Re: BPCS documentation --- files poster

Lisa 
  
>  Ok, I'll bite ... where did you get a BPCS files poster?  

We got it from our SSA customer representative, 4 reps ago - at the time we 
were converting to BPCS/36 from MAPICS at 2 factories - we asked for a 2nd 
copy, and got it, so the folks at each factory could have one.

By the time we were ready to convert to BPCS 405 CD, the HQ manager who had 
insisted on it being on HIS office wall, instead of in the hands of end 
users, had lost our copy & demanded the other one, which was used during our 
conversion, with our scribbles on it to identify the key files that had been 
added since.  We asked SSA & our Crowe Chizek consultants if we could get a 
contemporary reprint showing ALL the files interconnections, but no current 
employee of either site with whom we were in contact with had any familiarity 
with this.

Conceptually, the poster was 80% valid before we made any modifications & a 
big help reminding people that you gotta get this file correct before trying 
to key into that file -- a flow chart of dependencies of codes.  A picture is 
worth a thousand words, and often we in MIS (well me for sure) tend to use 
the thousand words when we can use a picture more effectively.

We used different colored markers to circle which files would be: manually 
rekeyed; mechanically converted; dropped & restarted from scratch; subject to 
some kind of modification; some mixture.  Then as work progressed on files, 
did check marks across them to show which were supposedly ready for testing, 
tested satisfactorily, complete in all particulars, code referring to nature 
of problem.

I guess I should not complain - over the years a lot of end users "toss" 
expensive & often irreplaceable manuals when "they" have no further personal 
use for them, without any consideration for future corporate needs.  This 
phenomena has repeated at every employer I have had since I started in data 
processing in the early 1960's.

There was one place I insisted my boss authorize the release of the manuals, 
because for 5 years in a row, the auditors demanded access to the general 
ledger manuals until the year we had none left, because they had tossed all 
of them out, even with me harrassing them on a daily basis to remind them to 
return the manuals when they were done with them.

Our BPCS write-on wipe-off is a huge poster covering a large chunk of wall 
space. Considering the audience that has trouble handling official 
documentation & remembering that there is a help key or what it is used for, 
or having the patience to read the instructions, this is a concept worth 
re-inventing from the official documents & 3rd party manuals.

I sure hope we have not lost our last copy, because it would make life easier 
for whoever has to do our next BPCS conversion.  If I can find it, I will 
check for copyright or trade-mark symbols --- perhaps it should be scanned 
onto a web site or PC diskette, for some artiste to bring up to date.

Al Macintyre

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