As a software development manager, A. Selvan sees his fair share of WTF's. Though most are suited for the likes of Dilbert comic strips, every now and then he'll come across a story that best fits here. Today I'd like to share one of these stories in the form of an email conversation between A. and the new Product Manager...

______________________________________________________________________ From: {Product Manager} Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 8:41 AM To: A----- Selvan Cc: {Marketing Director} Subject: Software Version A-----, I've noticed that in several places (most prominently, Help-About), there is the product version, build number, etc. Please have your team remove this information in our next release. ______________________________________________________________________ From: A----- Selvan Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 9:03 AM To: {Product Manager} Cc: {Marketing Director} Subject: Re: Software Version The product version and build number are necessary to identify what release the customer has. This is also key in our testing and quality process. ______________________________________________________________________ From: {Product Manager} Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 1:29 PM To: A----- Selvan Cc: {Marketing Director} Subject: Re: Software Version Couldn't you determine this information some other way? We don't want the customers knowing this information and need it removed. ______________________________________________________________________ From: A----- Selvan Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 1:45 PM To: {Product Manager} Cc: {Marketing Director} Subject: Re: Software Version We really can't remove it from the product, but, if you'd like, we can hide it further. However, it is very discrete as is: it only appears in the About dialog, release notes, and change log. But no matter what, we will need to keep it accessible for support. Either way, I don't really understand the request. Almost every software program ever made has release information like this. Why would you want it removed? ______________________________________________________________________ From: {Product Manager} Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:04 AM To: A----- Selvan Cc: {Marketing Director} Subject: Re: Software Version We can't be at all accessible to the client, we'll just have to find another way. The reason is simple: when they see "Version 2.8 (build 448)," they will think that it took us 28 releases and over *four hundred* builds to get right. ______________________________________________________________________ From: {Marketing Director} Sent: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 10:08 AM To: A----- Selvan, {Product Manager} Subject: Re: Software Version This is a good point. This is *not* the information we should be conveying to our customers. A-----, please make sure it's removed in the next release.