Elwood P Dowd's Journal: One day "slashdot" will be mentioned in my annual review.

Work is really frustrating right now. Like five months ago, my boss asked me into his office to check out a product because he wanted my "buy in". We were going to get a real bug tracking database. The product is called Enterprise Wizard, and it's basically a low-quality web based RAD tool. Its business logic is infinitely customizable and is not any more suited to issue tracking than it is suited to any other rudimentary database function.

I hated it, and told him so. I showed him some other bug tracking tools that work better, and he pointed out that they are not as flexible as the tool he was showing me. We were going to use this tool for tracking things that were not bugs. He wanted to be able to add a bunch of fields to issues so that they could be perfectly categorized. The thing I showed him couldn't do that, and it was the public opinion of the software developer that this sort of categorization should not be done. This turned him off, rather than turning him around. I backed down.

Enterprise Wizard got "buy in" from everyone else but the CFO, who was to approve the (expensive) purchase. He didn't understand why we needed it. Neither do I. So my boss and his boss made a more extended case for the purchase and got it included in this year's budget.

So now I actually have my hands on it. We're going to use it for our internal computer help desk (not bug tracking). It is worse than I expected. Aside from not being a help desk application, it has inane bugs. The same sort of inane bugs that I would have to deal with if I developed the thing myself. No, I couldn't develop something as flexible as Enterprise Wizard. Those guys bit off a way bigger task than I would aim for. My boss and I agree that implementation will take at least until April. I would lean on him to change his mind about using this product, but I don't know how much respect that would cost me. As if he respected me. He's already sold it to the CFO. Maybe he thinks he can't back down now.

Earlier today I was "documenting" a list of the rules that Enterprise Wizard's consultant put in the system. Because my boss doesn't want to figure it out any other way. While looking at a stack trace from an uncaught Java exception, tears welled up in my eyes. I cried, if only a little. I was literally bored to tears.

Every year during my review, I just pray the words "slashdot.org" aren't mentioned.

eeeew

[ediron2]

To hell with the flight attendant: Run, do not walk, to the nearest exit. In the event of a water landing, your seat can be used as a floatation device. If things get unruly, your tray table can be used as a machete and shield.

That, or just smile and nod and let the stink fade away from lack of usability. Never say 'toldja'... just get good enough to be the least-incompetent and let everyone else that needs to use the app founder and flail until it dies.