Re: Fifty years' experience in C programming; 20 in VB...

Niall Litchfield wrote:

> "aztek" <rachel7GET9RID_at_dodo.OFcom.THISau> wrote in message
> news:3cd35553_at_news.comindico.com.au...
> > I'm not sure where all this degree knocking came from - maybe the fact
> that
> > in the US chances are given to people without a (completed) higher
> > education
>
> I haven't read any of the posts as degree knocking. what folk are saying -
> and I'd be among them - is you do not necessarily need a degree and even if
> you do it doesn't have to be a CS degree to achieve in the database world.
> Thus job ads that state 'CS degree required' are short sighted and ignorant.
> If you do have or are working for a CS degree then keep at it it is
> worthwhile.
>
> FWIW I started out as an Accountant (with KPMG) the best accountants I met
> didn't tend to have economics or business degrees. The best consultant I've
> ever met had no MBA and a degree in French.
>
> --
> Niall Litchfield
> Oracle DBA
> Audit Commission UK
> (BA Economics)

I agree with both of your postings. A CS degree is not needed. And having a CS degree does not necessarily mean competence just as having an OCP doesn't. Some degree is nice but also not necessary. But the things that must be learned and understood must be learned somewhere. And on-the-job hacking just doesn't cut it except for the very few with the initiative to delve into the books on their own.

But when it comes to why projects fail it can not all be put at the feet of management though, based on the food-chain theory, they are ultimately responsible.

I have seen many projects fail due to technical people that didn't meet with and communicate well with clients so that they produced things that were technically sound but did not meet the end-user's needs. I have seen projects fail because of people applying the theory that the tool they know is the best tool and therefore the one for the job. But most of the time when projects fail due to technical issues they relate to the fact that technical people will often not tell the truth to management that has no other source of knowledge.

For example I am aware of a project that tried to marry Oracle, Teradata, Cognos, and a few other technologies together to create a data warehouse reporting application. It has now been going on for more than four years and has produced nothing useful. Because the technical team was incompetent? No. Because Oracle, Teradata, and Cognos make bad products? No. But because the technical team tried to please management by telling them they could do it when saner people would have just said No!

On the positive side they are getting paid by the hour. ;-)

Daniel Morgan Received on Sun May 05 2002 - 08:12:36 CDT