The Interim Fiddler

I've written before about how dangerous it is to allow software engineers to name projects without the restraining arm of a product manager, which is how I came to be product owner of a piece of bbc.co.uk software called the A-Z-o-tron.

Having dropped the ball again, this week our naming hit a new low. We've been rolling out onto the www.bbc.co.uk servers a bit of software that somehow came to be known as 'the interim fiddler'.

It is a nifty temporary solution to a problem we had mid-project roll-out, and I'm dead impressed with the work, and the people, behind it.

But...

From the first time I heard the name I have been unable to shift the mental image of a load of advertising execs presenting the market segmentation of the sex offender population, outlining the continuum between the 'tabloid serial sex monster' on the one hand, and 'the harmless heavy breather' on the other.

And somewhere in the middle there is a group of people designated with the persona 'the interim fiddler'.