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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2006 1:30 pm
by daedalus__
Obadiah, get them fired and take their monies. :D

Re: What do you fear the most when making a project/website?

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 12:53 am
by matt1019
Obadiah wrote:
matt1019 wrote:what do you fear the most?
starting off in another job like this one....when i started the company was supposed to be hosting in home and the boss thought that we were but we werent(my supervisor lied about it) i couldent use any of the languages i knew only the basics(html,css,javascript) because i didnt have access to the server to set anything up and my supervisor didnt know how to even set up a web server, so 9 months later here i am...doing it all wearing the hat of my supers and my own....work sucks :(
Yes! I agree with Daedalus too. :D:D

You work twice as hard. why not get paid twice too?

@matthijs:

17.99 listed price.... dosen't sound bad. Let me go check this book out tomorrow @ Barnes & Noble's.

thanks :)

-Matt

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:00 am
by onion2k
People realising just how little work I actually do..

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:24 am
by Skittlewidth
Clients massively moving the goal posts as a complex/boring/long project nears completion... it happens here too often.

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:28 am
by CoderGoblin
I agree creeping requirements is one of the hardest things to understand and cater for. With good project management it can normally be avoided but "the customer is always right" syndrome frequently gets in the way, especially if you have a poor project manager.

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 3:29 am
by Jenk
Dire management.

a past example, though it wasn't web based, a new development team was formed for the creation of a multi tier application.. development is rare in this company so naturally we were delighted to be selected for the job.

6 weeks in we were nearing completion of the database normalisation and the manager finally pipes up and says "oh, by the way we already have a database made up on xxx server. Here's the login and connection details."

:roll:

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:20 am
by GM
I dread every day at work, because I know exactly how it is going to go...

My role is as an "Internal Consultant" for the SAP Sales/Distribution module. I'm an "internal consultant" in that I'm a full-time employee of the company and I'm used as a consultant...

Usual situation:
Business: We need a new document to do this specific job.
Me: OK. Tell me more details
Business: We're not sure really, but it needs to do this.

...A day of searching by me passes...

Me: OK... There's already a document that does this. It's called YC09.
Business: Ahhh. But the new document also needs to do that.
Me. OK. Why didn't you say that in the first place?
Business: We assumed you'd know. You're the expert.

...Another day of searching by me passes...

Business: We are not getting the service we are expecting from you. We've been waiting 2 days already!
Me: Yes, well if I'd have been told what exactly you needed, instead of what you thought you needed, it'd be done by now.
Business: Well?
Me: We'll need to create a new document. I'll get back to you with costs/timescales.

...Another day passes while I chase the availability of programmers and check what customising is required...

Business: The IT department really is useless. 3 days to create a simple document!
Me: OK. We can't start working on this for 2 weeks. The cost will be approx. €3000, which is 2 days' programming time.
Business: 2 weeks?!? €3000 ?!?

2 weeks passes

Me: Can you test the new document please? It's called YO1F.
Business: We haven't got time to test it. You should be doing it.
Me: I think it works, but I'm not the expert in your processes.
Business: Put it into production.
Me: Are you sure?
Business: We've been waiting 3 weeks! We've got customers who won't pay us blah blah rant rant.
Me: OK.

At this point, either one of two situations happens.

1) The new document is never used, despite the "urgency"
2) The document is used, but has problems because the business couldn't be arsed testing it.

Work sucks. :(

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 4:38 am
by Ollie Saunders
Me. OK. Why didn't you say that in the first place?
Business: We assumed you'd know. You're the expert.
Have a proper meeting and draw up a project specification. Enforce strict rules about the content, detail and structure of your project specification so that you always have the full details. If the requester can't tell you everything you need to know put it on hold until they can.
..Another day passes while I chase the availability of programmers
Organise the staff better. Sounds like you are sorely lacking time management infrastructure you should be able to get information like that really quickly.
Business: The IT department really is useless. 3 days to create a simple document!
Yep he's right but a lot of this could be prevented. Your IT department's management and interactions with the rest of the business seem to be very poorly organised and unstructured.
Business: 2 weeks?!? €3000 ?!?
You'll always get that. In fact you can filter out a lot of the stupid requests that won't get used by quoting these initial high prices and long time scales a lot sooner than you currently are.
Business: We haven't got time to test it. You should be doing it.
Client testing is ludicous, firstly they aren't very good at it and secondly going back and forth fixing the bugs they do find takes loads of time anyway. Besides testing is IT's responsibility! You could always use Test-Driven Development there are many many advantages to that.

Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2006 5:04 am
by Jenk
I used to experience similar situations with the service delivery role I was in prior to this role, in that when we received ad-hoc or out of contract work requests, such as someone who works from home has a problem with their laptop, we would have to receive prior consent from that employees manager to do the work.

They raise a request such as "unable to work, laptop cafuzzled." (normally due to their error)

We raise quote and send to manager within the hour (SLA requirement)

We wait.. for days for the manager to respond.

Requestor phones us up "It's been a week since I raised this request, why hasn't my laptop been fixed? What kind of service do you call this?"

"I apologise sir/madam but unfortunately we are unable to work until we have received confirmation that we can continue this work. Until such a time we have received this confirmation, we are prohibited from working."

"Who is supposed to provide this consent? What is their name? I'll be damned if they keep their job after this mess!"

"It's your boss sir/madam."

"Oh.. err.. right."

:lol: