[easterncalculus]

I'm sure there are practical issues for not doing this, but at that point if it's not too much trouble I would just make and release this project to the junior employees without telling the managers. What, they weren't that fast when they started?

In all seriousness I'm convinced this comes from people putting too much value on the institution. It's Merrill Lynch, not the army. What's so bad about people doing their work better? Why do they feel it invalidates some specific, all-important experience?

[hx2a]

We wouldn't have been able to build it without some kind of approval and agreement of who we would bill our time to. Although I should point out that "vigilante projects" (as I call them) do have a place in investment banks, and people who can write code on their own can do a lot to improve their situation. I remember a different job where myself and one other person each created vigilante projects that later turned out to be absolutely critical for properly monitoring internal systems. Vigilante projects are created in defiance of the incompetence of upper management.

[heavenlyblue]

> Vigilante projects are created in defiance of the incompetence of upper management.

This is where you should anticipate the upper management saying no and then just never ask, using an excuse that “you thought that wouldn’t be such a big issue”

[heavenlyblue]

Nothing stops them using the software to build the prototype of the presentation to start their work from and then add some human language on top. 90% hours off that, and nobody will ever tell too.