new lows in ineptness

Wow, the level of incompetence in the IT industry sometimes scares me. To think, these guys all needed just 50% to pass their exams, and with a lot of them, it really shows. This week I was drawn in to assisting in the installation of a new application, which the client had paid the software vendor to send a team (possibly of one, I'm not sure) to install.

First they asserted - repeatedly - that they needed system administrator rights to install it, and that the application would not function without those rights. This would mean they, and their application, would have rights to change anything & everything on the server without notice or control by men, including all the other databases on that server, which violates about four different precepts of security, not to mention client policies and the SOX law.

When I flatly said they couldn't have that permanently, they tried to bully me into it, and when I dug in my heels, they grudgingly agreed to find out(!) exactly what rights they did need: and I agreed to permit them temporary rights til the install was completed (and privately turned on all the auditing and monitoring I could, so I could track what they were doing*). It only took a day and the involvement of their Chief Software Engineer (!!) to find out this trivial piece of information (and I'm not entirely happy with what they still need, but so be it - if it causes disk blowouts, it'll get shut down - this is the farthest possible thing from a priority application you can imagine).

Then, they complained that there was insufficient disk space. I checked & assured them that the default disks set up each had over 100GB free. After several failed attempts, and a fairly complete lack of information and insight from the vendors, I tracked their actions (being remote from them) and found that the installer they had written compels the installation to occur on the system disk, in a fairly unusual location for any database to ever be installed, and there was insufficient space on the system disk.

This is just ... well, I don't have words for it. It's the sort of crap I encountered in the 80s when software installers were brand new, before people realised the need to conform to customer requirements. The idea that someone in 2009 could be so ham-handed and generally clueless as to compel this, just staggers me. It's like buying a new Ford, and finding the designer didnt include a keystart, but required you to use a crank to start the engine.

Having finally found that, I cleared enough space temporarily to allow the install, then shut it down (which was another amazingly difficult operation I'm told, tho I wasn't doing that bit, the Windows support guy onsite did: it certainly took half an hour, ridiculous amount of time to simply close down an application). Once that was done I could transfer the database to the appropriate disk and restart it, but this has really gone down in the annals of incompetence as a shining example.

Obviously they haven't sold this to many customers yet, or the volume of complaints would have drowned them, I think. I would also have to say that whatever the client paid to have vendor-supplied 'experts' onsite was money just pissed down the drain.

* * * * * * * * *

*I would leave this turned on all the time but the drag on performance and price in terms of disk space is excessive to indulge that concept

* * * * * * * * *

These all seemed massively appropriate for our workplace or our client.

LEADERS

Leaders are like eagles. We don't have either of them here.

APATHY
If we don't take care of the customer,maybe they'll stop bugging us.

CONSULTING
If you're not a part of the solution, there's good money to be made in prolonging the problem.

CUSTOMER DISSERVICE
Because we're not satisfied until you're not satisfied.

CUSTOMER CARE
If we really care for the customer we'd send them somewhere better

INSPIRATION
Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99% perspiration, which is why engineers sometimes smell really bad.

MEETINGS
None of us is as dumb as all of us.

PRESSURE
It can turn a lump of coal into a flawless diamond, or an average person into a perfect basketcase

PROBLEMS
No matter how great and destructive your problems may seem now, remember, you've probably only seen the tip of them

SANITY

Minds are like parachutes. Just because you've lost yours doesn't mean you can borrow mine.

SERVICE
View all customers as beautiful buds that must be cultivated, watered, and periodically buried under manure.

WISHES
When you wish upon a falling star, your dreams can come true. Unless it's really a meteorite hurtling to the Earth which will destroy all life. Then you're pretty much hosed no matter what you wish for. Unless it's death by meteor.

Lifted from Demotivators(TM)