It's Release Day, and I'm Bored

Well, for the third time this summer, today is Release Day. Really, it's been Release Week, but today is the big day. Today is the day we can't log into our system because we're rolling the projects we've been toiling over into production.

Release Week (from a developer's standpoint) is a week when projects stand still. Regardless of the official status of things, no developer is assigned to any project during release week so we can help with the preparations. Emails go out listing differences between the various environments. Those responsible reply to claim their code. The QA department goes into overdrive testing projects that are releasing. Development concentrates on bug reports related to the release.

Release Day actually starts at close-of-business on Thursday. That's when our system is shut down. It's also when the DBA and various project leads start rolling database changes to production. This process lasts late into the night. Friday morning they roll the changed database code. Usually around lunch on Friday the QA department can log in and begin testing. And this is the start of the real fun.

QA testing generally lasts from lunch on Friday to close to midnight, and can continue on Saturday. During QA testing developers are basically on standby. We're deliberately kept bored so we can respond immediately if a problem is ever found. We're allowed to bring in game consoles and TVs to help us waste time.

Food is never a problem. Investment Scorecard cares for its employees. We're given multiple menus to choose from for lunch, with different menus for dinner. The food is great - we're not talking about McDonald's, folks. Hot meals. Hot sandwiches and other entrees for lunch. Steaks, salmon, chicken for dinner. All paid for.

The game consoles usually attract a small crowd (whatever can fit in a cubicle). For each console there's generally 3-6 people watching, one person trying to beat the previous score, and occasionally someone working. The breadth of games brought in is impressive, though there are company favorites. Lines form for Halo 2 and Amped for XBox, and sometimes for Gran Turismo 4 for PS2. Card games are also common, with one or two going on at any given time. I have no idea what games they play, though.

I don't happen to have any projects rolling to production this week, and I've not been around long enough to be assigned any standard release-week duties, so I am bored. At least I'm honest about it - my supervisor knows I'm searching for something to do. But it's lunch time, and I know I'll be here another twelve hours watching my brain cells form a puddle beneath my feet.

I was bored, so I thought I'd write about my predicament. I hope you enjoyed it.