Re: Nature of Oracle-l has changed

• Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> Sent: Saturday, August 23, 2003 8:19 PM

>
> On 2003.08.23 18:34, Tim Gorman wrote:
>
> > Six years ago, a CIO commented to me, waving down a corridor which had
> > offices full of developers, "If I had my way, I'd get rid of all of them
and
> > replace them with lawyers. We'd buy applications instead of building
them
> > and then sue the vendors." My response was something along the lines of
"if
> > you think developers are expensive, go price some lawyers", but it
certainly
> > bounced off him. At the time, I took it as just another colorful
comment
> > from a colorful guy. But he was dead serious, along with his CIO/CFO
> > brethren, and the passing of Y2K and the dot-com bubble pop has
expedited
> > his prediction...
>
> I always wondered where does this prejudice against us, computer geeks (my
> apologies to anyone offended by that expression, but I'm a hard core
computer
> geek) comes from? I must say that this prejudice is very hard to
understand.
> IT people are very well educated, very hard working, regularly willing to
> work long hours and sacrifice their weekends for the benefit of the
company.
> I found that very same attitude against the "darned geeks" at several
> executives and managers of several companies I worked for. Even if lawyers
> are much more expensive the programmers, system and database
administrators,
> application designers, they are still very willing to make the switch.
> I'm not quite sure why are we so hated? Why would anyone want to kill
> a nice and seet little wabbit?
>

Its perfectly understandable. Before the resession salaries for IT were extremely high. IT people could rake their employers over the coals because they could make a phone call and get another job.

Throw in the fact that generally speaking 50% of programmers are incompetent(alot of us believe this) and still made the high salaries. So you had and still have alot of people talking up what they can do, getting large salaries, and not producing. Also throw in the fact that alot of technical people have personality problems. I dont believe that most IT people are like this, but it only takes a minority to make the rest of us look bad.

Here is an example. I worked with someone who is a partner in a local Oracle consulting company. He told me that his company once hired a 'senior' developer who on his first day of work named his variables after 'Mary had a little lamb'. They fired him the first day and deservedly so.

Another big flaw with alot of technical people is a lack of communication skills. They cant get across the reason why its going to take so long or they dont know how long its going to take. It then comes in over budget and takes too long. If you look at other professions you have standards to follow that can track how long something will take. Now its gotten better, but its still flawed and years away from being sound principle. Management wants sound bites. It will take this long, it will cost this much.

I think there is also a lack of business knowledge on our part. I think that hurts us in understanding the 'whys' and 'hows' of business.

Most importantly, managers are supposed to make it as quick as possible and as cheap as possible. Every business constantly tries to cut costs. Its the way of the world and we are a pretty heft cost.
> --
> Mladen Gogala
> Oracle DBA
> --
> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
> --
> Author: Mladen Gogala
> INET: mgogala_at_adelphia.net
>
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.net
-- 
Author: Ryan
  INET: rgaffuri_at_cox.net

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