RE: Performance Review

On Thu, 5 Apr 2001, Ed Chabot wrote:

> Leif,
> I agree as long as the T.S. programs are written in such a way that they can
> be maintained by the mainstream programming staff.  If they are T.S. because
> you have one programmer that uses techniques or op codes that the rest of
> the staff isn't familiar with, then your whole maintenance argument goes out
> the window.  Not all departments or all programmers can or desire to stay on
> top of the latest techniques and, in some cases, may be more efficient
> writing programs that use older techniques or op codes that they are
> familiar with. 
[SNIP]

I partially agree with you, Ed.  A program must be maintained, and the
staff has to be able to maintain it.   However, I don't think its fair
for a T.S. programmer to be forced to stay behind technology forever
just because another person doesn't want to learn something new!

The person who wants to learn needs to be given opportunity to do so,
otherwise he'll get bored and leave, or he'll get frustrated and his job
performance will suffer.

The solution, of course, is to have some sort of a middle ground.  Hold
the T.S. programmer back here and there, and make the "set in his ways"
programmer learn here and there.

You can't stay running on a System/36 just because one guy doesn't want
to learn RPG III, CL, externally defined files, etc.  Technology must
be allowed to progress, or you AND YOUR BUSINESS, will be left behind.


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