[AccessD] A "Real World Example" of Piss Poor Programming Practice

Your boss's boss's boss (if he's any good) should remind the HR Manager that
he and his HR Department are there to serve the company - and not vice
versa.

This is actually far more important than the PPPP, awful though it is.

Just my 2c

John


> -----Original Message-----
> From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com 
> [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of 
> Lawhon, Alan C Contractor/Morgan Research
> Sent: 20 August 2003 20:43
> To: AccessD at databaseadvisors.com
> Cc: 'Elam, Debbie'
> Subject: [AccessD] A "Real World Example" of Piss Poor 
> Programming Practice 
> 
> 
> Several weeks ago the HR (Human Resources) Department in my 
> company sent out an email informing all of us that we had to 
> enter our resumes into a "new" HR database that they had 
> developed.  We were given a deadline (this coming Friday) for 
> entering the data and told how important it was to complete 
> this task.  The HR Manager stated (in the email) that any 
> employee failing to meet the Friday deadline would be 
> reported to his/her immediate supervisor.
> 
> So I spent two hours (yesterday afternoon) entering my data 
> only to experience the following calamity:
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lawhon, Alan C Contractor/Morgan Research 
> [mailto:alan.lawhon at us.army.mil]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 9:40 AM
> To: <addressee deleted to protect the guilty>
> Subject: Problem With the Morgan HR Database ...
> 
> 
> Dear HR Database Problem Fixer:
> 
> I spent a considerable amount of time yesterday afternoon 
> loading my resume into Morgan's new HR database.  I had 
> completed "Step 11" of the process, (loading Employment 
> Information), when time ran out - I had to vacate the 
> building.  In accordance with the printed instructions, I 
> clicked the "Save & Exit" button.  The screen immediately 
> went blank and an error message: "HTTP 404 Termination" or 
> "HTTP 403 error" (or some similar wording) appeared in the 
> upper left-hand corner of the screen. As my heart sank, I 
> immediately reentered the program and my worst fear was 
> confirmed: Not a single character of the entered data (not 
> even the blank spaces) was saved.  :-(((
> 
> I was VERY CAREFUL to follow the program instructions 
> precisely and to NOT exceed the 1,000 character limit - 
> including spaces - in any of the fields. (There were a few 
> fields that I left blank as I did not know - or could not 
> remember - the information.)  Obviously, I will have to 
> reenter all the data and try again, but before I do that I 
> have two questions.  First, have you had similar reports 
> (from other users) of this problem with the program? Since I 
> was concentrating my effort almost exclusively on the 
> information I was entering, I didn't click the "Save & Exit" 
> button until the very end - which may have been a mistake on 
> my part.  I guess my second question is as
> follows: What assurance is there that this program will 
> function properly and actually save entered data?
> 
> Alan C. Lawhon
> 
> --------------
> 
> I received the following response to my inquiry.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tim <a Support Tech with the Company that Developed 
> This Kludge> 
> Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 10:47 AM
> To: Lawhon, Alan C Contractor/Morgan Research;
> Subject: RE: Problem With the Morgan HR Database ...
> 
> 
> Alan,
> 
> My apologies for your trouble, but you must click the "Save & 
> Exit" buttons to save each screen's data.  This is clearly 
> posted at the top of each screen in red, stating: "If you do 
> not click one of the "Save" buttons your information will not 
> be saved."
> 
> Regarding the termination problem, the error you received 
> indicates it was not a problem with the software, but with 
> your connection.  Here is a note from our lead programmer:
> 
> """If he had received an application error, it would have 
> logged it to the windows even log, sent us email, and 
> forwarded him on to the Error.aspx form page for further 
> feedback.  As none of these things happened, then there was 
> some error that was external (and out of our hands) to the 
> B2Secure application.  It sounds like his internet connection dropped.
> 
> Just for reference, the session time out is set to 90 
> minutes.  Had he exceeded this amount of time without 
> clicking anything, he would have been sent to the login page 
> (without error) and his information would have been lost as well."""
> 
> As for the integrity of the system functioning properly and 
> saving data, we have received no other complaints.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Tim
> 
> -------------
> 
> Following is my reply to "Tim" (and his "lead programmer" ...)
> 
> Tim:
> 
> I would be grateful if you relayed a brief message to your 
> lead programmer. In a well designed GUI interface, if you 
> have not implemented a periodic "auto backup" feature which 
> executes seamlessly in the background, (let's say once every 
> ten minutes), you should design and implement a "warning" 
> dialogue box which displays a message to the user 
> approximately five minutes before any session timeout occurs. 
>  This dialogue should inform the user that he/she must save 
> their work immediately.  Allowing a session timeout to occur, 
> with a subsequent loss of data, is indicative of poor 
> programming design and inadequate testing.
> 
> As for your contention that "... the system is functioning 
> properly and we have received no other complaints," that does 
> not jell with what I am hearing.
> 
> Alan C. Lawhon
> 
> 
> Debbie Elam: I feel your pain!  :-(((
> 
>     
> 
> 
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