Software, Software Development and other Atrocities

I learned to programme just by chance. I did my first degree in Industrial Engineering but always liked computers. At work I was in charge of the computer inventories and repairs. I also liked to install and uninstall software and to run computer workshops (also play tetris and the prince of persia). I was really enthusiastic. Seeing that, some of my colleagues suggested I should learn to programme and move to the analysis and development department. I always refused cos I wasn't a geek. I said I'd never do that.

Never say never, that's what they say.

One day I was forced to move to another department (and got a new NASTY boss (bitch!)). She decided I had to fix a library system and implement it in a few weeks. The system was implemented in DBASE (this was more than 10 years ago!). She had bought it for $***** and needed it to be operative ASAP to justify the bill. For that she didn't give a desk and computer, nor did she allow me to use a whiteboard.

I learned a bit of DBASE and read the code. I realised then that the library system was a fake. It was originally a system for a video rent store and the programmer had done a few changes so it looked like a library system (something like replacing the words "Video" with "Book" and replacing "Client" with "Student"). The system was supposed to run in a Novell Network but that application was a standalone. On top of that I never managed to run the application without crashing it.

I wrote a report noting all the flaws in the system and that I would not recommend to fix it but to write a new one from scratch. I gave the report to the tyrant... sorry my boss. She went nuts and raised her voice. Called me incompetent and other things. I felt so bad because I didn't understand her attitude at all. However as there was no one else willing to do fixing she let me start it again.

That is how I learned to programme. We chose to use Foxpro v 2.5 (like DBASE but much better) because it was the only thing we had available at that time. It had the language and the database in one place so it wasn't that hard to learn. I was assigned 2 apprentices who also didn't know Foxpro. So we learned it together.

My team and I decided that we needed to meet with the people from the library to see what they needed. Of course my boss didn't agree with that. (why should you talk to them? You must not waste your time. Time is expensive.) I met the libary director and make good friends with her. She welcomed me and my team and also gave us some computers and printers all connected to a Novell network. (don't ask me the version because I don't remember.) We also met all the library staff who were very nice and aproachable. To be honest, although I had been a user of the library I did not know much about how they did things in there. We sort of established a base camp in the library and visited them very often. We did learn a lot! (we borrowed books for unlimited periods of time, etc, etc.) (I guess what we did was a kind of ethnography1 because we spent several days there seeing students borrowing books and stuff, and sometimes helping the staff to sort out problems, ¡habla Beto!). It took us a few months (more than we thought) to finish the application and make the library staff actually use it (that was tough!). But it was worth it.

So why am I telling you this?
I guess because I hear so many stories about nasty managers and about not needing to meet your users/customers/clients whatever you call them. And I just wanted to share my own story.
But maybe the real reason is because I am bored and hopelessly stuck with my thesis (not stuck as in "stuck in the mud" but as in "lazy to think"). Distracting my mind for a while helps to keep my sanity intact.

(Saquen su línea.)

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1 Ethnography is a research method grounded in the interpretive paradigm. It demands first hand involvement with the subjects of study in the same social world where they interact. (Marshall and Rossman, 1989, p.106))