|
midrange.com
They can really put the whammy on a well performing system sometimes also!
;)
"Shannon
O'Donnell"
<sodonnell@irish- To
studios.com> <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent by: cc
midrange-l-bounce
s@xxxxxxxxxxxx Subject
Re: Efficiency AND Effectiveness. I
just had to share this.
08/24/2005 08:42
AM
Please respond to
Midrange Systems
Technical
Discussion
<midrange-l@midra
nge.com>
I totally digree with this. In my opinion the users should never be allowed
on the system. I can't tell you how many times one of my perfectly fine
programs has been ruined by having a user get on the system and start using
it. My feeling is that all my code is absolutely perfect until the users
actually start to use it and begin finding all the bugs!
Ban all users! Ban them, I say!
:-)
Seriously...those are excellent points Larry. I too have been in the
situation where IT makes arbitrary descisions that, ultimatley have little
basis in reality. Not fun.
-----Original Message-----
From: "Larry Bolhuis"<lbolhuis@xxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: 8/24/05 7:22:15 AM
To: "Midrange Systems Technical Discussion"<midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
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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