RE: "Gamble my career"?

Dave, I believe I pointed out the necessity of educating the bosses in a
subsequent paragraph:
"...your management needs to hear the good, bad, and ugly of the TT story
first.  Then let _them_ decide if they want to save zillions."

And...
Go ahead with TigerTools but make sure you have your boss's signature on the
authorization letter...and take the letter home!

Yes, managing risk is what managers are supposed to do.  But adopting a risk
management strategy based on the use of Fast400 (unknown, unproven, maybe
unethical, likely a violation of IBM licensing) starts you out with one foot
in the grave.  A break-even analysis is no better than the combination of
the "expectation" (estimated $ x confidence level).  If IBM PTF's out
Fast400, your BEA has been trashed.

My points:
1. I won't use Fast400, nor will I suggest its use to my customers.
2. If you want to use Fast400, you'd better have a detailed discussion
(including IBM's comments) with the highest-ranking people you can find in
your organization first.
3. You should have their specific written authorization before you proceed
with downloading/using Fast400.

-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-admin@midrange.com [mailto:midrange-l-admin@midrange.com]On
Behalf Of David.X.Kahn@gsk.com
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 6:04 AM
To: midrange-l@midrange.com
Subject: Re: "Gamble my career"?

Reeve wrote:

> So, if you install this chimera and something bad happens to your
> system, do you think your boss, or the owner, or the board of
> directors will applaud and say, "Hey, nice try!"  Sorry, the line
> for the lynching party forms at the end.  If one of my valued,
> long-time people even downloaded TT without talking to me, it would
> be the end of that career.

Look at it another way. If your company is about to pay a chunk of green
screen tax do you not have an obligation to your bosses at least to make
them aware of the existence of a possible alternative? Your memo will of
course point out both the ethical issues and the business risk and may well
recommend that you do not purchase it, but how are your managers meant to
make a decision without a full awareness of the alternatives? I wouldn't
like to be in a position where we had just shelled out big bucks on an
upgrade and then a week later my boss came to me and said, "Hey, I've just
found out about this magic tool called Fast400 that might have saved us
that upgrade. I had in look in the midrange-l archive and it seems you knew
all about it. How come you didn't see fit to mention it to me?"

Every decision you make carries an element of risk, but managing risk is
something managers are supposed to do. If you regard Fast400 simply as a
means of deferring, rather than avoiding, the green screen tax it should be
possible to calculate the payback period. There are hidden costs to take
into account. These include possibly damaging your relationship with IBM
(although you don't have to go out of your way to tell them) and having to
take extra caution with PTFs and new releases, possibly missing out on some
features and bug fixes that you'd really like to have. All these things you
should be able to put a figure on, and having done that it then becomes
possible to work out how long the tool has to function for the company to
break even.

Dave...

"Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow." - Oscar Wilde

=======================================================
The opinions expressed in this communication are my own and do not
necessarily reflect those of my employer.

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