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Rant: USERS!

Posted: Fri Dec 10, 2004 1:27 pm
by magicrobotmonkey
We need a user rants section. Here's my problem.

I'm writing a report for a user which pulls data and displays it in a table, averaging each row in an Average column and then averaging that column in the final Total row. Each cell is also an average of of three or four records in the db. OBviously, I want the data to be accurate, and so the data in the Average column is not an average of the averages in its row, but rather an average of the actual individual rows that went into each cell. The same goes for the Total number, not an Averages of the averages column, but rather an average of the actual rows again. I mean, this is the right way to do it. The information is accurate.

So, I give it to the user who must have immediatlely whipped out the trusty calulator and takes some averages of the averages he sees on the screen and determines that my math is off. So now he's <span style='color:blue' title='I'm naughty, are you naughty?'>smurf</span> at me - "Why don't these numbers add up? How are we supposed to rely on this data, etc."

For two days now I have been trying to explain to him what the deal is. I mean I've tried everything to get him to understand it. I list the individual numbers in each cell rather than their average. He still doesn't get it and insists on the numbers on the screen matching up. So finally I give in and make the stupid thing show all these crappy averages of averages that aren't even accurate. Gah!

There, I feel better now.

Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 1:57 am
by Weirdan
:lol:

Posted: Sat Dec 11, 2004 2:28 am
by kettle_drum
You should show him how stupid he is being by wanting the numbers on the screen to match up by just making up all the data with rand().

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 8:57 am
by Bill H
Sorry, but in my humble opinion, the numbers should be averaged in whatever manner the customer wants them done. I have been in similar situations more than once, and each time I ask before I do the job "How, precisely, do you want the averages calculated?" You can lose lots of customers by insisting that you are right and they are wrong. To quote an old driving adage:
He was right, dead right, as he sped along, but he's just as dead as if he'd been wrong.

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 9:31 am
by CoderGoblin
In reality you are both correct but it is up to the display to show what is going on....
If you have a column of (Row Average) this should be the row average.
If you have the bottom row of this column it should display the average of the Row average column only.

If you also want to provide a true average you could place it in yet another row/column listing it as True Average of all information.

Sounds more of a display/labelling issue than anything else but when push comes to shove the old adage the
"The customer is always right..."
comes into play. In this instance however I would keep track of correspondace so if someone else from the client firm comes along and asks why the true average is not displayed you can state the reason it is perfomed that way and give details.

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 10:48 am
by patrikG
Reminds me of trying to explain to a client how to take a screenshot under Windows: "You press <Print Screen>", open a graphics program (e.g. MS Paint), save it and send it to me as an attachment.

Took about 15 emails and 6 hours. <shudder>

Posted: Mon Dec 13, 2004 5:07 pm
by pickle
I've found that the simplest way to get around problems like this is to change what the user thinks they are seeing. If they see an entry under "Row Average" that isn't an average of what they see, change the entry to say "Database row average". It might take some fine-tuning, but I've found this solves quite a few problems.