Comment Re:Let me answer from the opposing view... (Score 1) 648
I've been in both camps... I was worn out from engineering after college and, since I'd liked the programming I'd done before, I took a job as an 'apprentice programer' of sorts.
PART I: Heaven
I was part of a Production (as in making products) Development/Support team for that manufacturing company with root to everything including the oracle databases. We were separate from IT... who supported PC's network email remote login etc.
Of course, I was part of a team and I had to earn my priviliges. Being efficient, helpful, and solving problems while rarely messing up (I think I had one program core dump in the wild in two years, and it was early on, but since the team built a really robust structure it cost us nothing... phew)
I was happy because I could develop whatever tools were needed, create whatever accounts, database schemas, cgi, custom servers... everything that was needed to get the job done! And more importantly everything to get it done QUICKLY!
Code was available to review and borrow from by anyone, no one was breathing down your back... the only thing the whole team was always involved in was testing at the various stages of each project.
Then I evolved to a role as an engineer/programmer. I was to do a bit of both. This was PERFECT because I would try to do new engineering things... and then I would write applications that would solve that problem not just for me, but for all the other engineers. This was insanely useful: I was a bridge between the more sophisticated developpers and the more sophisticated engineers, and most of the time I could do it all by myself because I still had root whenever I needed it!!! If I needed something from someone I would speak to them in their language and this made things so much easier... Those were the best of times.
PART II: HELL
I've built database-backed analysis and reporting engines. I've built multi-tiered fault-tolerant test-and-measurement database storage and comm. systems...
Now I am a new company that desperately needs this. But the problem is that I have the IMFH (I.T. MANAGER FROM HELL!)
He owns the servers, the databases, the workstations, the network and the phone system.
He insists on owning everything that is IT related so that all the servers are his... He insist on doing the project with his team, even though they have never done this before, don't know the first thing about manufacturing and don't see the point of giving anyone access to the databases (that he insists that he own).
I see it from his perspective... if anything goes wrong he'll get the blame... he gets no praise if things work as usual. Also, the hassle of having your guys waste their time figuring some installation problem for ONE person who just wants to demo an app they might not even use may be annoying.
The PROBLEM is that a SIMPLE project takes 15 TIMES longer to do...
EVEN WORSE... a COMPLEX project is IMPOSSIBLE TO DO because people would eventually quit from all the aggravation.
I have been on the verge of quitting because of this guy, my productivity is concentrated around solutions that will not involve IT at all even if it means a 'crappier' solution... like an Access
app on the network talking to a database over ODBC ACTING like a web-front-end with some server-side tools/libraries to simplify common reports...
All this because of Paranoia and empire-building... IMFH's are an enemy to productivity!
-wunder
PART I: Heaven
I was part of a Production (as in making products) Development/Support team for that manufacturing company with root to everything including the oracle databases. We were separate from IT... who supported PC's network email remote login etc.
Of course, I was part of a team and I had to earn my priviliges. Being efficient, helpful, and solving problems while rarely messing up (I think I had one program core dump in the wild in two years, and it was early on, but since the team built a really robust structure it cost us nothing... phew)
I was happy because I could develop whatever tools were needed, create whatever accounts, database schemas, cgi, custom servers... everything that was needed to get the job done! And more importantly everything to get it done QUICKLY!
Code was available to review and borrow from by anyone, no one was breathing down your back... the only thing the whole team was always involved in was testing at the various stages of each project.
Then I evolved to a role as an engineer/programmer. I was to do a bit of both. This was PERFECT because I would try to do new engineering things... and then I would write applications that would solve that problem not just for me, but for all the other engineers. This was insanely useful: I was a bridge between the more sophisticated developpers and the more sophisticated engineers, and most of the time I could do it all by myself because I still had root whenever I needed it!!! If I needed something from someone I would speak to them in their language and this made things so much easier... Those were the best of times.
PART II: HELL
I've built database-backed analysis and reporting engines. I've built multi-tiered fault-tolerant test-and-measurement database storage and comm. systems...
Now I am a new company that desperately needs this. But the problem is that I have the IMFH (I.T. MANAGER FROM HELL!)
He owns the servers, the databases, the workstations, the network and the phone system.
He insists on owning everything that is IT related so that all the servers are his... He insist on doing the project with his team, even though they have never done this before, don't know the first thing about manufacturing and don't see the point of giving anyone access to the databases (that he insists that he own).
I see it from his perspective... if anything goes wrong he'll get the blame... he gets no praise if things work as usual. Also, the hassle of having your guys waste their time figuring some installation problem for ONE person who just wants to demo an app they might not even use may be annoying.
The PROBLEM is that a SIMPLE project takes 15 TIMES longer to do...
EVEN WORSE... a COMPLEX project is IMPOSSIBLE TO DO because people would eventually quit from all the aggravation.
I have been on the verge of quitting because of this guy, my productivity is concentrated around solutions that will not involve IT at all even if it means a 'crappier' solution... like an Access
app on the network talking to a database over ODBC ACTING like a web-front-end with some server-side tools/libraries to simplify common reports...
All this because of Paranoia and empire-building... IMFH's are an enemy to productivity!
-wunder
