firefighting

   1.  What sysadmins have to do to correct sudden operational problems.
   An  opposite  of  hacking. "Been hacking your new newsreader?" "No, a
   power  glitch  hosed  the  network  and  I  spent the whole afternoon
   fighting fires."

   2. The act of throwing lots of manpower and late nights at a project,
   esp.  to get it out before deadline. See also {gang bang}, {Mongolian
   Hordes  technique};  however, the term firefighting connotes that the
   effort is going into chasing bugs rather than adding features.

[glossary]
[Reference(s) to this entry by made by: {gang bang}{tiger team}]