January 22, 2013 at 7:49 am
Jim P. (1/21/2013)
I've gotten in the habit with my manager of occasionally dropping this on her desk:
You have a choice:Good
Fast
Cheap
Pick any two.
When she tries to up the workload.
....
Thanks, that's a short and sweet way to put it.
- webrunner
-------------------
A SQL query walks into a bar and sees two tables. He walks up to them and asks, "Can I join you?"
Ref.: http://tkyte.blogspot.com/2009/02/sql-joke.html
January 22, 2013 at 8:12 am
Eric M Russell (1/21/2013)
The reality is that going directly to the DBA or developer may not be the best approach for an end user to propose some new application functionality, especially if it's done via an impromtu cubicle visit and the developer's mind is half occupied with troubleshooting some other issue. In a corporate setting, they should instead approach the business analyst or director, let them flesh out the requirement, and then they schedule a meeting with the developer to get input.
This is another "it depends"...
Sometimes a quick chat with the developer will show either an easy way something can be done or the reasons it's hard. Going the analyst/director route may lead the feature bloat as the analyst/director adds a few other WIBNI's and presents the developer with something that would need a major rewrite to implement!
Derek
January 22, 2013 at 9:55 am
One day an engineer set out to build a building. He asked the users, owner, and the city/county about the building. He filed the Environmental Impact Statement, all the permits, all the plans, and created all the blueprints needed. He did it all. Everyone was glad. Everyone was excited for the building would be all they wanted and it would do everything for them.
The engineer worked with the builder and between them they built the building exactly as it was engineered. It was tall, it was warm, it was easy to get around, and it was what all the committees and authorities wanted. Everyone was happy. The building was exactly what was needed. All the systems and processes worked exactly as designed. It was perfect,
One day a new manager was hired to work in the building. He looked around and saw all the building had to offer and then told the engineer "This building is good and for the most part it works for me. However, I could get some much more work done if the building would drive to my home and pick me up each morning at 7:15 so I could start work early and not worry about driving. Then what would really be ideal would be for it to take me home in the evening as well."
The engineer said that it would be all but impossible this to happen. The building was not capable of moving, it could not drive at 65 on the freeway, and it could not get down the streets to the persons home. It was not made for that purpose.
After the conversation both the engineer and the new manager believed they were right.
M.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
January 22, 2013 at 10:07 am
dmbaker (1/21/2013)
I find it interesting that nobody has mentioned that building software, and modifying it, has an associated cost -- somebody has to pay for it.
"Pay" isn't always accurate. For internal software, with developers on salary, there is no "pay" that takes place which is explicit. Some other projects might get pushed back (or not). That makes it hard to develop payment.
The level of payment also depends on whether or not a salaried developer must now work 50 hours instead of 40 or 45. In that case, the payment is very subtle.
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January 22, 2013 at 10:28 am
Jim P. (1/21/2013)
I've gotten in the habit with my manager of occasionally dropping this on her desk:
You have a choice:Good
Fast
Cheap
Pick any two.
You have a choice:
Good
Fast
Cheap
Pick at most two.
Fixed it for you.
As far as the original article, in some areas yes, you can work with the users to construct good alternatives. In some regulated fields, there are laws, regulatory requirements, directives, and the like which may sometimes directly conflict with what the user wants... and some, but not all, users just want what they want, and they want it now... There's not a lot of agreeing with them (without breaking the laws/regulations/directives/etc.) that can be done. The best I've found is "Please send me a written statement that you do want <law/regulation/directive> followed"... followed by putting your CV out on the street.
January 22, 2013 at 10:49 am
I don't have a problem with flexibility/changes per say. However, I do tend to have a problem with people/users who can't seem to make up their mind about what they want and are constantly changing their minds in mid-stream all the time. That is very frustrating, as well as it wastes alot of highly paid people's time and resources. Been there, done that. 😀
"Technology is a weird thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. ...:-D"
January 22, 2013 at 1:52 pm
You have a choice:
Good
Fast
Cheap
Pick any two.
Not always agree with the trade off here.
I've seen a few projects which are expensive because the specification was so bad or all encompassing that it dragged on for ages. All the extra time did was add cost with little extra quality.
Nice tight guidelines and very focused knowledgable project manager and you can get good fast and cheap. These are the companies that generally lead the field. (not surprisingly)
January 25, 2013 at 10:37 am
I actually enjoy learning a byzantine development system that with its own special ways of doing things. I am excited to be learning/using SQL Server. Who cares what the rest of the tech world is doing. I love SQL Server, IIS, MS Server, VB, it is a great ecosystem and if I learn it well I will be able to translate the skills into so many other environments.
January 25, 2013 at 10:47 am
bryce.hill (1/25/2013)
It is painfull to make changes because you use SQL Server. It is a shite product that should never be used by a real company and not real companies use it. give up and embrace real technologies. Open source is the only true way. you are all wasting your time.
Ha. I might say the same thing about some of the OSS products. OSS doesn't mean it's better or higher quality. It gives you more control and the chance to do be more flexible than you might with closed source, but it's not necessarily better.
I've seen plenty of people think they're doing better with OSS and end up spending lots of money and time fixing crap that wasn't built right. I see plenty of security issues in both sets of software.
SQL Server works well. Not perfect, but it's a solid product and it runs many, many solid sites for many real companies.
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January 28, 2013 at 4:39 pm
bryce.hill (1/25/2013)
It is painfull to make changes because you use SQL Server. It is a shite product that should never be used by a real company and not real companies use it. give up and embrace real technologies. Open source is the only true way. you are all wasting your time.
I'm curious. What do you use to manage multiple billions of "records" with? It's all open source, I assume, so you shouldn't mind sharing your methods.
--Jeff Moden
January 29, 2013 at 7:18 am
bryce.hill (1/25/2013)
It is painfull to make changes because you use SQL Server. It is a shite product that should never be used by a real company and not real companies use it. give up and embrace real technologies. Open source is the only true way. you are all wasting your time.
Hey, kid: Get a job.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
January 29, 2013 at 7:47 am
No doubt trolling for a 'laugh', but funnily enough I've designed & supported SQL systems that have processed ~$500M in transactions and that underpin global corporate processes.
Likewise my company used to run SAP on SQL for America. Only strategic choices changed that as it was a perfectly fine platform.
February 3, 2013 at 3:47 am
While end users tell you all day what they want to be able to, do a system or tool cannot be successful without accomplishing whatever goal was set forth.Sometimes the challenge is deciphering what that goal is. #of users and groups and different business functions increase the complexity of that task drastically.
To reiterate another poster's story about web solutions, in my experience Marketing teams are great stakeholders because of their creative ideas, but driving through the fun details like color, etc in early solution meetings can be challenging.
Oh and the biggest gut shot is having something placed in 12-18 month backlog. With small data solutions my business clients have almost always proceeded to bootstrap an interim solution. Rock - hard place.
February 3, 2013 at 10:04 am
mhroche (2/3/2013)
While end users tell you all day what they want to be able to, do a system or tool cannot be successful without accomplishing whatever goal was set forth.Sometimes the challenge is deciphering what that goal is. #of users and groups and different business functions increase the complexity of that task drastically.To reiterate another poster's story about web solutions, in my experience Marketing teams are great stakeholders because of their creative ideas, but driving through the fun details like color, etc in early solution meetings can be challenging.
Oh and the biggest gut shot is having something placed in 12-18 month backlog. With small data solutions my business clients have almost always proceeded to bootstrap an interim solution. Rock - hard place.
Indeed. Ask 10,000 people to describe in detail a "Perfect" anything (software application, healthcare plan, night out on the town, spouse ... anything), and you'll get 10,000 different answers. Any plan that involves a lot of people and includes the word "perfect" is doomed to failure. Always steer clear of that big rock.
"Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the wise. Instead, seek what they sought." - Matsuo Basho
February 3, 2013 at 10:51 am
Jeff Moden (1/28/2013)
bryce.hill (1/25/2013)
It is painfull to make changes because you use SQL Server. It is a shite product that should never be used by a real company and not real companies use it. give up and embrace real technologies. Open source is the only true way. you are all wasting your time.I'm curious. What do you use to manage multiple billions of "records" with? It's all open source, I assume, so you shouldn't mind sharing your methods.
Heh... yeah... I should have figured such a comment as nothing more than a drive by shooting. 😉
--Jeff Moden
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