Friday, April 25, 2014

A Bit of A Longer Entry

For reasons known only to the universe Dragon does not work well in Internet explorer. It seems to end up with strange trailing or leading letters all by themselves. I blame Internet Explorer because it doesn't seem to do it in any other application. For example here in the DragonPad it works great. So, I pivoted over here to write a bit more about today.

It started out simple enough. I woke to the sound of rain. I wasn't expecting it because I hadn't been paying any attention to the Weather Channel so it was a pleasant surprise. I lingered in bed for a while just listening to the sound of the rain. That is a truly wonderful sound. Eventually though I rolled out, took a hot shower, shaved and started the day.

The work day was divided into three big blocks now that I think about it. The first block was to productive part of the day. I got us couple of smaller projects knocked off and I got permission from my manager to pursue a bit of a vanity project. One of our customers keeps requesting a system enhancement and the request keeps dying on the vine. Having watched it happen through two or three cycles I've come to the conclusion that the root of the problem is they are not adequately prepared.

It is in the nature of conservative corporations such as mine to begin from the default position of no. If they don't like the idea that no. If they don't understand the idea then no. It can be a tough environment to get any change in. So I asked my management for couple of hours to work with them and help them build their business case. It made me laugh because my managers initial response was also no. I don't know I guess I have a totally different mentality where systems should bend to the will of the users and not the reverse.

In our case I think sometimes the people who controlled the administration systems are so swept up in the chaos of their days that they're not listening to the customers. They know they should, they would like to, but they're just too damn busy. But I want to do when working with the customer is show them how to build the business case that will force the decision they want. There is always a chance of course that the decision won't go the way they want it to go but if that happens then I want them to understand exactly why so they can drop the request and not keep resurfacing it.

Work aside, I am looking forward to the weekend. I don't really have anything planned except the usual breakfast with the guys but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Maybe catch a movie, maybe take a short local trip. Definitely get some laundry done, spend a little time cleaning the spare bedroom, and of course a little bit of that all-important time relaxing. With that I'm going to wrap this entry up and officially settle into the lazy evening.

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