Re: Why is database integrity so impopular ?

On Oct 9, 8:14 am, "Walter Mitty" <wami..._at_verizon.net> wrote:
> "Roy Hann" <specia..._at_processed.almost.meat> wrote in message
>
> news:t56dnR6aVsaTXnDVnZ2dnUVZ8t7inZ2d_at_pipex.net...
>
> > This is not speculation.  It happened repeatedly until we were starved
> > into submission.  The only very slight satisfaction I have is that one
> > of our present customers once rejected one of our early proposals, for
> > exactly the reasons I listed, and the IT director was kind enough to
> > tell me recently that if he had to do that project over again he'd do
> > it the way we had offered to do it.
>
> I can echo that.  Right down to the IT director who later said that my
> approach was the right one, much later.
>
> That suggests a new discussion about the "sadder but wiser client".  There
> must be a lot of stories out there about that.

Well, that point bring the question of IT Directors competences.

I start from the assertion that when a company is ready to buy a big software solution (like an ERP system), IT Managers are part of the decision. It is then their reponsability to make database integrity a requirement, to explain to the financial managers the purpose of such a requirement and to be able to argue with vendors or integrators that will try to minimize the importance of integrity.

The case here is classic : 5 years ago (I was not working here) the company decided to buy an ERP solution. At that time, the IT director had a financial profile with non-technical computers knowledge. IT team was basically made of clerks playing with Excel pivot reports.

The decision to choose the ERP was therefore exclusively based on the trust they had with some outside consultants. Consultants, most of the time, specialize in one system and stick to it even if it has major problems, like lack or absence of database integrity.

Conclusion : it's always a question of competence at the IT departement level. If IT managers were all the time chose among technical personel, systems would improve because IT managers would force vendors to have a technological thinking.

But most of the time, IT managers are former business managers (or people holing "information systems management" diploma) thinking their working knowledge of computers gives them aptitudes to take IT missioncritical  decisions. Received on Thu Oct 09 2008 - 16:48:22 CEST