s a bold move and makes me stand out. But, dang it! It makes no sense in keeping all the information closed off to the people who need it
So will I win the war with the Gatekeeper? I don’t know and I’m not sure that I care. What I’m really trying to do is to make sure that the project succeeds. And that won’t happen if one person has closed off all the information. If the Gatekeeper gets all the credit, that’s fine. But who’s name will be on the wiki pages saying that the wrote those documents? Mine — not theirs.
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