Oh, give me a break.  Obama’s staff is complaining that they didn’t all have phone numbers, blackberries or other equipment setup on their first day?  They are whining because they are using “6 year old” Microsoft software? 

Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology – washingtonpost.com.

Have none of these people ever had a job working in corporate America?  There were people working in those offices up until the week before.  The IT staff has to clean that equipment up, cut phone numbers, establish new ones (I’m sure people would complain if they were getting calls on the old ones).  It takes days (and, yes, in some cases weeks) to fully equip new hires.  No one likes it, but that’s the way it works in even well-oiled operations.

I can’t imagine the security requirements for setting things up.  I worked for just 6 months at a bank and it was locked down tight.  Besides keeping people from stealing information they had no right to access, you need to prevent morons from downloading viruses that would infect entire networks.  Can you imagine the issues with viruses on the White House network?  Oh, I’m sure there are no hackers targeting that installation.

Now, 6 year old MS software.  What software?  Is it Office 2003?  Is it Windows XP?  How many of you are running the same?  People bitch about Vista and if you have used the latest Office, it has some nice features, but a total change in user experience making it a pain to transition to with little payoff.

So, did no one in this tech savvy transition team bother to check into the IC/helpdesk/IT processes/desktop stack before this week?

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The area of biggest challenge I’ve faced in software development is requirements. Nothing earth shattering there. It’s hard to state clearly what you want and it’s even harder to pick what is most important. In consumer applications, using mocks of the UI (simple to realistic) is an excellent aid in driving definition of the requirements. But no one wants to pick what’s the most important feature they need implemented. When asked for a prioritization, they will group features into “priorities”.

As Marty Andrews wrote, “At this point, the stories have not been prioritised. They have been classified into groups, where the group is named “Priority One”. Whilst this may be a useful culling technique, do not fool yourself into thinking they are prioritised.” (more…)

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I’ve added a couple new items to my fundamental lessons I have learned from working in informational technology article. Periodically, the list gets updated, but I thought I’d elaborate on the two new items.

1. If you aren’t happy with what you are doing, nothing else matters.  All your successes will lack value. 

Saying “this should go without saying” should go without saying, but honestly, this should go without saying.  There are basic needs you must fulfill to be happy:

• food
• shelter
• family

That’s an unordered list.  Employment provides money to make these things possible.  Those three simple items make you happy.  Your job can add to your satisfaction and overall happiness if it’s something you enjoy.  If it isn’t, no matter how successful you are at work, it will always seem like work and there will be no satisfaction.  This will creep into your productivity and lessen your long-term potential and overall happiness.  So, keep your day job, but be on the look for one that may make you more satisfied. (more…)

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When solving a problem, if you do not have full context to the issues, your perspective will be skewed to a point where the chances of establishing a clear, effective solution are low.  You might end up “solving a problem” that doesn’t even exist or, worse, is not a problem at all.  This really comes into play when reviewing business requirements.  It’s the teams responsibility to not just read the requirements, but understand the context they were written.  Most requirement documents are fairly light and 2 dimensional.  They assume you understand the motivation behind the requirement… why each one is being asked for.  Perspective and context changes meaning.

When I was a kid, I loved the Garfield comic strip.  Now, not so much.  But take a look at Garfield Minus Garfield.  As the site says:

Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let’s laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.

Now, my kids love Garfield.  But this new missing context Garfield brings a new perspective to this strip that I find amusing.  It really illustrates the point.

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Having survived (and not survived) close to 15 “reorganizations” with a resulting reduction in force, I believe they were initiated with good intentions for the company.  The road to hell and all of that aside, several of these were nothing more than exercises in creative accounting.  This year’s ledger will show a reduction in costs while still seeing the same revenue.  They did not take into consideration next year’s financials or growth.  Many were quickly followed by hiring sprees.  I was once told that it was more expensive to find a position for someone in a different group/role rather than RIF’g them and giving them an “opportunity” to find a position within 60 days.

(more…)

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