A Consultant's View
Prairie Trail Software, Inc. ............................................................. December 2005
Applying computer technology is simply finding the right wrench to pound in the correct screw.
Those of us who think that we are helping humanity to advance by providing new technology often need to consider the above statement. Most technology is not worth much in the long run, and besides, how often have we seen people misuse, work around, or otherwise "not follow directions"?
Let me give an example. A company had been using a particular database, and associated software, for many years. We, at Prairie Trail, were hired to add a new capability to the system.
At first we thought that we would be able to connect to that database and simply use the data in the same way. But, it turned out that every time we tried to go that route, we found something in the database that did not fit either the documentation or how the original software was supposed to work..
Over time we even discovered that if certain values were put in certain fields, the system would behave in new and exciting ways-that nobody had planned. The system worked-in a fashion-but was totally unsuitable for development
People have creativity. They (and we) will use tools in ways never imagined by the maker. In many ways, we celebrate such creativity. It is an important part of progress.
If you have an idea of how to use something to "pound in the correct screw" but lack knowledge of how to get the right hammer, give us a call. We will be glad to talk to you even if we can't help you.
Have you set up one of those "news feeds" into your computer? You know, the way that some places will send a steady stream of news to your computer and you get to just check the updated "page" at any time? These all run off of the RSS web protocol.
Well, those who like things nice and neat on the internet are upset at the RSS protocol situation. They call it a mess. As one person put it, "RSS has more dialects than the Chinese language."
For most of the World Wide Web, there are committees that manage the standards by which everyone else communicates- but not for RSS. Competing companies are promoting their own version of the protocol and rumors from Redmond are that Microsoft will be adding RSS to the next major operating system (with their own "enhancements", of course).
RSS is a nice thing to have if you want to be kept up to date. I suspect that some companies will use it to provide better transparency to internal operations. I know of one company that was using an hourly email to keep sales managers in synch- RSS would be much cleaner. However, if there isn't a clean standards, people will not be able to merge things as nicely as they would like.
Here is one mess where the early adopters will get the benefits, but will also suffer the consequences.
There are many religious holidays around this time of year. The strangest has to be the Chrismahanukawanzika festival (sent in a text message from a phone company).
The end of the year with all these festivals remind us that business is not the be all and end all of our existence. While organizing work so that other people benefit is a noble act, we are reminded to keep a balance in our lives so that we can enjoy the fruits of our labor.
During the time off, it is good to look at ways to better organize everything so that others can do some of the work.
Taking a little time away from work allows us to reexamine how we are balancing the various demands on us. As Peter Drucker puts it, it is the quality of our work far more than the quantity that makes the difference. Fewer well made decisions are much better than many poor decisions.
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Dave Randolph,
President, Prairie Trail Software