One of those days. (not really a rant)

I'm not at work, or on call. Still, the phone rang, it was a
customer...

A customer who immediately went into a mixture of shout, rant and whine.

Not wanting to appear heartless I asked her if she could explain exactly
what the problem was she replied "It doesn't work, and I expect you to
mend it. That's what we pay you for"....<pause>..."And I'm not
technical so I can't explain what's broken...I'm an IT project manager."

...Attempting to remain polite I slowly explained to her how websites and
databases aren't actually the same thing, and that a webpage is just a
way of presenting things using 'some computer code' to talk to a
database on a different machine. The frightining thing is this
surprised her, then she said she thought I was wrong!

I think that BBC survey was actually the tip of the iceberg, really I
do. But, at the same time, maybe it would be good to have a normal job
and not use computers.

I'm going to go and have a lovely weekend now.

 

She is of course wrong about that. No Tech background = clueless ****
WTF is it about businesses that they put CC's in charge of important stuff.

 

I thought it was just me, but this sort of thing seems to be becoming
worse as time goes on. When I started in IT Project Managers, even if
they were not technical, at least made an effort to understand enough
to do their job. Now they seem to think this sort of attitude is
acceptable.

Join the club mate! I had one Project Manager who wanted to do a UAT
on our web-based system before we shipped an update to the customer.
Given that our interal web servers were visible to all machines on the
network, I was a little confused when he appeared at my desk and
insisted I log him onto the testing web server. He than sat *at the
server*, started up Internet Explorer and began his UAT. Really
appeared to have difficulty grasping that the point of the web-based
system was that it was accessible from a web browser. I think he must
have thought that our customers had one server per employee or
something ...

Yep. I'm currently looking into emigrating and becoming a PADI
instructor or similar. The average IQ of managers seems to be
falling, while the aggression appears to be on the rise. It is
reaching the point where my pay versus pain graph will cross the line
and I won't earn enough for it to be worth taking the grief I receive.

 

Dunno about that. Project Management is about ensuring processes are
set up and followed. Well that and making a god almighty pain of
yourself so the people actually delivering the work packages do what
they've committed to.

Some of the best Project Managers I've worked with didn't understand the
technology but still delivered. Some of the worst Project Managers
understood the technology in some depth and wasted their (and my) time
by second guessing decisions and having endless discussions wanting me
to justify and explain the decisions I'd made to them in technical
detail.

I'm not saying that technical knowledge is unnecessary in a project
manager, just that a great amount of it isn't a help.

 

On Sat, 04 Oct 2003 12:16:29 +0100, wrote:

I agree, but I'll bet you that the good Project Managers you worked
with didn't take the attitude that they were above it all and tried to
understand a little of the technology :

Well, if you can't explain what's broken, get someone who can to
phone! Or make an effort yourself. Don't just whine.

 

I've dived with some incredibly stupid people.. they're everywhere. You can
run Pete but you can't hide.

--
cane [at] ukrm.org ¦ fireblade, r30
botafo t#50 f#03 YTC #15 bbb #6 pm #6 apostle [kotl] flo#12[with bar]
New? http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
Rideout? http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/botafof/
"Suckling the Mender"

 

stuff.

*wave*

--
cane [at] ukrm.org ¦ fireblade, r30
botafo t#50 f#03 YTC #15 bbb #6 pm #6 apostle [kotl] flo#12[with bar]
New? http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
Rideout? http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/botafof/
"Suckling the Mender"

 

:

Probably depends on the company, and what it does. I'd really not like
someone with no-idea of the development process to be in charge of
creating the processes around a code revision control system, or customer
bug tracking DB. Unless their involvement was to say "we need some process,
go away and create it."

 

So, did you ask Alison, Surry, UK, for some naked pictures?

 

Yeah my observations were around software and systems delivery with the PM
involved with or in charge of the Requirements Def. and the Delivery Specs.

 

Ah... well my perspective was really of business systems involving
hardware, software and process definitions. There would be technical
leads responsible for saying what needed to be done and the PM would
pull it all together including the budgetary bit and all the
interminable reporting.

 

pete boyall wrote

I never worked on a project that didn't have an IT knowledgeable bod at
the top of it. Never worked on a project that worked either for that
matter.

Me, I am open to change.

 

Fortunately stupid people scuba diving is a group which tends to be
self-erasing

My company is currently trying to persuade people to use "Green
Transport", and they regard bikes as "Green". I'm pushing hard for
all senior management to be given a free DAS course and an R1 ...

 

Just like bikes then.

Have you made a will?

--
cane [at] ukrm.org ¦ fireblade, r30
botafo t#50 f#03 YTC #15 bbb #6 pm #6 apostle [kotl] flo#12[with bar]
New? http://www.ukrm.net/faq/ukrmscbt.html
Rideout? http://www.horrible.demon.co.uk/botafof/
"Suckling the Mender"

 

Trouble is when you get a company that's grown a bit too fast and for
all the wrong reasons, suddenly processes are /the/ thing to have.

"Going away and creating a process" is why it took over a year to get
approval for a £10k purchase of something that got broke during an
office move.

 

In one month I will have been waiting a year for approval for me to
install the JDK on my desktop machine - total cost £0.00.

The fact I am expected to have been writing code this last year eludes
the IT Service department ...

 

Badger :

I'm sure that X for X sake would be bad in most situations, like the
business version of an ideology.

My experience of moving from a system of almost no process (me being
employee number 13), to one of ever more sophisticated processes (with
the company roughly 10 times larger) has been quite instructive, I
think.

The processes that govern what I do, make my job complex and time
consuming in places. Without them, it would often be nigh-on impossible,
and always hugely error prone.

 

I'd love it if the IT marketplace were so bouyant this was an option,
but it isn't... It probably never will be again.

Reality: I've a reasonably paid and fairly secure job, the price I pay
for that is having to be flexible[1], keeping the few customers that are
still spending decent money on IT happy. (I agree with the twisted
firestarter's comments for example... But maybe we both just don't have
a life.)

Sure, if I were paid shit and there was no way hard work would improve
my situation then I'd certainly say ****-em.

Anyhow this wasn't a whinge about how tough life is in IT, more a
commentary on how stupid people can be when they don't know what they're
doing... And yet still very defiant.

[1] Like the late-start 12 hour days I've been working this week.

 

No, who's she?

This was an oriental bird. I suppose I should have asked her if she can
do tricks with ping-pong balls but it didn't seem like the best move at
the time.

 

Yeah, but you worked on 'fuckedproject.com' for fuckedcompany PLC.