I love this chart, which I borrowed (stole) from Coding Horror. A major project that I completed recently reminded me of it. I created a sales order auditing system that included scheduled SQL jobs, multiple triggers, VBA for M2M, and Crystal Reports. The project took me a long time to complete and was highly rewarding.
However, when I delivered the report to the user, he was less impressed than I expected from such a large project that was very challenging. He asked for a pie chart at the top of the report.
Five minutes later, I returned with a full color, 3-d pie chart that is very easy to create in Crystal Reports. The guy was thrilled and has since sung my praises.
This is all well and good, but it just serves to remind me that most people have very little idea of what we do or how we do it. The project was a success due to thorough planning and development, which insured data accuracy and efficient code. All the user can see is the pretty pie chart.
Do you ever feel this way?
Oh well, at least I like pie.
I have gotten the same feeling before.
I try to be clear on the amount of work required for complex projects. That way they may rethink how much they really need it, and appriciate it more when it is done.
Ha! That’s great.
I can totally empathize with you that users…..
Oooh Shiny!!!
It’s the world in which we work.
Luckily, it’s countered by all the little dinky stuff we do that takes about 10 minutes and gets undo praise. It’s a strange balance that exists for the majority of what IT does.
It sort of shares that factor with blogging, actually. In essence, the more work you put into it, the less people value it.
Undo = Undue
Yes, I type full sentences while looking at and having a conversation with a coworker about something completely unrelated.
No, my brain isn’t capable of noting the (im)proper spelling of anything at all while I do it.