A long long time ago in a place far far away...
A project for a large retailer started with a project mangler er, manager and a lowly database developer. The project manager "had once been a developer" and fancied he still was. The database developer also "had once been a developer" but hadn't practiced the craft in several years and so, out of respect for and in deference to people who actually know their asterisk from a hole in a memory map, did not tarnish the field by referring to himself as such.
And it came to pass in a meeting with the newly minted application developers that the lowly database developer repeated a statement he had made several times previously: "I have a bad feeling about using replication in this scenario" he said. "I can't explain it, it just doesn't feel right for the architecture."
Now. We work in a field where emotions should play no part in architectural decisions. And yet, and yet... communication is the art of conveying information, and the lowly database developer was attempting to communicate. He was trying to say "I've worked with replication before and always regretted it." He did, in fact, make that statement during a couple exchanges on the topic. Back to our story...
The project mangler slammed his hand on the table (for emphasis, no doubt) and squeaked "What do you want me to tell our customers? That you have a 'bad feeling'?"
The application developers exchanged looks with each other and glanced from project mangler to database developer.
"Tell them 'It won't scale'" the database developer finally replied. This advice was ignored.
Fast-forward some to enterprise roll-out...
The short version: Replication did not scale. It fell over. Died.
The moral of the story? If you're on a project with someone who has been developing software for longer than you have been alive and you don't really know as much as you would like to think you know and you especially don't know as much as you'd like the customer to think you know and the someone who does know what they're talking about says something with which you disagree and / or don't understand and / or don't like the way in which they said it, don't smack the table; but rather break out your little PMP notebook and write down what they say and find some way to express to the customers what this experienced and knowledgable individual is attempting to convey to you... you just might learn something and save yourself future embarrassment.
Oh, and the post title? It's short for a redneck-ism coined by the great singer / song-writer Toby Keith:
Who's your daddy?
:{> Andy
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