time reporting systems

[Mich the Tester]

Why are they all so cack?

[deano]

Why are they all so cack?

Because they are written for business bean counters by IT professionals who hate business bean counters.

[ThomasSoerensen]

Why are they all so cack?

they were made by contractors who wanted them to be overly complicated in order to make a small project into a big project - perhaps?

[ratewhore]

Mines great. Quick email to the client contact saying 'I'm billing x days'. Then he sends one back saying 'OK'.

[Mich the Tester]

Mines great. Quick email to the client contact saying 'I'm billing x days'. Then he sends one back saying 'OK'.

please name ClientCo and ask him if he wants a tester.

[bobhope]

My theory is that the writers of time reporting systems hate people. Perhaps they were badly treated as children, who knows.

"I know, let's force the user to enter each day on separate web page, make them hit enter, then hit another button to go to the next page."

"Oh, and let's host everything on an old Pentium 1 machine somewhere"

[DiscoStu]

please name ClientCo and ask him if he wants a tester.

+1

[Purple Dalek]

Why are they all so cack?

5 different ones here, for extra giggles 2 start the week on a Sunday and the other 3 on a Monday, and just for the extra fun 2 are directly tied into the project planning systems, 1 of that pair and another one go to the HR, and 2 and a combo go to accounts, one weekly, one monthly and some weirdness that obeys dates, not days or weeks for quarters.

There are three spread-sheets for translating project names and codes across the various systems. These are maintained on an ad-hoc basis so are often out of date, such that the current work package is not listed, and older ones are just wrong.

Invariably nothing adds up, and so managers start swapping stuff about, by altering peoples registrations. The next month some functionary sends a snotty emails about booking to the wrong projects where for tulips and giggles one can point out you don't even have an account on that project so there is no way you could have booked time to it. They'll then have a series of meetings ...

[Purple Dalek]

My theory is that the writers of time reporting systems hate people.

"Oh, and let's host everything on an old Pentium 1 machine somewhere"

Yes, and one of them here really is on an old laptop with a dead screen in a cupboard, which gets unplugged by the cleaners every so often and no one notices until its battery goes flat sometime later.

[Drewster]

Why are they all so cack?

Because although bean counters, HR and other oxygen wasters like to spout on that they (and thier proceses, procedures and time wasting/management tools) are crucial to the business - in reality no body really gives a toss........... and the bean counters etc KNOW they are worthless so don't want to draw attention to it by having anyone really look at whats going on........