It was the same conference room they had been in a hundred times before, but today the atmosphere was different. Very different. As people gathered, no small talk was exchanged. Only silence. The sort of dead silence that you could cut with a knife. Yes, that was indeed an appropriate cliche given the topic of the meeting.
The business leaders and sponsors of the failing Sysops Squad ticketing application met with the application architects, Addison and Austen, with the purpose of voicing their concern and frustration about the inability of the IT department to fix the never-ending issues associated with the trouble ticket application. “Without a working application,” they had said, “we cannot possibly continue to support this business line.”
As the tense meeting ended, the business sponsors quietly filed out one by one, leaving Addison and Austen alone in the conference room.
“That was a bad meeting,” said Addison. “I can’t believe they’re actually blaming us for all the issues we’re currently facing with the trouble ticket application. This is a really bad situation.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Austen. “Especially the part about possibly closing down the product support business line. We’ll be assigned to other projects, or worse, maybe even let go. Although I’d rather be spending all of my time on the soccer field or on the slopes skiing in the winter, I really can’t afford to lose this job.”
“Neither can I,” said Addison. ...
