Week 7 Stand-up: Promotion-driven development

New things get built and old things rot because launches get rewarded and maintenance does not. This week you plan a rebuild nobody needs.

22 April 2027

This week's trickRebuild something that already works, and launch it.

Who paysThe users who migrate and the engineer who inherits the old system.

First stand-up after the break. Weeks 2 and 6 taught you that the measure is not the work and that credit follows the announcement. Put those together and you get the incentive that shapes most large software companies.

Bring#

Something you rely on that works and that nobody is praised for: a script, a shared spreadsheet, a rota, a piece of infrastructure.

The trick#

Identify a working system with an unclear owner and propose a next-generation replacement. Frame the existing system as legacy, the replacement as a platform, and the migration as a strategic investment. Ship the first milestone before the review cycle closes. Impact is assessed at launch; migration costs are assessed in someone else’s review.

What happens#

You write the one-page proposal to replace the thing you brought. It has to be convincing. Then you fill in a second page the proposal does not have: who has to migrate, what breaks, and which quarter each cost lands in. The group reads the first page as a manager and the second page as the person on call.

How you know it worked#

You can look at a shiny replacement for a working thing and say whose review it was built for. Assessment 4 is set this week; read the brief before next stand-up.