Ship wreck

benjenbav

benjenbav

Well-Known Member
Joined
12 Aug 2004
Messages
16,160
Visit site
My colourful day to day description of failure presently features the following terms:

car crash

train wreck

plane crash

and, now

ship wreck

All a bit bonfire of the vanities, I suppose, but you can't teach an old (sea) dog new tricks.

I am really hoping for some guidance in grading them: for example, I just thought that a colleague's failure to meet an internal deadline was a ship wreck, but it may only have been a car crash now I come to think about it.

No point in posting any of this in the Lounge because I don't want to add "that's how the Nazis started" to my argot.
 
Still evolving bit of argot imho, but in my book (ie my office!) it works like this:

car crash - small mess up, somewhat contained, but with a minimum gravitational threshold ie a breakage of the coffee machine isn't a car crash. Not sure about missing a deadline, but I guess the threshold moves.

train crash or wreck - as above, but bigger

plane crash - not yet in wide use imho because too emotive

ship wreck - very big, bigger than a train wreck, and with enduring/long term consequences (meaning a month or more)​

The one currently getting on my nerves is "socialise", in the sense of sending an email to several people telling them something.
 
benjenbav said:
My colourful day to day description of failure presently features the following terms:

car crash

train wreck

plane crash

and, now

ship wreck

All a bit bonfire of the vanities, I suppose, but you can't teach an old (sea) dog new tricks.

I am really hoping for some guidance in grading them: for example, I just thought that a colleague's failure to meet an internal deadline was a ship wreck, but it may only have been a car crash now I come to think about it.

No point in posting any of this in the Lounge because I don't want to add "that's how the Nazis started" to my argot.
Click to expand...

Where does Omni-shambles fit in ere then?
 
jfm said:
Still evolving bit of argot imho, but in my book (ie my office!) it works like this:
car crash - small mess up, somewhat contained, but with a minimum gravitational threshold ie a breakage of the coffee machine isn't a car crash. Not sure about missing a deadline, but I guess the threshold moves.

train crash or wreck - as above, but bigger

plane crash - not yet in wide use imho because too emotive

ship wreck - very big, bigger than a train wreck, and with enduring/long term consequences (meaning a month or more)​

The one currently getting on my nerves is "socialise", in the sense of sending an email to several people telling them something.
Click to expand...

I know a number of people who need to socialise issues. Generally the item being "socialised" seems to be something the recipient doesn't necessarily want to hear, like a request for a commitment to spend more money...:cool:
 
Mini-disaster = Accidental deletion of something that later turns out to be important. Laptop failure (backup ok). Functional test failure.
Disaster = Logical deletion of database records that propagate throughout all replicas, and the restore process is taking a lot longer than when we last tried it. Laptop failure (no backup). Spectacular load test failure.
Major Disaster = All technical aspects are fine, until the customer Project Sponsor leaves to go kayaking in the Amazon. New Project Sponsor is appointed who says "Why don't you just write it all yourself using .NET".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top