RE: Difference bet. Primary and Full procedural file.

["Smith, Nelson" <NSmith@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

As Dirty Harry said, "A person's got to know his limitations....."

Part of good management is knowing when to get technical advice and when to
ignore it.  Why do you suppose most sucessful hospital administrators are
not M.D.'s ?  Of course, we can always find examples to point to, to prove
whatever point we are trying to make.  I've just seen far too many projects
screwed up, over the years, for supposedly technical reasons, which were in
reality just personality and personnel problems.  I've never come across a
technical issue that couldn't be solved or worked around, but I've seem
plenty of management issues that were virtually insoluble, due to the people
involved.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: alan shore [SMTP:SHOREA@dime.com]
> Sent: Friday, May 24, 2002 9:41 AM
> To:   rpg400-l@midrange.com
> Subject:      RE: Difference bet. Primary and Full procedural file.
>
> Boy do I really disagree with you there. We just had a guy with a
> marketing background. His personnel and organizational skills were
> fantastic, and everyone really liked him as a person, but his technical
> knowledge (or lack thereof) really hurt us badly. He would make decisions
> with users that when he came back to inform us of the decisions, in most
> cases, we had to argue against him, before he saw the light, and then had
> to return to the user with the rectified plan. This made this very
> intelligent guy look a real scmuck. He is now back in marketing, doing
> really good, and we have a new manager, technically  knowledgable, but as
> a manager, leaves A LOT to be desired.
>
> >>> "Smith, Nelson" <NSmith@lincare.com> 05/24/02 09:22AM >>>
> Also, most shops I've seen are "managed" by ex-programmers who only have
> time to fight the daily fires and have not had the time/inclination to
> "keep
> up" technically, and don't wan't their programmers using techniques that
> they themselves are not familiar with.  Because of their programming
> background, such managers believe that they need to be able to maintain
> the
> code themselves, in an emergency.
>
> Personally, I believe non-programmers make much better managers.
> Antiquated
> skill sets don't get in the way.  Project, personnel, and organizational
> skills are much more important management skills than technical knowhow.
>
>
> > I think that the RPG400-L community as a whole *is*, in fact, more
> > aggressive in learning and utilizing multiple languages than the general
> > AS/400 IT population.  Most of the negative comments regarding the use
> of
> > a
> > new/unused language *usually* stems from an ugly, but recurring,
> business
> > reality.  Some like to call it the "Mack truck syndrome"; if I'm doing a
> > lot
> > of programming in REXX and I get hit today by a Mack truck, who's going
> to
> > maintain my code?  Frankly, since there aren't that many AS/400
> > professionals that know REXX, most companies would probably scrap my
> REXX
> > apps and start from scratch.  That is why most companies keep a tight
> rein
> > on the tools they allow their programmers to use.
> >
> >
>
>
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