"Ask for forgiveness, not for permission
...
Any sufficiently large institution has something to lose...Corporate systems are optimized for saying no. Maintain the status quo. No risk of failure and a spectacular blowout...This is exactly why you are better off going ahead and doing something without asking first. If you don’t ask, no one can tell you to not do it."
I'd argue that the specifc principle "never ask permission to clean up code" can be generalised to "never ask permission", especially for software houses that have grown large and sclerotic. But YMMV; in a previous job I once told my manager I had an exciting idea for an automated test platform that I'd be willing to implement and test in my free time. His response was "And when you're finished, who's going to maintain it? I'd need to hire someone at least as skilled as you to keep it running. Please don't make it."
Comments
I'm surprised noone pointed out this post from Sriram Krishnan, a product manager at Microsoft:
Stuff I've Learned at Microsoft http://www.sriramkrishnan.com/blog/2009/12/stuff-ive-learned...
"Ask for forgiveness, not for permission ... Any sufficiently large institution has something to lose...Corporate systems are optimized for saying no. Maintain the status quo. No risk of failure and a spectacular blowout...This is exactly why you are better off going ahead and doing something without asking first. If you don’t ask, no one can tell you to not do it."
I'd argue that the specifc principle "never ask permission to clean up code" can be generalised to "never ask permission", especially for software houses that have grown large and sclerotic. But YMMV; in a previous job I once told my manager I had an exciting idea for an automated test platform that I'd be willing to implement and test in my free time. His response was "And when you're finished, who's going to maintain it? I'd need to hire someone at least as skilled as you to keep it running. Please don't make it."