Peter Mac And Associates

IT Managers and the dark ages

It’s a funny old world really. Here we are at the start of the 21st century, with one global financial crisis under our belts. Organisations trying to cut down on waste, no need for flights when you can tele-conference, no need for offices when you can work remotely, no need for…hold on a second! What did you say you do?

Oh, you’re a programmer. There’s your desk in the corner.

I’ll feed you three cups of coffee every hour and a pizza on Friday. Did you see the cool hip lava-lamp we have at our reception desk? You're really going to love working in our studioish office. Now, start coding! If you’re not sitting at your desk and we can’t hear you cutting code, we’re not going to pay you your assorted nuts at the end of the month.

Why not pay by the line of code

Maybe the scenario here is a bit pointed, but that’s the point I guess. There are three issues at play here.

Non IT management managing IT projects

I’ve seen it all over the place, the head accountant is appointed responsibility for the IT department (It’s a cost centre after all) and as such the decisions are made with this year’s budget in mind. That’s fine as long as you don’t have any projects that run into next year.

Management’s misconception that coding is all

If your programmers aren’t cutting code, what the hell are they doing? That’s the second time today I’ve seen him go for a coffee. This has got to stop!

Lack of understanding and then trust

If management has little or no understanding of the domain they have been given to 'manage', imagine the fear and mistrust in the conversation that takes place when the development manager tells them "We’re a few days behind because we had to redesign the hibernate files to take into account the changes in table structures brought about by the latest specification changes."

It’s might seem a paradox that in this, the age of I.T. off-shoring and the total farming out of the code cutting exercise, many organisations insist their staff sit in cubicles and make key-tapping noises to prove they’re working. But…it’s not a paradox. All that has happened is the task of the circus master has been delegated. The circus monkeys are still in their cubicles. The circus master is now taking his orders by phone or skype or webex.

In a perfect world

I’d roll out of bed and turn on my computer. After a bit of breakfast, I add a new component to the Trac project I’m using to manage my current freelance job.

The client has asked for a new feature to be added to the website I’m working on. She’s emailed me with a high level specification so I can estimate how much and how long it will take. I’ve provided the estimate and got sign-off. The email chain gets attached to the Trac component so the graphic designer gets an automatic notification of the new component’s go-ahead status.

I start working with a HB pencil and a bit of recycled paper on thoughts as to how the new piece of work will…work. After due consideration I sit down at the computer and start looking for some code that somebody else wrote and tested already that’s going to be close to what I want to do. The rest is easy.

It’s time for the 6 o’clock news. But not going to watch until I’ve update my on-line timesheet using Kimai with comments on what I was working on today. I see Joel the designer has updated his for 3hrs when he knocked off at 4pm after emailing me with the style sheet changes for the new component.

Component finished, ready for end user testing, uploaded to the test web server where the client can access it and report back (on-line through Trac) on changes and fixes needed.

Client gets an email every Friday showing her what was worked on, who worked on it and how many hours she owes us for.