Mutiny on the Bug Bounty

Looming between the scrum board and Francesco’s boss, arms crossed and wearing a scowl, was Russell, Project Titan’s release manager.

Russell surveyed the team members like a drill sergeant. “We’ve got four weeks to go before Titan’s release, and the quality is terrible. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to stop working on features. You’re going to focus on fixing bugs instead. This is the company’s top priority. Until the software is released, all approved vacation requests are hereby declined. I want you to 5x your output and clean up your mess.” He smacked his hands together. “Get it done, team.”

Francesco ran his hand through his hair. Gina was already pissed at him for all the overtime. How was he going to tell her that Russell had vetoed the holiday he had planned to celebrate the first anniversary of their first date?

Russell marched off, and Brian resumed the meeting. “I know this isn’t what you want to hear, but I’m afraid we all need to increment our bandwidth potential to get this done.”

“Will we at least be getting overtime pay for this last push?” Cameron asked.

Brian stiffened. “Let’s put our worries into a box and close the lid, shall we? You’re all software ninjas. You can do this.”

Francesco exchanged looks with the other glassy-eyed engineers. The last four months had been grueling. Twelve-hour days. Six days a week. No overtime pay.

Software ninjas? More like software slaves.

***

Francesco and Cameron were among the few engineers from the Core team who could spare the time to attend the company’s all-hands meeting.

Russell took the stage, frowning as usual. “Allow me to be verbally transparent. The current state of Titan is in shambles. It’s Jenga-ware.”

“I wonder why,” Francesco muttered under his breath. “It’s because of poor planning and arbitrary deadlines.”

“The product is crap,” Russell shouted. “There are so many bugs in it, you’d think it’s an insectarium.”

Francesco cracked his knuckles. Project Titan was one of the most ambitious products ATS had ever announced. Everyone in the company wanted to be associated with it because of its high profile. And those who were building it were hardworking and diligent.

Yes, it still had some bugs. That was normal one month out. But it was hard to listen to an ungrateful release manager focused solely on the problems without mentioning the Core team’s many successes.

Russell had made himself the face of Project Titan. As the release manager, he was in charge of the development schedule and priorities. He lived in spreadsheet-land, having no idea how the technology worked or appreciating the effort to make it work. Once the engineers shipped the product, he’d claim all the credit. No doubt, a generous bonus and lucrative stock options awaited him at the finish line. Everyone else would have to settle for an ill-fitting Project Titan T-shirt.

Russell pulled out a flyswatter from the lectern and held it high. “Today, I’m announcing a bug bounty. Here’s what you’re going to do. You’re going to install the Titan Dashboard software on your laptops. You’re going to do your best to break it.” He swished the flyswatter through the air like a swashbuckling pirate. “Press random buttons, enter invalid information, click all over the screen.”

During one of his thrusts, the flyswatter’s mesh head grazed the lectern, and the head snapped off the handle.

Cameron leaned over to Francesco. “Some bugs are pretty tough.”

Russell paused and then gazed out at the audience. “Some bugs are pretty tough.”

Francesco chuckled.

Russell stepped away from the decapitated weapon. “If something looks wrong, you’re going to report it to the Titan Quality Assurance team. If you’re the first to report it, and QA can reproduce the error, you’ll win fifty dollars. That’s fifty bucks for every bug you find.”

The attentive crowd began murmuring with excitement.

“And to keep the bug bounty initiative front of mind, please pick up your complimentary ATS-branded flyswatter at the back of the room.” Russell smacked his hands together. “With your help, we’ll squash all those nasty bugs and save Titan. Get it done, team.”

Francesco and Cameron left the auditorium with their plastic flyswatters. “I can’t believe Russell,” Francesco told his teammate. “First, he creates an unrealistic release date that forces us to work a ton of overtime. Then, after burning us out, he’s surprised that our work isn’t perfect. And now he wants everyone to become a software tester because they laid off too many QA people three months ago.”

Cameron scoffed. “I don’t understand senior management. Isn’t it their job to anticipate the problems we might run into?”

“Yeah, but logic is too heavy to carry up the corporate ladder.”

***

Monday morning, Cameron and Francesco went to the kitchenette together.

“I just heard Owen say the bug bounty found twelve new bugs,” Cameron said, filling up his water bottle.

Francesco eyed the vending machine contents. “Sure. If you get a hundred monkeys pressing random buttons, something’s bound to break.”

“A hundred? Do you really think we have a hundred people actively looking for bugs?”

Francesco retrieved a pop can from the machine. “I don’t know. Maybe one person was playing with Titan Dashboard all weekend and found all dozen bugs himself. That’s a cool six hundred bucks.”

Cameron let out a whistle. “What would you do with that kind of loot?”

Francesco cracked open his pop can. “I’d start building my home theater room…” Francesco trailed off and gazed up at the ceiling. A devilish grin appeared. “What if we knew where the bugs were?”

“What do you mean?” Cameron asked.

Francesco stole a glance down the hallway before stepping closer. “It only takes ten seconds to add a typo into the code.”

Cameron froze. He can’t be serious.

Francesco raised an eyebrow and cocked his head.

He was serious. “C’mon, Francesco. You can’t intentionally add bugs.”

Francesco grinned. “Mathematically, it cancels out. I add a small bug, I’ll report it to QA, they’ll send me a ticket, and I’ll fix it. Zero net bugs.”

“And you walk away with fifty bucks for each one,” Cameron said, disapprovingly.

Francesco nodded. “Money for nothing.”

“And your fix for free?”

Francesco chuckled. “Dire straits call for dire measures.”

“Be reasonable. You can’t go around breaking code.”

“You’ve never introduced a bug into your software?”

“Not intentionally.”

Francesco took a sip of his drink. “We’re working crazy long hours. How can anyone prove a bug wasn’t just a sleepy mistake?

Cameron rubbed the back of his neck. “But it’s not right.”

Francesco’s face hardened. “Is it right that Russell’s making our lives a living hell?”

“No.”

“Do you know the Ontario Employment Standards Act says IT professionals are exempt from overtime pay? That’s why he can demand we work 24/7 without compensation. Is that right?”

“No, but that’s the law.”

“Is it right for him to call our software crap in front of the whole company?”

“No.” Francesco was on one of his tirades. Cameron thought it was best to let him vent before he suffered a warp core breach.

Francesco took another sip. “I believe in Titan. I’ve put in countless hours, all-nighters even. It’s only fair that we get compensated for all that hard work and loyalty.”

Francesco made a valid point. He clocked longer hours than anyone else on the team. The unfair system punished him the hardest.

“You got a free flyswatter,” Cameron said, trying to lighten his coworker’s mood.

Francesco set down his drink next to the sign forbidding employees from putting cookies in the toaster. His eyes had become watery. “Gina wants to break up with me because I’m always at work. The only time we see each other is for a fifteen-minute lunch in the cafeteria a couple of times a week.”

“Ouch.”

“Don’t worry. I’m not going to add bugs. I can’t jeopardize your new role.”

As the SST tech lead, Cameron was responsible for ensuring the quality of his team’s code. It wouldn’t be right to compromise it by allowing Francesco to submit bugs. And yet, it wasn’t right that an unfair system was taking advantage of his friend.

He set down his water bottle and pondered. He had always wanted to be a technical leader. And yet, the first week in the role had surprised him. Beyond the code reviews and metrics, there was an important human element. Each team member brought a different strength to the table, a different way of working. As a leader, should he not use his influence to ensure his team members operated as effectively as possible?

Francesco was still the team’s most productive engineer, although he was on the verge of burning out. The cracks had started to show. A breakup would push him over the edge. He wasn’t a quitter. He’d rather die of a heart attack than let down his team. He’d force himself into work filled with resentment and hammer away at the work. But he wouldn’t be the same person anymore. And at the end of the day, the company would still get its code written and make its profit on the back of an unknown employee.

Allowing a few deliberate typos seemed like the lesser of two evils. Cameron suppressed a laugh. “Sometimes the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many.”

“What kind of crazy logic is that?”

Cameron smiled. “The Captain Kirk kind. I’ll approve your buggy code submissions, as long as you use the money to repair your relationship with Gina.”

***

Later that afternoon, Cameron and Francesco stepped into the Minecraft Room to plan out their strategy. Cameron insisted they use a spreadsheet to track every new bug to ensure none were left unfixed. Francesco thought that was overkill, but given that Cameron was putting his nascent tech lead neck on the line, humoring him was the least he could do.

The bugs were minor, like a typo on the help screen or a misaligned button on the user interface. They purposely targeted areas of the software that Francesco was familiar with. That way, when Brian and Cameron did the triaging, they would assign the appropriate bugs to Francesco.

Francesco stayed behind after Cameron left, and he gazed longingly out the window to the overcast November sky. The daylight was long gone by the time he went home these days, and the same darkness awaited his morning arrivals. He found it difficult to type quickly enough to clear his smart glass window, allowing only brief moments to feel the sun warm his face. It was depressing. But his scheme already gave him a tiny spark of joy, something to counter the long, dark grind ahead.

***

Russell dropped by the team stand-up on the following Monday. A yellow flyswatter dangled from his belt, a ribbon of duct tape holding the mesh head on. “I just consulted the bug bounty website. It’s working wonderfully. Everyone in the company is helping to locate and identify your defects.”

Francesco swallowed. He didn’t like the idea of Russell examining the individual bug reports.

Russell put his hands on his hips. “As of this morning, you have thirty-six outstanding bugs, and the quality is still not improving fast enough. I don’t know what’s wrong with you. Forget what I said earlier about 5xing your output. Now, I want you working 6x. To boost your motivation, Mr. Kendrick will be providing suppers for the next three weeks.”

Owen licked his lips.

To everyone else, fast food wasn’t much of a perk. It was okay for the occasional treat, but daily junk food for the next three weeks wouldn’t do anything to make them feel less miserable.

Russell turned toward Brian. “Which one is Francesco?”

Francesco’s cheeks warmed.

Brian pointed at him, and Russell took a step forward, unholstering the flyswatter.

Russell’s perennial scowl corkscrewed even tighter as he brandished the flyswatter at Francesco like a disapproving finger. “The bug bounty is not open to employees working on Titan.” He holstered his weapon and swaggered away, his flyswatter flailing about like a noodle in a windstorm.

Francesco cracked his knuckles. Once again, Russell had ruined everything.

To find out what Francesco does next, pick up a copy of Yet Another Day at the Office.