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# New hardware platform

"What the RUDE WORD, RUDE WORD, RUDE WORD is this?" Anna sits at her
desk, one hand on her mouse, speaking loudly. "ROOOBBIIIINN! Come
heeeereee!" In a minute Robin shuffles in through Anna's doorway.
"What's wrong? You're upsetting the whole office with your screaming."
Anna almost never raises her voice. When she does, it's upsetting to
those who know her.

"I just got an email from Sam. They're changing the hardware
platform." Robin raises one eyebrow. She realises at once what this
may mean. "Does he say why?"

Anna shakes her head. "Not really. He says, and I quote, 'To align our
customer-facing deliverables with global leaders in leveraging
technology we proactively synchronise our product schedules with Arm
release road maps.' What a pile of RUDE WORD marketing RUDE WORD."

Robin sighs deeply, then slumps down in a chair. "Does he realise that
our project will have to restart from scratch? That all the work done
so far is useless? That there's no chance of meeting any agreed
deadlines now?"

Anna grimaces. "Of course he doesn't. If they actually do this, it may
mean we lose the project." Robin nods. "And that means we're in a
trash compactor, the walls are moving inward, and something just touched
my leg. We were already desperate when we landed this project."

Anna nods. "Exactly. I better meet with Sam to try to stop this." She
buries her face in her hands. She sobs once. "I don't know, sometimes
it just feels like too much. Clients seem to always try to shoot a
project in the head, just when things start moving along well."

Robin shifts uneasily in her chair, then gets up and stands next to
Anna, and gathers her into a hug. Robin smiles uncertainly. "There,
there, it'll be all right. We'll get through this in some way."

Robin chuckles. "Anyway, they're not shooting the project in the head.
They're sawing off their own leg. With a blunt axe. Which is rusty."
Anna barks a short laugh, and indicates she needs to get out of the
hug. She takes a deep, deep breath, and shrugs. "Sorry. I was feeling
overwhelmed for a moment. Better now. Thanks." Robin goes to the
doorway. "I'll go make us tea, so we can have a calm discussion about
this, and decide what to do."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Robin says on IRC. "Everyone: sitrep and planning, kitchen, 5 mins.
Drop everything you're doing."

Anna is in the kitchen, with her laptop and five steaming mugs of tea.
Everyone in the Team has their own, favourite mug, labelled by their
name and preference as far as tea, sugar, and milk. Anna takes a sip
of hers. It says "Anna, Russian Caravan, full-fat milk, no sugar", and
has a picture of Snufkin from Moomin, sitting on a river bank with his
fishing rod. The mugs had originally been bought a few years ago, when
the Team was set up. When new team members had joined, new mugs had
been made.

Over the next few minutes, team members are coming in, taking their
mug, and sitting down, until only Nina is missing. Robin puts her mug
down ("Robin, Lapsang, skimmed milk, sugar, picture of Lara Croft"), and goes
knock on the door of Nina's lab. "Excuse me, Nina, we're having a
meeting and we need you." Nina and Nick look up from the bench, where
they've been debugging something together. Robin nods at him. "Nick,
I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. We're going to
discuss something sensitive, and it would be awkward to have you
present. Sorry."

Nick stands up, and nods. "I understand. Is it OK if I come back
tomorrow?" Robin smiles. What a polite young man. "I'm sure it it will
be, but check with Nina in the morning, OK"

Robin and Nina go to the kitchen, take their mugs ("Nina, any tea, no
milk, no sugar, picture of a 555 timer IC"), and sit down. Anna stands
up and starts speaking. "I'm afraid there's a bit of bad news.
SmartHome have just let us know they want to update their hardware
platform. I called this meeting to tell you that and for us to discuss
the situation together."

The room is filled with a cacophony. Anna lets it continue for a
moment, then raises her hand. The room quiets instantly. An outsider
might mistake it for military discipline, but it's a habit borne from
collaborating with the same equals for a long time, and from respect
of the role Anna has as mediator. "I have a couple of questions I need
to have answers to. First, this is a big enough change that it lets us
cancel the contract without a notice period, but still get paid for
what we've done so far. Do we want to do that?"

Robin raises her hand. "I'd like to keep the contract, if we can talk
them into keeping the old hardware platform." She drops her hand. Andy
and Bert look at each other, nodding. Berg raises his hand. "Andy and
I agree. We've put in a lot of effort into the old platform already,
would be a shame to let that go to waste." Andy keeps his hands on the
table, but raises his index finger. "We can start on a new platform,
but if they haven't got the hardware working yet, it seems like an
impossible project."

Nina nods, but keeps quiet. Robin makes a short wave. "That's a good
point. Anna, do you know what the status of their proposed new
hardware platform is?" Anna shakes her head. "Sam wasn't explicit
about that, but my impression is that they're only about to start
designing it. It's not ready for us to port to." Robin grimaces, but
Andy speaks, without indicating he wants a turn. "Erm, really? In that
case, I don't think we can wait for that."

Anna stands up. "I think we agree. We can't continue on this contract,
if they change the hardware platform. It would delay all user land
software progress too much. It would probably mean we run out of money
before this contract is paid. Frankly, I would expect SmartHome to go
bankrupt before they get the new platform working."

Anna shrugs. "My other question is, do we try to talk them into not
upgrading their hardware platform, or do we look for a new client?"

Another cacophony. Robin raises her hand, and everyone goes quiet and
looks at her. "I'd like to keep them, if possible, I see a possibility
for a long, mutually profitable relationship, if we can both survive
the current project." There are murmured agreements and nodding.

Anna takes a deep breath. "Thank you, looks like we have a consensus.
I'm sorry we're in this situation, but it's something we've seen
before. The client thinks they're being smart, but are actually just
running really fast carrying a naked blade pointed at their heart.
Everything looks like it's going well, until they stumble and they
experience a sudden, painful stop."

Nina raises her hand to her shoulder. "What do we do now?"

Anna looks at her, then around the room, into the eyes of each of her
co-workers. "We continue work on the old platform, and I go talk to
Sam face to face and try to talk sense to him. I'll probably be back
later today, and then we'll see. If it drags on, I'll let you all
know."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the afternoon, after Anna has returned from a long lunch with Sam,
she visits Robin's office, and sits down. "I think we're OK. I talked
Sam out of doing a hardware refresh now. They'll do it for the next
generation instead."

"Well done, Anna! Was it a difficult discussion?"

Anna shrugs. She isn't smiling, but doesn't look distraught either.
"It wasn't easy. He was really enthusiastic about using the new 64-bit
Arm architecture. But he believed me in the end when I told him he
couldn't have our platform and new hardware in the same product
iteration."

"Good. Meanwhile, Andy and Bert had a really productive day today. We
have our platform working on the SmartHome hardware now, at least
enough to start getting SmartHome to port over their applications.
There was cake after all the system tests passed the first time. You
missed that, but we saved you a slice the fridge. It's your favourite,
death by chocolate."

Anna grins. The Team is not shy to celebrate its achievements.
"Excellent news. And if we pull off the current, now-saved project, we
may get SmartHome to hire us to update our platform to their new
hardware version, too."

Anna pushes herself up by pushing with her palms on her knees. "But
now I'm exhausted. I'm going home early. I need a relaxing evening,
after today. Maybe a sauna. Might call Russ and see if he wants to
have dinner."

Robin looks surprised. "Russ? Are you seeing him again?"

Anna shakes her head quickly. "No, no, not like that. I just ran into
him the other evening, and we had a few beers. It was nice, but I'm
not getting involved with him again."

"Good. I mean, it's not like he's a bad egg, but he could maybe mature
a bit."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Anna comes in late the following morning. Robin pokes her head out of
her office. "Hi Anna! Get a cup of tea before you open your email."

Anna stops in the middle of taking off her coat. "Oh? Clearly
something bad has happened. What's up?"

Robin is determined and shakes her head. "Tea first. We'll discuss
when you have a cuppa."

Anna finds an almost full pot of tea in the kitchen, and ambles into
Robin's room with a steaming mug in her hand. She sits down. "So,
what's up?"

"Sam's sent an email, cc'd to me, asking for an all-hands meeting with
us and their developers and management, to discuss the new hardware
platform. It seems Sam's bosses were not swayed so easily." Robin
shrugs a little. "They want it tomorrow. They'll arrange a place, we
just need to show up."

Anna grimaces. "I should've known it was too easy. Clients never
want to hear they're wrong. What do you think about this?"

Robin grimaces too. "I don't think we can avoid it, even if it costs
us a full work day and possibly a client. We'll have to go."

A nod, and another grimace. "I'll go read the email, but I think
you're right. We'll spend today preparing for any arguments they may
have for a platform refresh now. I think that'll be what you and I do
today. Do you have the time?"

"I was meant to draft a plan to get SmartHome devs to start porting
their software to our platform, but that'll have to wait. I'll notify
them."

"Good. Well, not good, but you know what I mean. We'll gather our
people in the afternoon and go over the arguments. Have you told them
yet?"

"Nope, I wanted to wait until we decide to go."

"OK. I'll notify our people today. And tell Sam and his bosses that
we're coming. Is 15:00 a good time to gather everyone?"

"Should be. RUDE WORD I don't like this, but needs must."

Anna nods, gets up, and goes to her own office. After a deep breath
she opens up her email, reads for a while, and sends out a couple of
emails. One to the Team, explaining the situation, and another to
SmartHome asking where and when.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

They assemble at the office. It's 8 in the morning, and for most of
them this is unusually early. Anna arrives with a car, the team piles
in, and they go to the SmartHome office.

They arrive, get out of the car, and walk in an organised formation
into SmartHome HQ and the large meeting room they've visited before.
The SmartHome CEO, Lasse, and other members of top management are
already there, as well as Sam, and several senior developers.

The CEO stands up. He's dressed in a navy blue suit, with a red tie.
In his late 50s, somewhat stout but not fat, looking serious, but
calm, he coughs to get everyone's attention. "Welcome, everyone, I
apologise for the abrupt meeting, but we need to resolve this issue of
refreshing the new hardware platform sooner rather than later." He
looks at Andy. "I understand that your team is objecting and raising
concerns about the new hardware. Is that correct?"

Andy looks momentarily confused, and looks at Anna, who speaks. "I'm
Anna Carter. I speak for the Team."

Now Lasse is a little uncertain, looking back and forth between Andy,
Anna, and Sam. He recovers quickly. "Very well. Is it correct?"

"We're concerned about the impact of a hardware refresh on the time
table of the project. We think the refresh is OK."

"How magnanimous of you. I'm not used to hired help giving me
permission to make strategic changes. Especially not women."

Anna's jaw drops open, and she just stares. The room goes quiet.
SmartHome developers look at the table in front of them, visibly not
squirming or doing anything to call attention to them. The Team
members take a deep breath, let their shoulders sag, and look at Anna
and Robin.

Robin stands up. She looks around the room. Those who know her, can
see she's angry from the way her lips form a thin straight line. "Sir,
if you hire experts and ignore what they say, you are an imbecile. In
the current situation, your choices are to go bankrupt or to let us
help your developers save your company. It seems you want to go
bankrupt and make every one of your employees lose their job, while
you can just retire early. Very well, we don't wish to work for you.
Have a good day."

She pushes her chair back and steps away from the table. Sam puts his
hand on Lasse's arm, and whispers urgently in his ear. Robin reaches
the conference room door, puts her hand on the handle, and looks back.
The rest of the Team have quietly also stood up and are forming a
queue behind Robin. Anna is red her face, and her hands are shaking.

The Team goes out of the door. Sam follows them. "Please wait."

Anna turns to him. She's so angry she stutters. "Y-you.. w-wait? Why
w-would we wait."

Robin puts a calming hand on Anna's shoulder. "Sam, you must
understand that what just happened was humiliating and infuriating,
and cannot be tolerated."

"Yes, you're absolutely right. What Lasse said is unacceptable. But I
think I can talk sense to him, and talk him down off his high horse,
and let us save the company. Because I now understand that what you
said is right."

Nina shouts and walks towards him. "NO!" Sam takes a step back. Nina
pokes her finger in the middle Sam's chest to emphasise her syllables.
"It's not RUDE WORD enough to talk to RUDE WORD Lasse. He's old enough
to know better. Old RUDE WORD sexist stick in the muds like him are
NOT RUDE WORD ALLOWED to have power over us. We WILL RUDE WORD NOT
WORK FOR HIM."

Sam takes a couple of steps back. Hurricane Nina is taking him by
surprise.

Nick comes out from the conference room. "Nina, are you OK? You're
being very loud."

Robin steps forward, and turns Nina by the shoulders. "Nina, you're
absolutely right. We all agree on that. But let's take this to our
office and discuss this amongst ourselves. We need to process this.
It's a bad day." She looks at Sam. "We'll be sending our final invoice
today."

Anna pipes in. "It's clause 42, section 3. In the event of the
customer changing the parameters of the project in the middle of the
project in ways that make it difficult to finish on schedule, the Team
can abort and is owed for work already done. You better not try to
squirm yourself out of it."

As if by remote control, the Team all turn towards the exit, and march
out.

Sam and Nick stand still and look at the departing group. The
exit doors closes, with the soft thump and click of its automatic
mechanism. They continue to stand still for a moment. Finally, Nick
speaks. "I guess we need to go back inside. But I really don't want to."

Sam's shoulders droop. He looks back at the conference door. Then at
the exit door. "I have to go back inside. You can have a family
medical emergency if you like."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Team drives back to their office in silence. They gather in the
kitchen. Robin makes a pot of tea. The silence continues while the tea
is brewing. Bert takes out everyone's mug and puts them in a row on
the kitchen table, and takes out two kinds of milk from the fridge,
and three kinds of sweetener (sugar, artificial, honey). Robin pours
tea. Bert adds milk and sweetener of choice to each mug. Everyone
takes their mug.

Anna takes a sip. "Well, that was exciting. I think we should process
what happened together, rather than going home and let everyone
marinate in solitude."

Nina shakes her head. "I can't believe he said that. I can't believe I
said that to Sam." 

Andy puts his mug on the table in front of himself. "One reads about
people like Lasse, but one never expects to meet them. It was like
meeting a villain from a movie. And Nina, I think you said what we all
felt."

Robin sits hunched, holding her cup with both hands. "Frankly, this
wasn't a huge surprise to me. There were signs. But I think we did the
the only thing we could do. We shouldn't feel bad about it. Not about
taking them on as a client, or for quitting today."

Anna nods. "Yes, I agree. We should feel good for standing up against
bad behaviour. The only thing we should worry about now is what we'll
do next, in terms of a new client."

Robin shakes her head. "It's important that we find a new client, but
can we not worry about that today. I think we need to recover from
today's events first."

Anna nods again. "I guess you're right. What can we do to get over
this?"

Bert puts down his mug. "I find that when I've had a bit of a shock,
eating something helps. We could have lunch together."

"A great idea." Robin smiles. "We could order pizza for everyone.
Anna?"

"Yeah, let's do that. I'll order from my room. If everyone would
message me on IRC what kind they want, I'll place the order. The usual
place."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pizza has arrived and been consumed. Many words have been said. Much
anger has been vented.. The Team is leaning back in their chairs,
momentarily content and silent. Anna's phone rings. She looks at it.

"It's Sam. I should probably take this." She rises and goes to her
office.

"Hi, Sam."

"Hi, Anna. Are you guys all right?"

"We're OK. How are you?"

"Look, I wanted to call and ask if there's any chance we can patch
things up. I think I have the leverage to get Lasse to apologise and
get out of the way, even if he is the founder and the CEO."

Anna takes a deep, audible sigh. "Look, Sam, I'll be honest. It's not
easy. Lasse burnt bridges today that are not easy to rebuild. We don't
trust SmartHome anymore, and we don't work with clients we don't
trust."

"I see. Is there anything we could do to convince you to not break
with us?"

"I don't know. I'd have to talk with the whole Team about it. How far
are you willing to go?"

"Hmm. This is not an easy situation for anyone, right now. I'll take a
chance and be open about what's happening here. I hope you won't
spread it around. There's a bit of a civil war happening, and most of
us at SmartHome see that you guys are right and we either make a new,
better product with your help, or we are finished. Some of the older
guys in upper management are resisting, but the resistance is
crumbling."

Anna is laconic and inexpressive. "OK."

"I won't say you can demand anything you want, but I think you'd have
a strong bargaining position, if you were willing to bargain."

"OK."

"Are you willing to bargain? Please?"

"I'll talk with my people. I don't know if they're willing. But just
in case they're willing, do you have time to visit our office today? I
have the feeling that if possible, this shouldn't be allowed to fester
overnight."

"I can be there in fifteen minutes."

"OK. We'll talk and I'll let you know if you should come."

"Thanks."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Team has gathered in the kitchen again. A new round of tea has
been brewed and served.

"Okay, so this is a bit of an interesting development. Sam called. He
says that SmartHost is having a civil war and he wants to know what it
would take to bring us back, or least re-open negotiations with them.
Assuming his side wins. What do we think about that?"

Nina raises her hand. "Will Lasse still be the CEO?"

"I don't know. The situation is unclear. In any case, it might be too
much for us to ask for them to get rid of him entirely. He is the
founder, after all."

Nina chuckles. "Shame, but I see your point. But at least I would
prefer him to not be involved in this project, or have any say in it."

Robin raises her mug and sips. "Mmmm, I like how you think,
grasshopper. More realistically, I think we can and should insist that
they commit to a plan with us. The plan we've been working on all
along. And by commit, I mean they won't unilaterally change it on us.
They should also agree to a change management process with us."

Nina looks at her with her eyebrows raised. "Change management
process? What fancy words you use, grandma."

The room fills with chuckles and giggles. It's clear that a big ball
of tension has just unravelled. Anna grins. "Sounds like we're in
silent agreement, but I'd like to make it explicit. Everyone in favour
of re-opening discussions with SmartHome, or at least Sam's faction,
if we can agree on what we think are sensible ground rules, namely,
they stick to the current hardware platform, and let us guide the
software development. Who agrees?"

Everyone raises their hand, except Robin. "Robin? Do you want to say
something?"

"I was hesitant about taking them on as a client in the first place,
and only agreed to it because we need the money. My fears have been
realised. But given the ground rules as you outlined, and given that
we have the same need of money, I'm willing to try again." She raises
her hand.

"Good, that makes us unanimous. I agree we need to treat them with
care. I'd like to invite Sam to our office today to discuss this and
explain our conditions. Everyone OK with that."

This time, everyone raises their hand.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi, Russ. Fancy dinner tonight?" Anna is in a good mood. Constructive
negotiations always made her satisfied, and especially so when they're
successful. "I've had a long, roller-coaster ride of a day and could
do with some good food and company."

"Hi, Anna, yes, I'd love that. Is 19 at the Santa Fe restaurant OK?"

"Perfect. I'll see you there."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Nina sits in her lab, at the table, with her laptop, typing and
frowning. "Nickster, U OK? I hear u have crisis happening?"

A few seconds pass, and the response shows in her chat window. "Hi,
Burn. I'm OK. Thanks for asking. Interesting times in the faux Chinese
curse sense."

Nina types again. "I don't no if we work 2gether anymore, but wld like
to keep in touch."

"I'd like that too. I like to talk tech with you."

"Kewl. I like 2 talk tech with u 2. Also I like u dont hit on me."

"Yeah, you said. I've never really been just friends with a girl
before. It's nice. Relaxing, even, to not have any romantic or erotic
tension."

"U say such nice things. C u tomorrow?"