How it's done -- or not

It's the early 1980s, and this pilot fish is being interviewed for a job as IT manager at a midsize company.

"They seem especially anxious to have me start immediately," says fish. "They let me know that one of the early tasks will be a 'reimplementation' of a production and inventory control system -- but they're not saying much about it."

Fish can smell a problem in the making, so he keeps asking questions. And eventually, the story comes out.

It seems that the previous IT manager's big project had been to convert the manual inventory system into a computerized version -- an effort that involved keying in thousands of handwritten inventory records.

After many days of effort, everything was keyed in. And to celebrate, the IT manager led the inventory team to the Dumpsters and, with much fanfare, disposed of all the handwritten records.

Then, launching the database update process, he sent them all home for the night.

But the next day, one little problem was discovered: a small glitch in the processing that resulted in data errors and a corrupted database.

"So," fish asks, "were there pre-processing backups?" Nope, hadn't thought they were necessary yet.

"Had there been any system testing of sample data?" Nope -- didn't want to take the time.

And where is the former IT manager now? "He shaved his head and joined an ashram," reports fish, "no doubt to contemplate his possibilities in another life."

Sharky wants to contemplate your true tale of IT life. Send it to me at sharky@computerworld.com. I'll send you a stylish Shark shirt if I use it. Add your comments below, and read some great old tales in the Sharkives.

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