Month: November 2019

Did you hear about the project that had more money than they could spend? Well, it isn’t quite as simple as that but close. The first phase of the project had problems, went over budget and was delayed but it made an amazing comeback. By the end of the first year, the new system was wildly successful despite some of its short comings, it was decided that there should be a second phase with more functionality.

This is where things get a bit sticky. It is quite reasonable to create some sort of a specification/road-map so we have a plan on what to work on, which is exactly what project Zinger did. Yet due insufficient internal sources and scheduling conflicts instead of getting this finished early in the year it wasn’t finished until the end of June.

The project cannot take this money and start until they have a plan and thus only 100k of the planned 550k was used by June. The project is behind and it is unlikely that they will be using much of the 700k that will be available for the second half of the year. Under normal circumstances you would think that not “pissing” away a lot of money when you are not prepared is a good idea. However, the normal budget rule will take precedence

“Use it or lose it”

Next year when the money is needed to finish up what was started it is almost certain that the budget committee will see that they needed considerably less than originally planned amount for this year and will cut accordingly.

Yup, computers are everywhere. It was the early nineties and personal computers were really taking off in offices. I felt so strongly that computers were the future that I helped a small insurance agency computerize. This small agency actually did most of the hard work by hand but they learned of a custom software package that filled this niche. I met with them and we looked at what the software would support, it was actually a nice little package which could support a number of different products, agents and payment structures. I thought it was a bit pricey but we agreed on terms and so both the accountant and I were to go back for another visit to teach her how to use the new software.

Dorthy and I drove there and again met with the developer at the agency. While she was learning about how to use the software I was discussing what hardware we would need and learned about the installation process. This wasn’t installing SAP or Oracle, we were only going to be there for two days.

Before we were sent, nobody had actually explained one of the tiny little detail. I only knew that we were staying at a local hotel. Between the driving and the workshops it was a full day but eventually it came time to check into the hotel. I simply walked up to the reception desk told them my name and company and they gave me a room key. I didn’t know any better so Dorthy and I went to the room, unpacked, had dinner and went to bed. Well, I am not entirely certain who was more surprised the next morning. I received a wake up call from my father, but it was Dorthy who answered the telephone. She clarified that he did indeed did get the correct room and handed the telephone over to me.

I cannot remember most of that conversation but my father, the boss, did explain that he did reserve two rooms one for each of us and that it was not necessary to share. Actually nothing did happen, but that could have been due to me being the boss’s son, and that the boss’s son wasn’t so experienced.

Yup, smart enough to set up the IT infrastructure single handed but not smart enough to know that the office doesn’t force the staff to sleep together on business trips.