My Project is on the line

[InterGalacticSpook]

Yo,
Anybody else in a situation like this... I have been on this development project, 3 years now,
this is not a mickey mouse operation

1. I'm solely responsible for the JAD sessions, Analysis, Design, Programming, QA / Testing,
Training, basically the whole life cycle of the application.
+-20 Head Office users
A legacy DOS application, with countless rogue exe's, to this day I’m still finding some
There are manual data manipulation procedures where a user sits with .dbf tools
e.g. FoxPro 2.6a and Idea to churn reports, quite complex
The legacy app is the business and my shiny 3-Tier solution is to replace it.

I had to let a junior developer go, this person just could not grab the concept of pathing,
imagine handing over a bash script to such a person. whaaa
Just one library alone has 10890 lines .e.g, full on OOP, can compile into multi threaded DLL / COM component
60+ Window Form and code as well in the various events and methods
5 Separate dB for each division, rules are a bit different for each, millions of records
M$SQL, countless SQL store procs , business rules etc, VIEWS, Functions, Triggers and my baby, a trigger i wrote on one table, that when i look at the code, I shiver and dare not bollocks it up
Full blown security, down to the field level on some forms
Reports that currently take hours to generate are now in the 20 second bracket

One or two staff are using parts of the application on daily basis as they see the benefits

PROBLEM: I AM NOT developing fast enough, WTF, i am a team of one.
In a meeting I explained the 2nd Tier and its pros of reuse and what a business rule is, eish! wenna, resistance to that methodology was met big time

Legacy programmer has no enthusiasm and willingness to help
Staff reluctant to commit 100% to the success of making this project work for them
Key staff are smart enough to know that this system will allow anyone the ability to do their job...
NOTE: At previous job, I wrote a program where an entire department was retrenched [that's how i problem solve], it still bothers me time to time

2. Then I took on the responsibility for data capture application, in production now, which I rewrote +-85%, clean new interface,
tighter code etc...
50+ users country wide
Plenty of business rules and its churns out Megs upon Megs of data per month
Data source for the existing legacy HO app

PROBLEM: The existing programmer for the legacy app is to lazy to validate and report back data integrity/hygiene issues,
instead info is presented to users as gospel... When problems arise fingers are pointed back.
WTF does he not understand about validating data and the commander in chief agrees with him, ouch

3. Website that is fairly static,
One page for clients to query the progress of their claim
PROBLEM: A static IP is not on the cards for HO, save some bucks here
This will allow the website to query a service back at HO and save tonnes of bandwidth RSYNC'ing data to MYSQL server at ISP, you gotta love it
External telephonic and email queries at all time low, Refer to point 5 below as i added the logic here s well

As a sideline projects for work at home i have done the following
1. A BASH,PHP and Rsync backup solution for the business
i.e Eight windows 2003 servers scatted around the country, we talking gigs per server
The entire hard is pulled to a central Fedora12 server, then pushed to another Fedora12 server that is offsite
2. Setup and customize OTRS helpdesk
3. Squid proxy and SARG, save bandwith, speedup, block, facebook [he he, take that],
youtube and skype is proving headache to block etc..
4. Openfire server , XMPP server - improve communications internally, freeing up phone lines
5. Build an internal PHP website using the above SQL business layer
[a good QA tool as users are inadvertently testing my logic, no problems yet, just requests for additional functionality],
not to mention that internal queries have come down substantial
PROBLEM: Today i took it down as this was unathorised development, WTF!
6. PHP/HTML help system for my windows deskop applications
7. discard all ftp and filecopy dependencies in favor of CRONjobbed RSYNC'kers, no manual copy of files, ha ha, me legacy programmer is a legend

One thing i am guilty of is lack source and version control, but when u alone, it does not get priority, my current method is rsyncing my dev folders
to a server then zipping weekly and so on and so forth

So, now what now ?
Even thou I have set a production date, I am still taking to long and no results can be seen,
but hey, no one in the upper echelons will take the time and bear witness to the fruits of my labour.

How do i move forward to production without a proper test cycle, training, no resources to back me up.

Do I just walk out or wait and see, hoping the early nineties mindset will change.

Am I setting myself up for endless sleepless nights or failure prompted by the legacy developer who has a lot a stake and need i mention he is my IT manager, funny hey
Did they just waist three years commissioning a new HO system or has the legacy programmers scheming paid of.

Well, lets see if they decide to can the project, as far as the future goes, no more hero programming jobs, i want an open source job so i can kick @$$ and scare the bejeepers out of teammates, he he
Over n Out
Igs

 

[FatBoySlim]

you have too much f'ing time on your hands!!!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Tab

 

[Leostar]

Seriously, this is a political/people skill problem.

You are a one man band busy pluggin all the extensions etc and not having time to cultivate the roses.

They have obviously paid for 3 years work and they will expect to see some results despite legacy left over resistance.

You he a few problems as you seem to be well aware, and perhaps are looking for a solution ?

1) Perhaps you need an assistant that can speak 2 or more languages.
a) Computer talk,
b) users requirements/business needs (reporting seems big ticket item)
c) Financial aspects (not mentioned at all in you report). Thus must be a factor?
d) People skills i.e get the team on board. As they say, you need them to buy into the project.

Plus, subconsciously, are you trying to sabotage your project as it may mean that all those people writing/coding their own reports will lose their jobs?

I trust that this is some food for thought?

Do you have Project management skills?

 

[dequadin]

Yo,
Anybody else in a situation like this... I have been on this development project, 3 years now,

One or two staff are using parts of the application on daily basis as they see the benefits

Even thou I have set a production date, I am still taking to long and no results can be seen,
but hey, no one in the upper echelons will take the time and bear witness to the fruits of my labour.

These are the important points as far as I'm concerned. No one in business cares about the technicalities.

In three years only one or two users are working with the system, no wonder the upper echelons are not willing to take the time. They haven't seen any results. Sounds to me like you've tried to take a more Waterfall approach to this project without the necessary manpower, policies & procedures.

 

[shogun]

These are the important points as far as I'm concerned. No one in business cares about the technicalities.

In three years only one or two users are working with the system, no wonder the upper echelons are not willing to take the time. They haven't seen any results. Sounds to me like you've tried to take a more Waterfall approach to this project without the necessary manpower, policies & procedures.

^^ agree. Turn the tables around, and ask if you would pay someone for that amount of time to deliver something for just a few users. Perhaps they haven't given you the resources from the get go... but you are talking a long time here. Count up the salary over that time, and think again if they are being unreasonable.

If you want this thing to get off the ground, you need to make sure that at least release 1 is stable and ready... and then get it out to as many users as possible. Show the working version to management, and get them using it, or pushing it. Don't get trapped in the dev phase.

If it's not ready after this long, and you aren't confident to put your rep on the line, then you haven't cut the mustard, and should chalk it up to experience.

Best of luck in getting a happy, healthy system out to them all.

Side note: you don't have source control?? It takes 15 minutes to get that set up.

 

[CrazYmonkeY159]

ive never seen so much gobblety goop in my life

i dont understand anything!

 

[The_Unbeliever]

be careful of burnout though

 

[MrGray]

I've been in a similar situation - sounds like a typical corporate scenario, struggling with hundreds of old legacy apps, old database technology and manual processes that have multiplied over 20yrs. The biggest obstacle is probably the fact that the existing stuff works, mostly, and there is probably a whole lot of users that are entrenched into using the old stuff as part of their daily procedures so they will see migrating to a newer more efficient system as a threat to their jobs. Add to this a management that probably considers the old stuff as mostly functional and is probably terrified of taking the leap into a new system.

The ONLY way ahead is to get senior management sponsorship of your project. If you cannot get the CEO of your client company to understand the benefits of what you are doing and get fully 100% behind the project while making that crystal clear to the users, you will not win. The main man in the company needs to stand up in front of his staff and make it clear that in no uncertain terms they are behind your project.

To be honest, what usually happens in this scenario is that after years of fruitlessly banging away at trying to drag old legacy systems into the present, some dim spark in management will read an advertorial about SAP or some other ERP and mistakenly see it as the silver bullet, at which point you'll be out anyway as they spend >R1m on implementing. When this happens, their company is probably truly doomed. So, if you can't get a senior player to loudly sponsor your project, bail out. I know that the emotional attachment to a project you've worked on for so long makes it very hard to do this, but please please trust me, you need to move on and your life will be immeasurably better for it.

 

[Ancalagon]

One thing i am guilty of is lack source and version control, but when u alone,

You what? Please get source control, its ESSENTIAL.

It does sound like there were two f'ups though. This company should not have given you the job knowing you are one guy, and you should not have taken a project this big being only one guy. Its too much. This is why you need a BA to liaise with the company, you can do the architect work, and one or two other developers can help out with the coding. It would be done by now.

 

[InterGalacticSpook]

Even thou I have set a production date, I am still taking to long and no results can be seen,
but hey, no one in the upper echelons will take the time and bear witness to the fruits of my labour.

Yo, sorry, i just read that line, its all wrong, what i meant to say was : They, the bosses, say that I am taking to long and the seem to forget that last year i spent eight months redoing the data capture application which another bone-head messed up'

Dont get me wrong, there are politics in play here aswell... the legacy programmer has been with the company from scratch and, he is a contractor aswell, he still gets paid a packet for his dying legacy apps, so yea, the intention was for me to develop the windows application and handover to him. I have informed the company that he is no way near suitable and thats why they in the predicament they in, 18 years plus and he sat on his ass, imagine maintaining code in this day an age in a DOS text editor that looks like an effing blue screen of death, eina!'

tsk tsk tsk, i am still waiting on a date to demonstrate the application that meets and exceeds the requirement!

Grrrr, btw, i will find that M$ action pack and install VSS Ancalagon, u right, was a lam excuse

Igs

 

[dequadin]

Grrrr, btw, i will find that M$ action pack and install VSS Ancalagon, u right, was a lam excuse
Igs

VisualSVN Server + AnkhSVN FTW!

 

[The_Unbeliever]

We use tortoiseSVN here.

Basically any SVN product will do, as long as you have full control over which version you've got etc.

And do I need to remind you of backups?

 

[InterGalacticSpook]

And do I need to remind you of backups?

Yo, mmm, like i said

 

[Leostar]

Yo, mmm, like i said

Just a thought on back ups.

What happens to your three years of work if something happens to you "the one man band"?
I would feel uneasy if I was the CEO after paying for 3 years and the system is not up & running and no-one to take over from you.
As you said the legacy dos guy cannot do it.

 

[guest2013-1]

I treat my boss like a client, and:

1) Clients don't care how many tier's there are in your code or how many stored procedures/tables/triggers and lines of code was written. They want to *see* something
2) Clients don't care if they told you to work on something else for 8 months and now you're behind by 8 months on the project they actually commissioned you for. They expect you to have had both done or at least communicate with them that their requirements would substantially delay the original project you're supposed to be done with.
3) Clients don't care about learning or hearing about (as one forum user replied here) the "gobble-dee-gook". They want to see what they're paying for.
4) Clients don't care for a project spec, but it's required if you want to keep on track with your efforts and show them time re: point #2

So, listen to what others suggested.

1) Forget about the backend stuff, the servers, the backup routines, the spreading of the data and the saving of the bandwidth and the version controls and how stupid the legacy programmer is (who happens to be your direct superior)
2) Forget about being praised for your awesome dev prowess and how clean and smooth and fast your new reports/windows application/data controls/hygiene is. They don't care, they won't recognize you for it and they won't give you a medal of honor for it.
3) (most importantly) GET A STABLE VERSION OF THE PROGRAM OUT ASAP WITH THE BASIC FEATURES AND REPORTS THEY REQUIRE TO DO THEIR JOB TO SHOW UP THE LEGACY PROGRAM. Even if you have to "hack and slash" code to get it done (even if it's not properly done or properly "profiled" to be the speediest report/action out there. Just get something out!) You can always fix/change the code to be better a bit later when they've seen what you can do/give them for their money.
4) work on your communication skills. dumb everything down. keep it simple and straight forward. don't waste their time with explanations and just show them something. I'm going to give an example here, one of my famous ones:

You hear a chick describe her breasts to you, how they work, what they look like and that you can play with them. You're hard, you like what you hear, and you're excited to go play. But she doesn't show you anything to give you the opportunity TO play. This goes on for 3 years. You ask her "Now why am I paying you for this privilege if I can't even see or touch them. You keep telling me how hard your nipples are and the blood-flow to them makes it spell out "howdy" in braille, but you won't let us see or play with them!!!"

Would you seriously, after 3 years, be able to get "it" up anymore and not start demanding to see your money's worth?

 

[InterGalacticSpook]

I treat my boss like a client, and:

AcidRazor, thanks for the wise words, what you say is true and yea, I will put your advice into practice... I guess i need to polish up on comm skills and remember with whom I am dealing with, users
There is stable version on stage server, the data is in sync .... bla blah

I guess this is where project skills would help then again this whole experience is what give me the experience to improve..

I installed tortoiseSVN and am happy with it, so thanks for that The_Librarian dude, otherwise i would have spent loads of time faffing about or being irritated with VSS...

all the advice i get here i really appreciate, see, I should have married a chick who's code head, could have nicely on her shoulders

Igs

 

[<?php?>]

I'm going to give an example here, one of my famous ones:

You hear a chick describe her breasts to you, how they work, what they look like and that you can play with them. You're hard, you like what you hear, and you're excited to go play. But she doesn't show you anything to give you the opportunity TO play. This goes on for 3 years. You ask her "Now why am I paying you for this privilege if I can't even see or touch them. You keep telling me how hard your nipples are and the blood-flow to them makes it spell out "howdy" in braille, but you won't let us see or play with them!!!"

Would you seriously, after 3 years, be able to get "it" up anymore and not start demanding to see your money's worth?

 

[Cicero]

I treat my boss like a client, and:

1) Clients don't care how many tier's there are in your code or how many stored procedures/tables/triggers and lines of code was written. They want to *see* something
2) Clients don't care if they told you to work on something else for 8 months and now you're behind by 8 months on the project they actually commissioned you for. They expect you to have had both done or at least communicate with them that their requirements would substantially delay the original project you're supposed to be done with.
3) Clients don't care about learning or hearing about (as one forum user replied here) the "gobble-dee-gook". They want to see what they're paying for.
4) Clients don't care for a project spec, but it's required if you want to keep on track with your efforts and show them time re: point #2

Great advice...

 

[bin3]

Great advice...

Only thing I would add is: The client is not always right. The client is king, but, to be honest, very seldom right: that is why they hired you, isn't it?

It is up to you to ensure the communication between yourself and your client is fluent to such a degree that the king is happy and not looking into decapitation ...

 

[zippy]

I must confess that I question the wisdom of any company contracting with a 1 man operation to work on such a project.

IT projects need a strong business champion/sponsor/owner who can get people on the business to provide support when needed. This individual needs the support of management. If he/she loses that, your project is doomed. Your relationship with this person is critical.