Again reflecting on twenty years in the software development industry, there are a number of things I can be pretty certain I will never do again. Either because "we don't do things like that any more" or because I will simply refuse. Sadly, it's often the latter!
In no particular order:
- Work on a codebase with tens/hundreds of thousands of lines of code and no unit tests
- Deploy production code to a Windows Server that faces the Internet
- Build production code on my development machine
- Work alongside someone whose title is XML Architect
- Use JBoss, or indeed any "Application Server"
- Do meaningful work on a project without signing a contract and/or being paid for at least some portion of it
- Have to wear a suit and tie
- Have to log into Jenkins slave machines to delete files because they've run out of disk
- Configure builds in Jenkins by tediously pointing and clicking
- Work in a building in the centre of a big city, where an entire floor is devoted to hosting and running racks of servers, storage, switches etc
- Have to ensure that a website works on a browser with JavaScript disabled because "accessibility"
- Write code that has no tangible benefit to users, but will "game" an executive's KPIs in order to achieve a bonus
