Comments on: Management Induced Technology Constraints http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/ "If you can't hear me, it's because I'm in parentheses." - Steven Wright Sat, 06 Sep 2008 04:38:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2.2 By: Nathan Bowser http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7517 Nathan Bowser Fri, 23 Feb 2007 15:29:02 +0000 http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7517 It gets much much better whenever a company induces a constraint on you, for instance say Rational Clearcase, which in itself takes over your computer. It sort of reminds me back in the junior high days when the majority of people used AOL, which also took over a machine. Anyway - you are forced to use this software, and then you start getting messages saying that you don't have a valid license and cannot check-in/check-out anything and therefore not code. Wow, now that is extreme productivity. It gets even better...you get an email after awhile saying we don't have enough licenses for all the users using Clearcase, and that we should be running an executable which says how many users are using it, and when their current license session will expire (currently one hour). Then if a developer forgets to do a check-in/check-out and 'renew' the license session, you can hurry up and jump in and snag it. This gets entertaining if there is a critical bug that needs fixed, and you cannot check out code, b/c you cannot connect b/c there are too many people developing. We're getting paid to sit and wait for a time slot until we can develop... So I guess those of us which didn't have the perfect timing, can sit here and think of a windows equivalent command to 'watch -n 1'. It gets much much better whenever a company induces a constraint on you, for instance say Rational Clearcase, which in itself takes over your computer. It sort of reminds me back in the junior high days when the majority of people used AOL, which also took over a machine. Anyway - you are forced to use this software, and then you start getting messages saying that you don’t have a valid license and cannot check-in/check-out anything and therefore not code. Wow, now that is extreme productivity. It gets even better…you get an email after awhile saying we don’t have enough licenses for all the users using Clearcase, and that we should be running an executable which says how many users are using it, and when their current license session will expire (currently one hour). Then if a developer forgets to do a check-in/check-out and ‘renew’ the license session, you can hurry up and jump in and snag it.

This gets entertaining if there is a critical bug that needs fixed, and you cannot check out code, b/c you cannot connect b/c there are too many people developing. We’re getting paid to sit and wait for a time slot until we can develop…

So I guess those of us which didn’t have the perfect timing, can sit here and think of a windows equivalent command to ‘watch -n 1′.

]]> By: Pete http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7370 Pete Wed, 31 Jan 2007 17:45:54 +0000 http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7370 The open source bullet caught my eye the most here too. I've worked in the IT department of a huge corporation building website for 14 years now and I must have heard the support argument against open source a billion times. Your Eclipse story is far worse than what I've experienced, though. If it's a compile time tool, who cares? What the support argument eventually boils down to is that some people are willing to pay money in order to feel what can be a false sense of security. Web Logic is a wonderful product, but I've spent more than a few hours on the phone with their tech folks who didn't understand their own product as well as people in my own organization and wondered why we did this instead of relying on the JBoss community. I'm not saying you should to take anything that's in Apache incubation and try to run with it instead of purchasing a more established product, but I think there's a middle ground. We were building a lot of webapps based on Struts and gave one group in the company the responsibility of being the support conduit to the Apache community. This internal group augmented Struts to meet specific shortcomings and removed those specials (like supporting multiple struts-config.xml files) as Struts addressed them. Management bought into it because there was someone to go to when all hell broke loose (which it almost never did) even though it was someone internal. Really, this isn't too different than what Google does with Linux. They have their own variant that is based on what is available to anybody and I would guess there's a small group that is responsible for it on everyone's behalf. Obviously, this doesn't work for a smaller company since there are fewer people to go around, but conceptually it gives you that "who do we ask when this breaks" question without paying out support dollars when you probably don't need to. The open source bullet caught my eye the most here too. I’ve worked in the IT department of a huge corporation building website for 14 years now and I must have heard the support argument against open source a billion times. Your Eclipse story is far worse than what I’ve experienced, though. If it’s a compile time tool, who cares?

What the support argument eventually boils down to is that some people are willing to pay money in order to feel what can be a false sense of security. Web Logic is a wonderful product, but I’ve spent more than a few hours on the phone with their tech folks who didn’t understand their own product as well as people in my own organization and wondered why we did this instead of relying on the JBoss community.

I’m not saying you should to take anything that’s in Apache incubation and try to run with it instead of purchasing a more established product, but I think there’s a middle ground. We were building a lot of webapps based on Struts and gave one group in the company the responsibility of being the support conduit to the Apache community. This internal group augmented Struts to meet specific shortcomings and removed those specials (like supporting multiple struts-config.xml files) as Struts addressed them. Management bought into it because there was someone to go to when all hell broke loose (which it almost never did) even though it was someone internal.

Really, this isn’t too different than what Google does with Linux. They have their own variant that is based on what is available to anybody and I would guess there’s a small group that is responsible for it on everyone’s behalf. Obviously, this doesn’t work for a smaller company since there are fewer people to go around, but conceptually it gives you that “who do we ask when this breaks” question without paying out support dollars when you probably don’t need to.

]]> By: Jason Paul Kazarian http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7369 Jason Paul Kazarian Wed, 31 Jan 2007 15:29:17 +0000 http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7369 One of the best ways to get open source into the corporation is to use top-tier software that runs on it, like Oracle's databases and IBM's web application servers. Start with Oracle XE, which is free to use for databases up to four gigs of user data. It's not open source, though. Then get approval to host it on a Linux server as called out in the system requirements. On the other hand, I would stop working for a company that a) hired me as a developer and b) deleted software I installed to get my job done. One of the best ways to get open source into the corporation is to use top-tier software that runs on it, like Oracle’s databases and IBM’s web application servers.

Start with Oracle XE, which is free to use for databases up to four gigs of user data. It’s not open source, though. Then get approval to host it on a Linux server as called out in the system requirements.

On the other hand, I would stop working for a company that a) hired me as a developer and b) deleted software I installed to get my job done.

]]> By: Michael Amor Righi http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7363 Michael Amor Righi Tue, 30 Jan 2007 03:28:47 +0000 http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7363 Ugh, a new low. My mother found my blog. Seriously mom, how did you get your typewriter connected to the Internet?!?!? Ugh, a new low. My mother found my blog. Seriously mom, how did you get your typewriter connected to the Internet?!?!?

]]> By: Linda R. http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7362 Linda R. Tue, 30 Jan 2007 02:21:17 +0000 http://www.michaelrighi.com/2007/01/29/management-induced-technology-constraints/#comment-7362 $15.95 was even more of a bargain than you let on to since it was your mother who paid that bill each month. Now go wash the paprika out of your eye.... $15.95 was even more of a bargain than you let on to since it was your mother who paid that bill each month. Now go wash the paprika out of your eye….

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