Darryl Collins
darryl at whittleconsulting.com.au
Tue Dec 20 19:05:19 CST 2011
This sort of thing is exactly what is hurting a local accounting software company very badly. Their 'upgrade' to a new system has been botched pretty badly. Many complaints and screams from the 1% of customers who are using the new software to date. It is awful that even MYOB's own business partners are recommending that users stay on their legacy software or more to other competing platforms. MYOB haven't handled this very well to date. <<http://www.crn.com.au/News/284460,myob-a-lesson-in-how-to-bungle-a-beta.aspx>> Is a good summary. The forums are interesting reading if you have the time and interest in these sort of things. Cheers Darryl. -----Original Message----- From: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Asger Blond Sent: Wednesday, 21 December 2011 11:55 AM To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Subject: Re: [AccessD] And now the other... I've met this frustrating and stupid contracting world too. I now renounce, but keep asking myself what's the benefits for companies receiving stupid contracting code? Sooner or later they have to advance to "15 years ago"... Asger -----Oprindelig meddelelse----- Fra: accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] På vegne af Mark Simms Sendt: 21. december 2011 01:13 Til: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving' Emne: [AccessD] And now the other... Got a short term (aka "stinker") contract for some Excel development work. 2 "layers" (i.e. commissions) of consulting firms involved....the first one pretty "smarmy"...they initially lied about the legal engagement aspects to rope me in. This is so typical of these agency firms. I haven't met one over the past 5 years with any kind of respect for business ethics...not one. The second is a huge global IT Consulting firm with ties to military contracts. However, this contract is a follow-up to an original contract from 3 years ago with a non-military client of theirs. They had one of their contract employees build some VBA to create a sophisticated Linear Programming model in Excel. They were unable to get the original developers to commit to the enhancement work, so they came to me. Those guys effectively "ducked out". I always wondered why ? I spent a few weeks getting to understand the system and it's flows....as well as the nature of the processing. There was no technical documentation. I started into the 4500 lines of VBA code last week. Pure crap. No comments or few comments or misleading comments in the code. Poor writing style, no variables were named properly. There was no error trapping. Option Explicit missing from many modules and forms. Even worse: the original developer would take some crappy code from one place, clone it in another, and make slight changes. Finally, the GUI design of the forms and in-sheet controls was horrendous. For instance, instead of coding a Title to a OpenFile (GetOpenFilename) Dialog, they would first pop-up a Message Box with the title trying to indicate the nature of the file that needed to be selected, and then call the function without a title. This is just one example of the shoddy work done on this. Now they want the system revamped, and "enhanced" with new features. Keep in mind, this is a CRITICAL operations system for their client. After a few days of working with it, because I didn't have intimate knowledge of it, it kept blowing up on me. In some cases it was mistakenly opening up the wrong workbook. Instead of detecting that condition, it would go on it's merry way....till it blew-up processing the wrong data. So I write-up all of my findings in excruciating detail. What do I get in response ? Here it goes: "Well then Mark, we'll ALL have to put in some 'extra' time on this if you've got to spend so much time cleaning up this code. We have a fixed budget for this work." By 'extra time', they of course meant "free" time. What a load of B.S. So I asked the project manager about the "code reviews" on the initial project and he didn't say a word. Also, I told him a few weeks ago to get a second opinion. Once again, no response. So I haven't said much lately since that missive of mine went out. But I definitely am not going to work for free...no matter what. Because of their poor oversight and use of a programmer who didn't know VBA, didn't know the Excel Object Model, and couldn't design a GUI to save his soul, they've got to take the "fall" on this. It's only right. If I have to, I'll get a lawyer and make them look really stupid. Well this one should end this final chapter in my career which has become repetitive with these situations, stressful, and unjust. I'm almost without words about how I feel about this awful dev business today thru agencies. I do the work, they make the money. I thought slavery was abolished !. But NO.....because when all of the Indian insourcing and outsourcing was instituted, the net effect has been reduced opportunities and reduced wages. So slavery has come back to America...at least in the IT contracting world. What a change from the high status occupation it once was 15 years ago. -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com -- AccessD mailing list AccessD at databaseadvisors.com http://databaseadvisors.com/mailman/listinfo/accessd Website: http://www.databaseadvisors.com