Mr. Green tells me, "I have a customer crawling down my throat. The customers tells me that we furnished him with a computer program that gives incorrect answers when used. What do you know about that?"
I ask, "Is the program called Netcalc?"
Mr. Green tells me, "Yes, the program is called Netcalc."
"Mr. Green, I told one Billy that what he coded for the program called Netcalc wouldn't work properly. I was told, by Billy and Ranny, to mind my own business."
Mr. Green asks me, "Can you fix the program is called Netcalc?"
I say, "Give me a computer and a day, I can do it."
I get the go ahead from Mr. Green and I'm off to the Librarian. I get the design document and the existing code. I get a computer lab assigned and I get to work.
(I'm not the worlds worst typist, but I probably rank in the bottom 25%.)
I use what I can of Billy's code, to cut down on my typing, and things go pretty well. I get the coding finished and I generate a lot of test cases. All of the test cases run to produce expected results. (Billy's test cases also produced expected results; but Billy only used two test cases.) I then write user documentation. (Billy's documentation consisted of one line, telling the user how to start the program.) I then furnish my program to the Librarian and I have the Librarian send off my version of the program to the customer, with a formal delivery scheduled for later. I then have the Librarian delete Billy's version of the program and I track down and delete all of the versions of Billy's program that I can find.
When Billy finds out what I have done, Billy runs crying to Ranny. I am called in to face Ranny and Billy. Ranny asks me, "Who told you to replace Billy's computer program with one that you wrote." I reply, "Mr. Green, that's Mr. Green, the Senior Vice President, perhaps we should reconvene this meeting to Mr. Greens office?" (We don't reconvene the meeting to Mr. Greens office. Billy has involved Ranny in a political situation that makes Ranny look bad. I'm dismissed and apparently Ranny and Billy have a meeting of their own. At the end of the meeting Billy no longer works for the company.