Friday, February 02, 2007

You must be dreaming..

Another Friday morning meeting. Another morning wasted.

I felt like ripping up the requirements in front of the client and telling him that he is out of his mind.

This is what happens when you let a technically competent client design his own solution.

It never works.

Let me explain. The client who is technically competent. Is also a person who only knows an overview of the technology employed by this particular project. Believe it or not, no I.T. professional knows everything there is to know in the Information Technology field (Yes, I actually said that). Most of us just specialise in one area (e.g. systems, networking, database.. etc) and know bits and pieces about everything else in the field. I have yet to see an I.T. Guru in all areas of I.T.

So, we have let a person who only knows what he has read in a whitepaper of the technology, modify the proposed solution into his 'requirements' for the new system.

And he wonders why things are not working the way he expects it to work.

The usual problem when working with Techos who think they have the answer to everything.

Except this time, we have gone so far away from the proposed solution it is no longer funny.

I've told him that what he wants isn't going to be possible. He is dreaming. The technology just cannot handle what he is expecting it to do. I've left the Project Manager to do the 'damage-control' business talks. Meanwhile, I've got to go think of a new solution which can hopefully encompass some of his requirements. Or I could just recommend we go back to the original solution and tell him to go stuff himself.

If only I didn't need to pay for rent and food...

No comments: