• (nodebb)

    In $frist we trust.

  • Roger (unregistered)

    I didn't expected we ran down of WTFs so fast.

  • my name is missing (unregistered)

    Processes always expand to fill the known universe - Anonymous

  • (nodebb)

    Unintended, yet easily predictable consequences --- Why are they so common??? [rhetorical]

  • What? I'm not giving you my name. (unregistered)

    I hope you are proud of what you started. Without your precious documentation nobody would be able to take the level of WTF a step further. Good job snoofle! Keep it up!

  • Colin (unregistered)

    I have worked in many, many places. More manual steps are seemingly always the solution to complicated problems.

  • Chronomium (unregistered)

    To be fair, back then trust in computers was probably not very high. Perhaps among the low-level workers who actually work with them, and the high-level CXOs that do their research properly, but not among the middle managers who assume that if a person already can't do something properly, how can a box of switches do any better?

  • Chronomium (unregistered)

    That said having a wall of post-its is far more satisfying than just drawing them out on a screen. A few pages of printed-out boxes doesn't compare to a large panel of data that you can point your whole arm at.

  • siciac (unregistered) in reply to Colin

    You'll often get managers pushing for a manual solution because it's something their staff can do. If the solution is solved by another team like an IT team, not only is the manager not credited with solving the problem, but if the other team screws up he's holding the bag.

  • Bruce W (unregistered)

    More manual is more better!

  • (nodebb) in reply to Bruce W
    <quote> More manual is more better! </quote>

    More manual is more job security!

  • Sure, Not (unregistered)

    A lot of times managers push for manual processes and solutions because IT takes ages to fix complex issues and managers have to deal with corrupted data every day. And once problem is seemingly "fixed", IT will assign a low priority to fixing it until new problems crop up and then managers will implement more manual processes which will fix the immediate problem, causing IT to de-prioritize new problem again until..........

  • operagost (unregistered)

    What's the problem? This is how we're supposed to use government, right? If tons of regulation and laws don't solve a problem, obviously we need more laws and regulation.

  • I Am A Robot (unregistered)

    Manual solutions are fine as long as they're followed.

  • Sole Purpose of Visit (unregistered) in reply to operagost

    That's, um, not how laws and regulations work. (Although there are far too many of either.)

    As presented, and I believe it because I've worked with large financial institutions, the problem is not that extra (possibly futile) requirements are poured on. And it's not that more and more "corner cases" (in this case, manual errors) are identified and added to the process.

    The problem is that (in this case) nobody is prepared to accept a simple diagram put in front of them that explains the paths where "here be dragons" occur. They won't accept it, because it doesn't fit into their (manual) process. But I would claim (with said financial institution experience) that it doesn't actually matter whether the experience is manual process or purely computational process -- either way, you are dealing with imbeciles in charge of the process.

    People don't won Process. Process owns People.

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered)

    At which point in the post-it flow chart did the decision tree reference the post-it flow chart?

  • Chronomium (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann

    Between every single pair of steps, you need a box that says "look at flowchart to figure out what the next step is".

  • (nodebb) in reply to siciac

    More, if the other team solves the problem and the manager's team is no longer needed, it may be disbanded and then the manager will have to find another team somewhere that could do with being managed. To avoid that hazard, the team's purpose has to remain.

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