Re: State of IT and DBMS expertise
Date: Mon, 08 Nov 2004 12:53:23 GMT
Message-ID: <7%Jjd.27497$K7.17991_at_news-server.bigpond.net.au>
"Laconic2" wrote
>
> And these are precisely the people that Dawn cites as the reason for the
> durability of Pick based applications. The fact that IT amateurs built
> them.
[* preliminary admission : my sample size is not statistically viable, but ...]
I can think of another reason for durability - a propensity on non-related parties to avoid these apps with 10' barge poles hence they live on beyond their natural term (i.e. on life support perhaps). The only serious attempt I have observed* of this class was a treasury accounting system that couldn't reliably compute simple interest on an "At Call Account".
I know it didn't survive (even though significant resources had been consumed) in its treasury role because I was the project manager of the successful RDMS based replacement. Parts of the Pick stuff lived on - mostly as a glorified reporting engine. From my perspective it was clear the IT amateurs involved didn't have the rigour that this particular business demands and having a warm and fuzzy environment did nothing to improve that situation. There may be other areas of business where rigour is less a contributor but I am not in that space (nor likely to be either).
In truth, a similar malaise (low attention to detail) IMO is often found in all areas of IT (MS being a prime example) and I feel this has a greater impact on the outcome than the choice of tools. To illustrate I have just seen a 2 year stop gap Foxpro app retired after 15 years of sterling service, and even then not because it was failing, but simply because it was not an integrated (in the ERP sense) or on a strategic platform.
Cheers. Received on Mon Nov 08 2004 - 13:53:23 CET