[AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

Great points, Stuart.  Plus, there's the explanations and documentation of
the changes. And the clients who don't want to pay for the modifications,
even when they prescribe the changes.

I once had a client that requested a very complex report.  After doing the
analysis, documenting the business rules, and discussing the mock-ups, I
wrote the report.

The client said the report wasn't right, that the calculations were wrong.
So, I went over the business rule document with the client, and the client
changed several rules.  Of course, the client said these weren't changes
-- I had gotten it wrong.

So I re-did the business rules, and gave them the new report.  Again, it
was "wrong".  Again, we went over the business rules.  Again, I revised
the report.

This went through several iterations.  Each time it was wrong, and it was
my fault because I just didn't understand the business rules, or didn't
get them right, according to the client.

The last time they revised (or "corrected") the business rules, the new
calculations looked familiar.  Sure enough, the business rules now set by
the client were the original business rules from the very first iteration
of the report.

I shared the original document, dated, with the client to show them that
we had come full circle, and that they had been changing business rules
this whole time.  Were they grateful?  Did we all share a good laugh, and
learn a valuable lesson?  Sadly, no.  To the client, it was still my
fault, and I shouldn't bill them for all of the changes, I should have
gotten it right the first time.  The fact that I did meant nothing to
them.

I learned a valuable lesson.  I quit consulting and went back into
Corporate America.  The client is a little more understanding when it's
yourself.

Don't assume that the client will pay for any and all changes they request
down the road.  Some will, but some will always try to get something for
nothing.

Steve

-----Stuart McLachlan's Original Message-----

On 25 May 2004 at 7:45, Scott Marcus wrote:

> 
> Someone else mentioned not limiting fields to 2 letters for state
> abbreviations. Why not? When the abbreviations jump to 3 letters, I'll
> make the field bigger. That's just part of my job. 
> 

And who pays for that work to be done?

Do you  stick the client with a bill for a modification that 
shouldn't have been needed or do you wear the cost of the time 
yourself.

What if you've got the same app rolled out in lot's of different 
places. It can get quite expensive to provide updates to all the 
sites.