Programming Rant 1

[Stevehewitt]

Hey,

This thread is quite pointless, but I need to let off steam before I kill someone in management.

I'm not a programmer. I work in IT as the systems manager. Just me, I do the lot. Helpdesk, Mail admin, Network tech, Hardware tech, webmaster - the works.

I wanted to expand my knowledge by playing with new stuff. This happended to by Access.

Since November time, I have purchased books, CD's and other reading material on how to programming using Access, VBA and SQL.
I decided to create a stock control program for my company. We currently keep all records on a excel spreadsheet. To cut a long story short, its crap. We still can't close off our end of year accounts cause we don't know what we sold from stock. (End of Year is December)

I've had no input even though I requested it, no training, no assistance and no feedback during testing.
I lived with this until now, because I handed in my notice 2 weeks ago.

Management has finally caught on that this program will save 100's of man hours and are using it.

But only NOW, with 2 weeks notice left to serve are they making changes.

AAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!! 6 MONTHS IN DEVELOPMENT, AND THEY ONLY TELL ME WHEN ITS FINISHED & I HAVE JUST 2 WEEKS LEFT!!!

End of Rant! ;-)


Steve

 

[Stevehewitt]

Rosieb

I don't know how you do it!

Thanks. Yeah, look forward to seeing everyone!


entaroadun and everyone

Yeah, your right. I've told him. He also said he needed the website finished. I have wanted content for it since this time last year.
Now i'm tied between both projects!

I'll end up working just on the application development, and if its not done in time, they can pay me during weekends at a fair price.

Thanks for your advice everyone,


Steve.

 

[SQLSister]

I have wanted content for it since this time last year."

Just a rhetorical question. Why is ithtat people think we can build content-driven websites without being willing to provide any content? Are we just supposed to make it up?

 

[Stevehewitt]

I just can't believe that management and some users think like that. As its my first go at programming for other people (albeit on Access) I've had no experience at this sort of behavior!

Unbelieveable.

Thanks,


Steve.

 

[rosieb]

Sad, but so many users still see anything to do with computers as "technical" so outside their purview. Website content, and data, is expected to appear magically.

Years ago, we first got a "computer" and my boss seriously thought he could just "ask it it provide the sales statistics", no data entry, no nothing , it should just "know". Magic!!

Many people are still scared of computers, and of IT generally. Sadly, I feel many IT people still contribute to the mystique - the high priest syndrome - it gives control through fear. I think some users are genuinely scared to state requirements for fear of looking foolish (and, OK, some others are just plain lazy).

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[Tarwn]

Whats sad is that the "magic" outlook even exists inside the technical profession. For instance, I have run into the website content issue several times in the past and this seem s to be an issue that even other IT people have difficulty understanding. I had a nifty explanation for this, but it didn't make sense so I'll leave it for someone who didn't just wake up groggy from an extended nap

[sub]01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01100101 00111111[/sub]
The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[Stevehewitt]

Tarwn

I think you should take your own signiture and put it too good use! Sounds like you need some!

Steve.

 

[Tarwn]

-- OT
Steve Onpnt sent me a tin of coffee as a house warming present last week. I got it on Friday, it's a std sized tin (11oz), it may have enogh left to get me to tomorrow
-- OT


This clueless management thing happens in a lot of professions outside of IT as well. It often surprises me how many business owners and CEOs will make decisions that are blatently bad simply becuse it feels like it should fall into the realm of common sense.

I am not crazy about writing specifications/documentation/etc but I have found that writing a good requirements spec and making a coule mock displays will save a lot of time in the end. First, it goads a manager into thinking about he project because they have an outline of all the functionality right in front of them that they have to SIGN off on. They may not read it the first time, but I guarantee when the project is finished and they are asking why certain functionality doesn't work as expected you can point to the requirements spec and say "But thats how it's been planned since xx/yy/zzzz when you signed this document". At that point they may still ask for changes, but the responsibility for time lost falls under them.
Also it allows you to ask more in depth questions before you even start. You may have to add supporting functionality or additional interfaces and it is always better to find that out before you even start. Then you take that spec to whoever has to ok it and they know from the beginning whats going to happen and what additional functionality you added to support the functionality they wanted.
At this point it is always a good idea to do some sort of design spec, either the full on official looking type or simply a long amount of time taking notes on major compoenents, public functions, and what will be expected of components behind the scenes.
A lot of people will ask for an estimated completion time, I tell them 1 week to 9 years if they start asking before I have even gotten the requirements spec done.

Another advantage of that documentation is that you can look at the system and assign milestones. Maybe add in a extra page talking about the milestones and so on. At this point you have an easy way to make the management realize how hard your working. Each monday email them with a short synopsis of what you hpope to achieve that week, the less technical the management the more general you can be as long as you include the milestone you are working on. Each Friday send a report on what you have completed (I finishd such-and-such milestone or I finished half of such-and-such milestone, etc). Even a non-IT manager should see that your getting stuff done at this point. Plus you will be keeping them more aware of the project and it's status and keeping it more firmly in their thoughts. I also like to BCC myself on these email updates so that they can't come back in 4 months and try to accuse me of not working or keeping them in the dark about what I have been working on, etc. And documentation is always good to have...

There is actualy a whole ot more to the development process according to Software Engineering guidelines, but I was aiming more at how to use portions of it to keep management in the know and how to get material/content/whatever from them.

[sub]01000111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01000011 01101111 01100110 01100110 01100101 01100101 00111111[/sub]
The never-completed website:

http://www.tiernok.com/

 

[jtb]

In larger organizations, managers juggle too many tasks to be able to handle them all... so they only pay attention to the crises...

Your case may be like that... it wasn't on the radar until "the wheels fell off"...

Good luck and please don't think I was being flippant... Sometimes I'm just not as eloquent as I think I am...

JTB
Have Certs, Will Travel
"A knight without armour in a [cyber] land."

 

[rosieb]

Stevehewitt
<aside/more rant>
Just for a laugh, a hollow one.

It's now another week, 3 now, no specification BUT the person concerned has another urgent Access report requirement, on a different topic. He is miffed that I can promise nothing before middle of next week (Oh and, he's sorry he hasn't got around to the other spec - he's been too busy!).

Not to mention that his department complained voluably about being told that one of my staff was on holiday for two weeks from this coming Monday, only he could do a specific job for them, when I investigated - a week ago, I found all that he had to do was a minor job (now done)I can easily do the rest, but I'm still waiting for their input to start the real work.

TODAY, I hear that department is complaining that they don't get the support from IT that they expect. (Of course we do have one or 20 other departments to support.)

When you see the headline "IT Manager Runs Amock With Axe" you'll know why!!!

<aside/more rant>

Tho', I'll admit it, I really enjoy the Access stuff. The satisfaction of developing something which really does something useful is great, and a lot of users are incredibly grateful. Most managers don't have a clue about what is possible or how long it takes. See it as a "learning" experience, laugh, and move on. It'll happen again, enjoy it.

Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[Stevehewitt]

It'll happen again! :-(

Thats me out of the programming arena then! ;-)


Steve.

 

[jtb]

Steve,

Get with your management... express your concern that the department feels like they're not getting the support they need... tell your management you want to build service level agreements with the departments...

Stuff both sides can measure. Priority levels based on affects (emergency repair, normal support, change requests, projects) on productivity (i.e., manufacturing, sales, whatever). Response times based on staffing levels and priority (i.e., what they're willing to pay for... if it's not directly billed, it's a portion of their corporate overhead... and a P1 trumps a P2, etc...)

Work with management and department leaders to get consensus on the priority levels you've established.

Tell (show?) your management you understand the needs of the business, and you want to make sure everyone gets all of the attention they need, leveraging the available staff...

It's the way the big service providers (IBM, EDS, HP, CSC, etc.) do it...

JTB
Have Certs, Will Travel
&quot;A knight without armour in a [cyber] land.&quot;

 

[rosieb]

Steve

Don't get put of from the programming arena just because of management (or users). It's an area where you can really make an impact, become a player (esp in a small/medium organisation).

Become the database expert, really understand the data and its structure (this is key)- then you'll be appreciated - tho' it may take time.

Yes, I rant (and curse) but at the end of the day , I go home happy. I spent an afternoon last holiday working on a problem - not really difficult to a serious coder, but I was really chuffed to make it work; personal satisfaction plus I've produced something really useful. That's what it's all about.


OK, you will hit situations where your contribution is not appreciated, but you'll also hit situations where a minor piece of work turns you into a god(ess)- suddenly you've changed people's working lives, for the better.

<Aside> I did a little programme for our Reprographics Dept, trivial, but it saves them 10 person days per month. They now love me, but if I need a favour... and their boss will support anything to do with me at directors' meetings (my boss thinks this is great!)

Suddenly, I'm a star (internally), and it's not down to my expertise - I "borrow" from all over, esp TT (there are a couple of people who have helped me immeasurably - I do hope they feel suitably acknowledged, I think they are wonderful) but I'm learning, lots. And it's really enjoyable.
</aside>

Sure, there are frustrations, plenty, but they really are outweighed by the personal satisfaction.


Rosie
"Never express yourself more clearly than you think" (Niels Bohr)

 

[KenCunningham]

Rosie:

"<Aside> I did a little programme for our Reprographics Dept, trivial, but it saves them 10 person days per month. They now love me, but if I need a favour... and their boss will support anything to do with me at directors' meetings (my boss thinks this is great!)"

As you say, good work and even better to get someone else on your side. Just watch if/when the 10 person days saved becomes a bean-counter tool to cut staff in the Reprographic Dept, as has happened here only recently. Then the time-saved factor goes out of the window to be replaced by resentment. Hope not.

 

[Stevehewitt]

Yeah, personal satisfaction / professional pride. Thats the only thing that has kept me going with this project really.

Its when you do a huge task (for me) and get nothing back. Diddly Squit!!!

Anyway, I know your right - and I'm sure things in the future will be different. Like you said, its a learning experience.

Thanks,


Steve.

 

[shortone]

[purple]Steve,
Your thread, as you can see, was NOT pointless - you struck a lot of nerves (including mine), and made a lot of allies.

A rant of my own:

I work for State Government (which state? Let's just say it's a small state, but a major player along the East Coast of US), and in my particular Office, I am also the IT department. Just last year, the directors decided that they wanted to change the way we collect information (I drastically improved a legacy Access database) - AGAIN, but much more radically this time, making it more difficult to combine the earlier data with the current data. I kept asking what they needed done (our Fiscal Year starts 01-July) from December and was finally told, 1 MONTH BEFORE it was to go live, what was needed. Thankfully, I have the type of rapport with the directors to laugh them to scorn, then advise them that with the major changes they were requesting, that it was NOT going to be done when they wanted it and that they should have had this meeting a LOT earlier with me, thus giving me more time to complete the task (as it is, I'm STILL tweaking this thing and the Fiscal Year is almost over!). I put it to them this way, "Do you want it done, or do you want it done right, so that it WORKS?" What helped me, was that Directors from other Offices within our Department were courting me, along with Supervisors from a consulting firm I worked with to development a much larger database (where I learned a lot), so they knew that at any time, I could possibly go to another Office and leave them in a lurch. But my loyalty is first to God, and it wasn't time to go, so I'm still here, plugging away. I've now been advised that I can (finally) get the formal training my supervisor and I have requested for what seems like forever, so I can stop learning things "on-the-fly", and spend more time developing and not researching. I'm basically self-taught in VBA & SQL, as well as the MS Office programs - though I guess I didn't do a bad job - I've got my MS Office Specialist Master Cert in Office 2000, which I've made sure everyone in my Office sees. Of course, that means that whenever something happens, I'm called to figure out what happened. Most of the time, as we all know, it's user error, but they don't want to hear that...but that's another rant for another post....

Our Department's IT Office is stretched very thin also, and relies very heavily on those of us who are the sole IT people in our respective offices, which works to our advantage. Most of the time, the helpdesk tickets I post just come back to me here...

I've said all that to say this - keep your chin up, do your best, but don't let those who don't know, don't want to know, and are just ignorant of what we do get you down. Be confident of your abilities and yourself, and be your best for your new company. There is so much good advice above my post that I plan to follow myself. All the best on your new venture!!![/purple]

JayeD
&quot;I'm sure of two things: there IS a God, and I'm NOT Him!&quot; - R. Williams

 

[Stevehewitt]

Cheers,

Thanks. Yeah, I'm looking forward to my new job. Its a lot more structured - and as its a IT consultancy company I think I'll be getting a lot more suport than the 'Why can't you change the way we enter data within 2 days?' on a Access Database of 12 tables and 22 users!!!
It's shear ignorance - and if you (e.g. manager) don't understand something then let us (the employee) tell you what can and can't be done.

BTW, I'm working from home today and my boss called me asking if 'we' can change something else in the program - with three working days left!!!

But anyway, the future is looking bright. (Although I can't find my passport and I need it when I start my job!)

Steve.

 

[shortone]

[purple]
Steve,
Find that passport soon. I could use your help here !

A happy employee is a productive employee.

Make it a great day!

[/purple]


JayeD
&quot;I'm sure of two things: there IS a God, and I'm NOT Him!&quot; - R. Williams

 

[platypus55]

I hear all of it.
Management: Hey you...Solve our problems
Techie: What are your problems?
Management: Either managerspeak (we need the synergy of the customer connection to be monetized)
silence, or something very specific and very stupid (we need to remove this authentication step in online sales)



Free IT practice exams:

http://xamsrus.com

 

[Albion]

Management has finally caught on that this program will save 100's of man hours and are using it.

Two problems.

1) No one wants to change the way they do their jobs. They believe it usually means more work for them even though it can save the company hundreds of hours.

2) I have learned that in a disorganized work place many people do not have the time to look at something new, only because they are doing twice the work because of the disorganization.

I am in the same situation with my company. I have found that first you need to find out how an employee does their work. then you can show them how a database will save them hours.

For instance... My company recently went ISO9001. One of the requirements was that supervisors have to write a WIP (work in progress) tag for each detail on a specific job, and each job can have hundreds of details. I was talking to one of the guys and he was complaining about the massively increased workload he had because of this. He would use a WIP template in Excel for each detail, typing and saving for each one. So I told him that I could write a database that would save him some time by taking out 90% of the repetitive data entry. After all was said and done he told me that the database saved him at least 12 hours a week. He went from entering about 20 fields on each tag to 4. Not only that but it gave other people an easy way to analyze detail times and data on jobs.

My point being that you have to keep in mind that people do not want to increase their work load. By first finding out how you can go about doing that then writing your software, it will get a much better reception. And once upper managements sees a few guys saving 12 hours a week because of something you wrote they will be more apt to take a look at something you write in the future. But this is a double-edged sword, once it got around that I saved the supervisors so much time, everyone and their brother started asking me how I could do the same for them.

Anyway, good luck in your new position.

-Al

 

[shortone]

Update - It's a wonderful thing when management finally "gets it."

Case in point, my supervisor and I have been trying, to no avail, to get me more training, specifically in Oracle. The powers-that-be shot it down, and we were left wondering what to do, because I didn't have the money to pay for it myself (they didn't pay me enough). An upcoming project was looming that would combine a lot of data collection programs (and replace the slap-dash system we have now), and we needed an in-house Oracle DBA by March 2005 or so. My supervisor decided to "one-up" the management and wrote the specification for the DBA into our RFP and contract for the vendor that would take on this massive project. It went through all the proper channels, the Governor's office signed off on it and I have just started my class for the OCP certification (with an accompanying Project class, to put into practice everything we'll learn in real-world situations). The State saved a bunch of money, because they didn't have to hire a DBA, and I win, because once I get that certification, my salary and title change to what it is I actually do around here! It "only" took 5 years, but it was definitely worth the wait!

I'm hoping this will open the door to future training, once the management sees (albeit through a somewhat forced hand - kudos to my supervisor, who, by the way, left not too long ago for a new job) the value of a trained employee (and I won't have to keep learning on the fly). Sometimes, it just takes longer than you think - you just have to know when to wait it out and when to move on. Glad I chose to stick it out....



JayeD
"I'm sure of two things: there IS a God, and I'm NOT Him!" - R. Williams