Geenirvana

The business I work for, has decided to invest in a complicated solution to meet our ever demanding customer requirements. We took advise from our ERP provider as the solution that we need must integrate tightly and we still need to use our ERP support for issues. We did look elsewhere but we felt a solution with backing from our ERP provider would be beneficial.

For the project to succeed, the business required to invest in two different types of semi-bespoke software, new hardware and a complete Wi-Fi infastructure change.

7 months into the project, a significant cost and many man hours of myself and consultants we have found the solution advised to us is not meeting our requirements. Some of this is because the way the business runs and some of this is because the company making of of the pieces of software is doing a really poor job.

The last consultant that arrived had an unbiased opinion on a different company who could do exactly what we required.

Would backing away and looking elsewhere for a solution be a wise idea?

The working software solution and the Wi-Fi could be carried forward, but the troublesome software and it's hardware would essentially be lost.

For the record, I have recommended to stay with the problematic software. The company developing it has promised they can deliver and I really can't tell the business owners that their money has gone to waste

Whats blogs / RSS feeds do you recommend that are in the similiar vein to The Old New Thing from Raymond Chen but targeted towards Linux?

https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/

I thoroughly enjoy reading his 5 minute-ish blog posts about the internal happenings related to Windows and wonder if there is a Linux equivalent

The software I have made that is now heavily used within the business has not scaled well with the growth of the company. Due to the customer timely demands, Instead, of re-valuating and re-factoring the source I made tweaks, workarounds, etc to meet the requirements.

Now when a new change is required, I have fallen into a scenario that goes something like this.

Management: We now need your software to do X Me: OK, this means I need to change the way Y works first, but this can't be done until the way Z is modifed, but this relies on A

Malcome in the middle expresses this beautifully: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbSehcT19u0

When trying to explain this, I usually end up tongue tied and the end of the conversation usually ends up like

Management: We need yout software to do X Me: OK, give me a few days

Is there a general name describing this effect?

This might seem like an strange question but how do I know what my job title is?

My job role is so diverse I struggle categorizing it under a name.

Basically, I started doing I.T Desktop Support but I soon outgrown this and started volunteering to be involved in some of the more interesting tasks.

My un-official job title is a Systems Developer but I never applied for this, it was sort just given to me over time.

My typical day to day tasks are:

System Administration - Replace servers, Manage Active Directory, keep uptime, back up etc - Just typical sysadmin type work

Networking - Set up networks, configure switches/routers, cisco type stuff

Programming - I have developed several be-spoke applications that the company now depends on

Cable Management - Lay Cat5 cables across the building

Support - Provide desktop support (but this has recently beed pushed to a new starter)

Software Deployment - Introduce new software to the company and integrate it into the company systems

Process Improvement - Identify a process that can be automated/improved and build necessary tools to do this

SQL Server/SSRS - Write TSQL to use for SSRS

A typical Jack of all Trades Master of none situation.

I really enjoy my job and I am in a fortunate position where I can go into work, look around the business - find something to improve and offer a proposal to work on it. It's rare I have management inteference and if things start to slow down, I ask around the business for anything that can be automated.

I have been with the company for 20 years, and it's been the only place I have worked for but due to my circumstances I must re-consider my future there. Because I have been trapped inside a pidgeon hole - I don't know what it's like elsewhere - but from looking around what jobs are available it looks they are speficially target one of my fields.

I have come across the term DevOps and I am not sure if this is what I do.

We all work in an professional environment but how often to you sit back and realize some of the things you do is so poorly implemented it is amazing the business functions?

For example, my place is internally known as an £100 million turnover business that runs off spreadsheets. We have a spreadsheet for almost everything, one of the biggest spreadsheets we have replicates a MRP system and it takes over 5 minutes to open and 40 minutes to refresh at 100% CPU. I have lost count the number of times people told me they felt embarrassed showing new customers on how we run.

I also see it with some of our customers. Our customers are some of the largest automotive companies in the world yet when I have to access their services, they are so poorly made I cannot fathom to understand how it works. Of course, due to the nature of the services they are bespoke but thing's are so notoriously complicated it makes it an unpleasant experience.