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May 12Batch of Trouble
by in Feature Articles on 2012-06-06Ben had already been with the University for a few years when Dave joined the team. At some point during the interview process, Dave reached the conclusion that he was here to modernize the team. As a result, he started on a Tuesday, and by Wednesday was telling everyone how he would do their job.
Dave strutted from desk to desk, playacting the highly-paid consultant. In reality, he was here to take over the student enrollment system from Ben. Ben had inherited it from Carl, who had inherited it from Bob. A whole chapter of begats was required to trace the roots of the system. It was mostly implemented in simple batch scripts, and it mostly was driven by simple text or CSV files. It wasn't a terribly pretty system, but it did have a few very important features:
- It worked.
- It didn't require much maintenance.
- It was thoroughly documented and well understood by the support team.