klsiegel320 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
klsiegel320) wrote2003-10-16 10:10 pm
klsiegel320) wrote2003-10-16 10:10 pm
Periodic Update
This was nearly a flame, a couple weeks ago. Several of you who know me and read this regularly (well, as regularly as I write it, anyway) will be wondering why nothing ever went up about the web site insanity. The answer is basically because while it was happening, there was no time to write about it, and now that it's pretty much over, the urgency to vent has passed...well, maybe not entirely. See below (note that it's a long story; that's why it's divided into not just one but four separate cuts; so you've been adequately warned). And I've tacked on a little bit of musing about one of my favorite sports to watch...and that's pretty much what's going on right now.
Early in the project, the idea was floated of a web site that would gather together information needed/wanted/used by the group we're currently doing this project for. I don't know who floated the idea, I don't know when. What I do know is that one of our folks - an independent contractor brought in by our engagement manager, hand-picked as we all were - told the client this could be done easily, simply, and quickly - and that it could be done in such a way that it could be managed and updated easily, simply, and quickly.
Unfortunately, he was more eager than he was informed (or skilled). I do not believe - as certain others do - that he deliberately misled the client, nor that he deliberately planted booby traps in the code that would require his personal expertise and intervention to fix (thus ensuring his longevity and therefore his continued employment). I believe that he's basically a designer and graphics guy who got really excited about the web possibilities, and let his imagination get ahead of his abilities.
It's easy to do; I've got a whole drawer-ful of vast ideas for what could be done on the web with the various developing technologies that exist and that are coming to exist. On the other hand, I've never come close to promising a client that I could do something with those technologies that I could not in fact deliver.
And for whatever reason, this "project" was never operated as a project. There's no Project Statement, no System Requirements Specifications, no Functional Requirements, no System Design Specification...there are Visio diagrams mapping the site itself, as it existed six months ago. There's user documentation that's woefully inadequate and out-of-date. But mostly what we have is a rickety, cranky web site with no idea how it was built, or how to update it without breaking it. Or at least, that's what we had...
I don't honestly know what would have happened, if the original designer and developer had stayed. I have to assume that we'd've had something up and running, although I can't say for sure. But you may remember that he was an independent contractor? That means he had absolutely no loyalty to Fujitsu Consulting, nor any reason for any. No benefits, no paid vacation, no paid leave - just a salary and expenses and frequently a hassle getting those paid. So when a better opportunity came along, to do something more exciting, for a better firm, with better pay - poof! amazing disappearing web developer.
So here we were, the four of us who got handed the delivery of this web site. "We" in this case was myself, in charge of content, HTML development, lefthand navigational links, and graphics; LC, in charge of programming and script architecture; B, in charge of server issues and deployment; and CJT, the project manager.
What we had was a mess. An ugly, confusing mess. And we had about two weeks to sort it out.
This was this mission, and we didn't get the choice whether to accept it: get this web site organized, cleaned up, stabilized, up and running in production in two weeks.
The tools with which we were to accomplish this were, in order: the existing code, the developer's expertise, an amazing array of software tools (from lowly items like Paint and FullShot all the way to PhotoShop and Dreamweaver), and our own wits. (The stone knives and bear-skins were optional.)
The existing code was spaghetti of the first order.
The developer was slippery as an eel; several times he was supposedly going to be in the local office to "wrap things up," but never appeared. The technical-side guys, in charge of program architecture and physical deployment (like server stuff), had a terrible time getting information from him. They'd ask and ask and ask, and he'd only reluctantly reveal how certain things were done, or where to find certain key features (like the Lotus Notes Views). Nobody quite knows why. As I mentioned in the backstory, I suspect he was trying a little bit to ensure his own longevity, and maybe keep all his options open...nobody knows.
The amazing array of software turned out to include Lotus Designer, which has - as it happens - the worst, most unfriendly UI several of us had ever seen.
Fortunately, the wits were not in short supply...with one notable exception.
You may notice in the listing of who "we" were that no duties were listed for the Project Manager. He was not assigned to edit content pages, or update links, or fiddle with scripts, or copy files to and from servers. He was assigned to manage.
His first act as Project Manager was to go poking around in the Notes database that drives the lefthand navigation, and delete the site Home page. Not the link to the Home page. The actual home page. That turned out to be representative of the skills he brought to the table.
Which would be fine (aside from scaring the living daylights out of the tech writer by deleting the home page). PMs don't really have to know how to code HTML, align elements in a PowerPoint slide, or set up configuration management. What they have to know is a) what they need, b) why they need it, c) who can do it, and d) how to stay out of the way. This particular PM knows everything except those four critical items.
He knows what he thinks he needs. He doesn't have a clue why he needs it, except that it's what he likes. He does know - more or less - who can do it, but the corollary to that rule is that the PM also has to know who can't do it, even if that category includes himself, and this gentleman simply doesn't know that. He has absolutely no concept of his own limitations. And as for knowing how to stay out of the way...he's got a great future as a tripping hazard. He's so good at it that I'm certain he must have been a cat in a past life.
A good PM knows the need, gets good people, gets them to understand the need, points them at the resources that will help them accomplish the needed task, pushes the start button and gets out of the way. Of course, he does more than that. He also anticipates what those good people will need to accomplish their tasks, and he takes on the red tape and bureaucracy to procure those things, whether they be physical like desks or computers, or more intangible, like disk and server access rights. He's out there like the blockers on a football team, knocking obstacles out of the way so his quarterback (in this case, his team) can make it handily into the end zone.
I know these things because I've seen them. I've had managers who knew these things, and did them. And it totally spoiled me rotten for anyone who didn't, and couldn't (or wouldn't).
So we forged ahead, with our built-in handicap. LC and I took turns offering to hold down the PM while the other one hit him. B just sailed on through, calmly and competently doing what needed to be done and ignoring the noise as best he could. And gradually, we made progress. We got the content sorted. We got the scripting tamed. We got the whole mess into configuration control (praise be to God). Those who were messaging with me during the worst of it know that I'm downplaying...but the end result is a decently functional site that has been pushed to the corporate development environment and will go to corporate production on Monday. That's not bad, considering the eight-ball we started out behind.
It's been an awesome post-season, so far. Simply amazing. Right now, I'm not entirely thrilled, because it's the top of the 5th inning and the Yankees are down 4-0 to the hated Boston Red Sox, and if they lose this game, the hated Boston Red Sox go to the World Series. Against the Florida Marlins, who I also hate just on general principle, although it's been pointed out to me that the players had nothing to do with the fire sale that happened after they won the Series a few years ago, and besides the manager is 70-something and has never been to the post-season in his entire career until now.
I've said in the past two days about both the Marlins and the Red Sox: they're like Weebles; they wobble but they won't fall down. And I have a good buddy on the team right now who grew up literally walking distance from Fenway Park. He told me about parking a couple cars on their front lawn, for $1 a car, when one dollar got you a seat in the bleachers and another got you a dog and soda. And he's a really, really nice guy.
But still...after Saturday, after the way Pedro hit Garcia and started that whole horrible mess that ended with Don Zimmer getting hurt (not to mention a Red Sox groundskeeper and Karim Garcia...)...I just can't quite cheer for the Red Sox. Just cannot quite do it.
The thing that's really the most awful is Fox's coverage; while at the Stadium somebody's throwing out the ceremonial first pitch and singing the National Anthem, while they're introducing the players and Challenger the eagle is flying in from center field to the pitcher's mound, Fox's yappy commentators at their sports desk are doing pre-game. They won't show the actual stadium until the moment of the first pitch of the game - this is what they call coverage.
I remember when whoever covered the Series used to show those things - not just for the World Series, either, but for the League Championship Series as well. The stadium announcer would introduce the players and the fans would roar or boo. Then somebody important to the game or the city in which the series was being played would be introduced, and would come out and throw a ceremonial first pitch. One time it was Jackie Robinson's widow. One time at Yankee Stadium, it was Don Larsen, and Yogi Berra was there to catch it, the day he finally returned to the stadium - that was the day David Cone pitched a perfect game.
Then somebody famous would be introduced, to sing the National Anthem. Sometimes the military flew jets overhead. In recent years, instead of military jets, there's been an eagle: Challenger, a non-release-able bald eagle, who soars from one handler out in the center field stands to another standing on the pitcher's mound. In 2001, they showed the eagle, every time.
This week, I only saw the eagle once, and that was because Challenger veered a little off course and swooped over the players as they were lined up on the first base line. It was funny to see them duck - so we got to see the visual equivalent of sound byte-sized clips of the eagle.
All of which is because Fox doesn't really care about the game or the fans; all they care about is money. If they did a real pre-game, and then showed those of us who would love to be there at the Stadium if only we could be what we're really missing, they would have to cut one of their half-hour cartoons. Heaven forbid! they can't cut the evening cartoons. Not for something as trivial as the National Anthem and a stupid eagle.
So the fans get gypped. And we're doomed to go on being gypped, until Fox's contract runs out and maybe if we're fortunate somebody else gets the contract - somebody who knows that baseball is also about tradition and ceremony, and the game starts way before the starting pitcher throws the first strike.
And one other atrocity: stupid Fox cuts to commercial and comes back to the 7th inning stretch in the middle of a note of God Bless America. Talk about a tin ear; do they not get how monumentally stupid this makes them look? Or do they just not care because baseball is basically a write-off for them?
Early in the project, the idea was floated of a web site that would gather together information needed/wanted/used by the group we're currently doing this project for. I don't know who floated the idea, I don't know when. What I do know is that one of our folks - an independent contractor brought in by our engagement manager, hand-picked as we all were - told the client this could be done easily, simply, and quickly - and that it could be done in such a way that it could be managed and updated easily, simply, and quickly.
Unfortunately, he was more eager than he was informed (or skilled). I do not believe - as certain others do - that he deliberately misled the client, nor that he deliberately planted booby traps in the code that would require his personal expertise and intervention to fix (thus ensuring his longevity and therefore his continued employment). I believe that he's basically a designer and graphics guy who got really excited about the web possibilities, and let his imagination get ahead of his abilities.
It's easy to do; I've got a whole drawer-ful of vast ideas for what could be done on the web with the various developing technologies that exist and that are coming to exist. On the other hand, I've never come close to promising a client that I could do something with those technologies that I could not in fact deliver.
And for whatever reason, this "project" was never operated as a project. There's no Project Statement, no System Requirements Specifications, no Functional Requirements, no System Design Specification...there are Visio diagrams mapping the site itself, as it existed six months ago. There's user documentation that's woefully inadequate and out-of-date. But mostly what we have is a rickety, cranky web site with no idea how it was built, or how to update it without breaking it. Or at least, that's what we had...
I don't honestly know what would have happened, if the original designer and developer had stayed. I have to assume that we'd've had something up and running, although I can't say for sure. But you may remember that he was an independent contractor? That means he had absolutely no loyalty to Fujitsu Consulting, nor any reason for any. No benefits, no paid vacation, no paid leave - just a salary and expenses and frequently a hassle getting those paid. So when a better opportunity came along, to do something more exciting, for a better firm, with better pay - poof! amazing disappearing web developer.
So here we were, the four of us who got handed the delivery of this web site. "We" in this case was myself, in charge of content, HTML development, lefthand navigational links, and graphics; LC, in charge of programming and script architecture; B, in charge of server issues and deployment; and CJT, the project manager.
What we had was a mess. An ugly, confusing mess. And we had about two weeks to sort it out.
This was this mission, and we didn't get the choice whether to accept it: get this web site organized, cleaned up, stabilized, up and running in production in two weeks.
The tools with which we were to accomplish this were, in order: the existing code, the developer's expertise, an amazing array of software tools (from lowly items like Paint and FullShot all the way to PhotoShop and Dreamweaver), and our own wits. (The stone knives and bear-skins were optional.)
The existing code was spaghetti of the first order.
The developer was slippery as an eel; several times he was supposedly going to be in the local office to "wrap things up," but never appeared. The technical-side guys, in charge of program architecture and physical deployment (like server stuff), had a terrible time getting information from him. They'd ask and ask and ask, and he'd only reluctantly reveal how certain things were done, or where to find certain key features (like the Lotus Notes Views). Nobody quite knows why. As I mentioned in the backstory, I suspect he was trying a little bit to ensure his own longevity, and maybe keep all his options open...nobody knows.
The amazing array of software turned out to include Lotus Designer, which has - as it happens - the worst, most unfriendly UI several of us had ever seen.
Fortunately, the wits were not in short supply...with one notable exception.
You may notice in the listing of who "we" were that no duties were listed for the Project Manager. He was not assigned to edit content pages, or update links, or fiddle with scripts, or copy files to and from servers. He was assigned to manage.
His first act as Project Manager was to go poking around in the Notes database that drives the lefthand navigation, and delete the site Home page. Not the link to the Home page. The actual home page. That turned out to be representative of the skills he brought to the table.
Which would be fine (aside from scaring the living daylights out of the tech writer by deleting the home page). PMs don't really have to know how to code HTML, align elements in a PowerPoint slide, or set up configuration management. What they have to know is a) what they need, b) why they need it, c) who can do it, and d) how to stay out of the way. This particular PM knows everything except those four critical items.
He knows what he thinks he needs. He doesn't have a clue why he needs it, except that it's what he likes. He does know - more or less - who can do it, but the corollary to that rule is that the PM also has to know who can't do it, even if that category includes himself, and this gentleman simply doesn't know that. He has absolutely no concept of his own limitations. And as for knowing how to stay out of the way...he's got a great future as a tripping hazard. He's so good at it that I'm certain he must have been a cat in a past life.
A good PM knows the need, gets good people, gets them to understand the need, points them at the resources that will help them accomplish the needed task, pushes the start button and gets out of the way. Of course, he does more than that. He also anticipates what those good people will need to accomplish their tasks, and he takes on the red tape and bureaucracy to procure those things, whether they be physical like desks or computers, or more intangible, like disk and server access rights. He's out there like the blockers on a football team, knocking obstacles out of the way so his quarterback (in this case, his team) can make it handily into the end zone.
I know these things because I've seen them. I've had managers who knew these things, and did them. And it totally spoiled me rotten for anyone who didn't, and couldn't (or wouldn't).
So we forged ahead, with our built-in handicap. LC and I took turns offering to hold down the PM while the other one hit him. B just sailed on through, calmly and competently doing what needed to be done and ignoring the noise as best he could. And gradually, we made progress. We got the content sorted. We got the scripting tamed. We got the whole mess into configuration control (praise be to God). Those who were messaging with me during the worst of it know that I'm downplaying...but the end result is a decently functional site that has been pushed to the corporate development environment and will go to corporate production on Monday. That's not bad, considering the eight-ball we started out behind.
It's been an awesome post-season, so far. Simply amazing. Right now, I'm not entirely thrilled, because it's the top of the 5th inning and the Yankees are down 4-0 to the hated Boston Red Sox, and if they lose this game, the hated Boston Red Sox go to the World Series. Against the Florida Marlins, who I also hate just on general principle, although it's been pointed out to me that the players had nothing to do with the fire sale that happened after they won the Series a few years ago, and besides the manager is 70-something and has never been to the post-season in his entire career until now.
I've said in the past two days about both the Marlins and the Red Sox: they're like Weebles; they wobble but they won't fall down. And I have a good buddy on the team right now who grew up literally walking distance from Fenway Park. He told me about parking a couple cars on their front lawn, for $1 a car, when one dollar got you a seat in the bleachers and another got you a dog and soda. And he's a really, really nice guy.
But still...after Saturday, after the way Pedro hit Garcia and started that whole horrible mess that ended with Don Zimmer getting hurt (not to mention a Red Sox groundskeeper and Karim Garcia...)...I just can't quite cheer for the Red Sox. Just cannot quite do it.
The thing that's really the most awful is Fox's coverage; while at the Stadium somebody's throwing out the ceremonial first pitch and singing the National Anthem, while they're introducing the players and Challenger the eagle is flying in from center field to the pitcher's mound, Fox's yappy commentators at their sports desk are doing pre-game. They won't show the actual stadium until the moment of the first pitch of the game - this is what they call coverage.
I remember when whoever covered the Series used to show those things - not just for the World Series, either, but for the League Championship Series as well. The stadium announcer would introduce the players and the fans would roar or boo. Then somebody important to the game or the city in which the series was being played would be introduced, and would come out and throw a ceremonial first pitch. One time it was Jackie Robinson's widow. One time at Yankee Stadium, it was Don Larsen, and Yogi Berra was there to catch it, the day he finally returned to the stadium - that was the day David Cone pitched a perfect game.
Then somebody famous would be introduced, to sing the National Anthem. Sometimes the military flew jets overhead. In recent years, instead of military jets, there's been an eagle: Challenger, a non-release-able bald eagle, who soars from one handler out in the center field stands to another standing on the pitcher's mound. In 2001, they showed the eagle, every time.
This week, I only saw the eagle once, and that was because Challenger veered a little off course and swooped over the players as they were lined up on the first base line. It was funny to see them duck - so we got to see the visual equivalent of sound byte-sized clips of the eagle.
All of which is because Fox doesn't really care about the game or the fans; all they care about is money. If they did a real pre-game, and then showed those of us who would love to be there at the Stadium if only we could be what we're really missing, they would have to cut one of their half-hour cartoons. Heaven forbid! they can't cut the evening cartoons. Not for something as trivial as the National Anthem and a stupid eagle.
So the fans get gypped. And we're doomed to go on being gypped, until Fox's contract runs out and maybe if we're fortunate somebody else gets the contract - somebody who knows that baseball is also about tradition and ceremony, and the game starts way before the starting pitcher throws the first strike.
And one other atrocity: stupid Fox cuts to commercial and comes back to the 7th inning stretch in the middle of a note of God Bless America. Talk about a tin ear; do they not get how monumentally stupid this makes them look? Or do they just not care because baseball is basically a write-off for them?