• fjf (unregistered)

    Some comment.

  • anoldhacker (unregistered) in reply to fjf
    fjf:
    Some comment.

    Didn't you get an estimate for that first?

  • BOB (unregistered)

    First (after the estimate)

  • fjf (unregistered) in reply to anoldhacker
    anoldhacker:
    fjf:
    Some comment.

    Didn't you get an estimate for that first?

    The comment system had already decided to accept my comment. I'll be billing $250, thank you.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?

  • Anon (unregistered)

    It's like IT Mad Libs.

  • Ziplodocus (unregistered)

    Something something something, dark side.

  • Valrandir (unregistered)

    Surely since they are charging 250$ an hour they must be serious and competent. Right? RIGHT?????

  • (cs) in reply to Ziplodocus
    Ziplodocus:
    Something something something, dark side.
    Family guy rocks

    There is something weird about his email.

  • silent d (unregistered) in reply to Valrandir

    Surely since they are charging $250 an hour they must be "something."

  • PITA (unregistered) in reply to Ziplodocus
    Ziplodocus:
    Something something something, dark side.
    WIN!!
  • Valrandir (unregistered)

    You never get something for nothing.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?

    Actually, at a high level, I was hoping you knew what happened next.

  • ZachorJeff (unregistered)

    I estimate that poor Zach's name changed to Jeff at some point.

  • eubv (unregistered)

    The user will navigate to the Billing tab and as the page loads, OMG PONIES will EPIC FAIL to determine if the invoice is available for viewing. If it is available for viewing, then ROFLCOPTER will be available for the user to click on to display the invoice.

  • PITA (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?
    They needed to get an estimate before they could take any action.
  • Buddy (unregistered)

    In a place I worked, we had an outside firm from the subcontinent that had some "interface with the client" incentive. Without fail, every developer would call us once with some question. Usually it was something stupid, like asking for confirmation that something written was actually correct (e.g. please confirm that line endings in Windows must be "\x0d\x0a"). Sometimes they just waited for me to say something, anything, and then hung up, no "thank you" or "good bye", I guess task accomplished!

  • wintermute (unregistered) in reply to ZachorJeff
    ZachorJeff:
    I estimate that poor Zach's name changed to Jeff at some point.

    I'm guessing that Jeff is his director, who forwarded the email to Zach...

  • Buddy (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Anonymous:
    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?

    Actually, at a high level, I was hoping you knew what happened next.

    I can guess - missed deadlines, requests for more money, compromises, skipped features, sub-standard product, final payment denied, ongoing lawsuit, no champion because Zack is no longer working for them, product forgotten, time elapses, repeat with new features...

    It's not even 10:00 and I need a drink, this industry is so depressing.

  • Spivonious (unregistered) in reply to ZachorJeff
    ZachorJeff:
    I estimate that poor Zach's name changed to Jeff at some point.

    No, the email went to his boss, who I'm assuming is named Jeff.

  • Ziplodocus (unregistered)

    I would personally add a MegaQuit() to the Billing tab.

  • Ziplodocus (unregistered) in reply to Ziplodocus
    Ziplodocus:
    I would personally add a MegaQuit() to the Billing tab.

    I mean:

    I would, personally, add a MegaQuit() to the Billing tab.

    Slightly differend emphasis. I'm obviously not going to go over there and add it myself. I just have a personal preference toward that function (good times).

    captcha: nibh - Not Intentionally Being Honest

  • Jasper (unregistered)

    You will get something with a button and if you click it, it will do something. And it only costs $250 per hour to build it! Who could refuse such an offer?

  • (cs)

    WTF is a "presentment"?

  • grizz (unregistered)
    The user will navigate to the Billing tab and as the page loads, “something” will “do something” to determine if the invoice is available for viewing.  If it is available 
    for viewing, then “something” will be available for the user to click on to display the invoice.

    Hell; that looks like the first cut at a "requirements doc" for 90% of the projects I work on.

  • Josephus (unregistered)

    well well, isn't this just Brillant. Kevin has determined that the the reason it was missing was beecause of FILE_NOT_FOUND as this was an embedded system. No wonder people called him a quibus

  • Been there, done that, got the scars (unregistered) in reply to Spivonious
    Spivonious:
    ZachorJeff:
    I estimate that poor Zach's name changed to Jeff at some point.

    No, the email went to his boss, who I'm assuming is named Jeff.

    WTF? The contractor's liason in the company was the Director?!?!

    Sorry, this WTF lost all credibility at that point. In The Real WTF World, Zach would have been named "Internal Project Lead", designated as sole point of contact for the contract dev team (and therefore answering the phone at 2 PM Indian Subcontinent time), and made completely responsible for both the continuous debacle and the ultimate utter failure of the project.

  • (cs) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?

    Believe it or not, copied verbatim from the submission.

  • (cs)
    The user will navigate to the Billing tab and as the page loads, “something” will “do something” to determine if the invoice is available for viewing.
    The only way to respond to such a requirement, done in such a way, is to suggest doing the check via fax to the CFO's secretary. After all, the CFO is in charge of all things financial and so it really ought to be routed via his office, and faxes have got to be The Way Of The Future for proper channels. The secretary can then burn the fax to make smoke signals for sending back whether the invoice is available, and a team in India can update the website to reflect this update. All in real time!
  • Homer (unregistered)

    No TV and no beer make Homer something something...

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?

    Like a treatment only more of a surprise.

  • Zack (unregistered) in reply to Mark Bowytz

    Hi, this is the submitter. Embarrassingly, Mark is correct. I did make this type.

    My exact submission was:

    something something into a big tunnel something presentment something purple monkey dishwasher.

    Hey Mark, at a high level, could you fill in the somethings?

  • (cs) in reply to Been there, done that, got the scars
    Been there:
    WTF? The contractor's liason in the company was the Director?!?!

    Sorry, this WTF lost all credibility at that point. In The Real WTF World, Zach would have been named "Internal Project Lead", designated as sole point of contact for the contract dev team (and therefore answering the phone at 2 PM Indian Subcontinent time), and made completely responsible for both the continuous debacle and the ultimate utter failure of the project.

    Actually, I've seen it work that way, where the contractor is a close, personal friend of the director (or worse, a nephew). The director introduces the contractor to the team, tells the team to give the contractor all support possible, and cuts him a nice, fat check. After the contractor leaves, usually what happens is the poor developers get stuck fixing whatever garbage the contractor introduced.

  • Marge (unregistered) in reply to Homer
    Homer:
    No TV and no beer make Homer something something...

    Go crazy?

  • Justin (unregistered)

    Where is the WTF exactly?

    Oh I see - the vendor is quite moronically actually asking the customer for their requirements, rather than making them up.

    That must be it... right?

  • Home (unregistered) in reply to Marge
    Marge:
    Homer:
    No TV and no beer make Homer something something...

    Go crazy?

    Don't mind if I do!!!

  • Brent (unregistered) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?

    I believe it's Buzzwordian for "presentation".

  • Bob the builder (unregistered)

    You see it's situations like this where I pop a few aspirin, and start updating my resume. It not only gets my mind off of the impending #%@storm I'm going to be required to clean up, but helps me focus on the good things I've done in the past year or so.

    Also, when the inevitable happens, I'm ready to get the heck out of dodge. A useful exercise all around.

  • Ramses So let it be written so let it be done (unregistered)

    Having been on both sides of the fence here is the mindsets.

    3rd Party: The customer never knows what they need and usually want something they don't need. We will build it the way they think they want it and then we can hit them with change orders when they realize what they want is not what they need but they will need something else to make the system work for them.

    In-House: We don't want know stinking 3rd party developers coming in here and building something for us. Pay me $250/hr and I can build exactly what we need. We know our systems way better then they ever will and they will only give us about 80% of what we need.

    I got your something right here!!!!

  • d.k. Allen (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?

    Profit!

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Anonymous:
    So is part 2 tomorrow or what? It was just starting to get good, what happened next?

    Actually, at a high level, I was hoping you knew what happened next.

    I think we've all lived through "what happens next."
  • facilisis (unregistered) in reply to Justin
    Justin:
    Where is the WTF exactly?

    Oh I see - the vendor is quite moronically actually asking the customer for their requirements, rather than making them up.

    That must be it... right?

    For $250 an hour, the vendor should tell me what my requirements are.

  • (cs) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?

    In finance, "presentment" is when something like a bill or a check is officially offered for approval, payment or redemption. In this case, presumable on 4/6 the contractor was going to give the company an official, 100% final, pay-this-up-front invoice.

  • Todd Lewis (unregistered) in reply to JamesQMurphy
    JamesQMurphy:
    Actually, I've seen it work that way, where the contractor is a close, personal friend of the director (or worse, a nephew).

    Yeah. I've always blamed my professional stagnation on the fact that none of my uncles/aunts is a director in a position to steer lucrative contracts my way.

    Fate sux.

  • (cs)
    I’m working on the functional requirements for the invoice presentment on 4/6 and here is what I’m thinking. The user will navigate to the Billing tab and as the page loads, “something” will “do something” to determine if the invoice is available for viewing. If it is available for viewing, then “something” will be available for the user to click on to display the invoice.

    Would you, at a high level, know what those somethings are?

    Sure.

    [image]
  • (cs) in reply to Marge
    Marge:
    Homer:
    No TV and no beer make Homer something something...

    Go crazy?

    Put the bat down, Margie. Margie? Give me the bat...

  • (cs) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?
    Sounds to me like a "WiPro-ism". The one that constantly drives me nuts is "upgradation". I think they teach it in school, because they all know it.
  • anonymous Slovak (unregistered)

    I immediately remmembered how Don LaFontaine ("that announcer guy from the movies") said "Payback!" in one commercial...

  • (cs) in reply to Robajob
    Robajob:
    WTF is a "presentment"?
    It's used for legal or financial transactions where most people would say "presentation".
  • Anonymously Yours (unregistered)

    Brillig! Seriously though, that vendor situation was pretty awful.

    I think the whole mess could have been avoided if Zach had cooked the virtual books a little. He could have probably gotten the cost of in-house down to $0/hr by pointing out the in-house team was going to get paid without regard to what project they were on. Of course, it could be argued the company might lose money because they couldn't sell IT's services externally, but that's when you include those $250/hr estimates. Make them for coordinating with the vendor and the estimated months of getting their product to do what it was supposed to do in the first place.

    The advantage he has here is that the in-house team has been estimated to be used for the product in both scenarios. As such, the temporary loss of IT resources can be reasonably argued to be a non-cost. If you bet the "making the vendor's product work" time will be higher, then it costs more to go with the vendor. An estimate of negative cost (more accurately, loss prevention) would have been a better sale for management.

    This estimation would only be dishonest if Zach failed to include his reasoning in regards to how he came up with a less-than-zero in-house cost of development. It would be even easier to make that argument if the company had had past troubles with a vendor failing to live up to all their sweet talk. Management might be a little more pliable upon being reminded of the last time IT was left cleaning up the mission-critical "something," missing the "some such" vital to aligning paradigms, instead of being available for making the company money.

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