Re: Efficiency AND Effectiveness. I just had to share this.

I love that moment when you get the IT guy and the HR people together...
it's precious, and very educational for all in the room.
Jim Franz

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Bolhuis" <lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, August 24, 2005 8:22 AM
Subject: Re: Efficiency AND Effectiveness. I just had to share this.


> It's what happens when IT folk think it's Their system, not the users.
> Some years back in an AS/400 shop I was contracted to make some
> significant changes to payroll. The company had about 1000 folks out
> back getting payed a complicated combination of hourly, piece bonus,
> shift bonus etc and some of the rules conflicted. So I (as a consultant)
> get my marching orders from the IT guy.  I ask him point blank, should I
> go meet with HR to see if this will meet their needs. He says "Nope,
> what I have laid out is the Only way that could possibly make sense."
> (Anybody see what's coming yet?).  Upon completion I head up to HR to
> show them how it works.  They are shocked at how wrong it is. Virtually
> every major decision was incorrect. Sequencing, rule selection,
> reporting.  I had to re-write over half of the thing, fortunately it was
> all billable but very frustrating.
>
> We IT folks need to remember who's data it is anyway.  Sure we need to
> guide our users toward standards. We need to complain loudly when they
> want edits removed because "They slow us down but we'll go back and fix
> it later." (ya right) but if they insist and their data gets trashed in
> the process remind them that it's their data.  We need to keep it backed
> up. We need to help them with ways to use it more effectively. We need
> to give them ideas when they're stuck but we shouldn't be cramming
> things down their throats just because we thing something is cool, or
> 'the only way'.  Sometimes we need to let them head down a bad path but
> be ready to help them get back. Heck, who hasn't replaced a block of
> code with a user's requested change but left the old block in the
> program with a comment like:  "This code was replaced for very stupid
> reasons. So stupid in fact that it will be re-instated within a month,
> trust me on this!"  And sure enough the users finally see the light and
> want the old code back.
>
> We in IT need to be facilitators and leaders, not tyrants or dictators.
> We need to listen and listen to all departments not just the loudest
> ones.  It's not our data and the sooner we convince the users of this
> the better off we all are.  We need to be  as they say on Mythbusters,
> "...We're what you call Experts!"
>
>   - Larry
>
> Fisher, Don wrote:
>
> >Such brilliance is not limited to the Oracle community, Steve.  I've seen
> >many examples of this type of genius during my career in AS/400 shops.
This
> >type of thinking was endemic to IT shops in the 1970s and 80s.
> >Unfortunately, there are a few from that era that cling to that
mentality.
> >
> >Donald R. Fisher, III
> >Project Manager
> >Roomstore Furniture Company
> >(804) 784-7600 extension 2124
> >DFisher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >
> ><clip>
> >My wife has, for over 2 years, been project leading, for her dept. (she
is
> >in finance) a project to automate their current system, not a biggy. Now
> >they had it in the USA for 12 months and not one working program, this
was
> >mainly because the MIS manager did not believe you needed to talk to the
> >user to know what they wanted, I think he is cleaning toilets now.
Anyways
> >the US washed their hands of it and the UK took over, so they did a
little
> >talking to the user and they are now in UAT.
> >
> >So my wife is the ONLY one on the system working at home and asked me to
> >time (what they call a report but it is a display) a report, Invoices not
> >yet invoiced, 1 country, 2,000 records, 38 seconds. All countries 51,000
> >records 2Mins 47seconds. I think we would all agree not acceptable. Also
> >there is no way that the user can ever see more than the first 5,000
records
> >bit of a problem for the UK who had 5,500.
> >
> >Now we come to the clever part, when they first ran this last week it
> >crashed because 6 users ran it at once, so they changed it so each
request
> >was queued. Now we move from the merely clever to the brilliant. But if
it
> >doesn't run within 60 seconds it is cancelled and a message is sent
asking
> >the user to try again later. They decided that this info was too good to
> >only give to the requestor, everybody should get the message (merely a
case
> >of lazy programming I think). Well in a meeting about this my wife
pointed
> >out to the MIS manager that there could be 1,000+ users on when this goes
> >live and with the response times she was getting that everyone would be
> >getting messages all the time, and now from the brilliant to the sheer
> >genius, his immediate reaction? He started calculating how much extra
disk
> >space they would need to buy to handle it!
> >
> >A shining example of analysis, design, and testing. Talk about skilled
> >professionals! I mean, you would need to take special courses to be so
bad,
> >wouldn't you?  Where do they get these people from?
> ><clip>
> >
> >
>
> -- 
> Larry Bolhuis                   IBM eServer Certified Systems Expert:
> Vice President                    iSeries Technical Solutions V5R3
> Arbor Solutions, Inc.             iSeries LPAR Technical Solutions V5R3
> 1345 Monroe NW Suite 259          iSeries Linux Technical Solutions V5R3
> Grand Rapids, MI 49505            iSeries Windows Integration Technical
> Solutions V5R3
>                                 IBM eServer Certified Systems Specialist
> (616) 451-2500                    iSeries System Administrator for
> OS/400 V5R3
> (616) 451-2571 - Fax              AS/400 RPG IV Developer
> (616) 260-4746 - Cell             iSeries System Command Operations V5R2
>
>   If you can read this, thank a teacher....and since it's in English,
> thank a soldier.
>
>
>
> -- 
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