technical experts

[DodgyAgent]

These people worry me. I took one to a meeting a couple of days ago and having spoken to him prior to the meeting I realised there was going to be a problem. These people love to trash what has been done previously and openly criticise poor decisions in the past. The PM I went to see was not responsible for the mess that she had to deal with she just wanted a solution to the problem.
She did not need an "expert" to tell her how bad the problem was and that wrong decisions had been made.
despite attempts to "move him on" I could see he was irritating the client.

In the end they both agreed that the best solution was to start again - something she had assumed anyway.

I have seen it so many times from contractors over the years I should not have gone there.

If any of you regard yourselves as technical experts I strongly suggest you focus on solutions rather than criticising what has gone on before. These people are a rare commodity in all walks of life from fixing dishwashers, to talking about climate change to politics.

 

[eek]

Why should I offer solutions. The only thing I want from the initial meeting is what they perceive is wrong or needs to be improved so I have time to identify means of solving their perceived problems.

Preferably with a couple of quick wins followed by an expensive long piece of work.

 

[vetran]

'that was then, this is now' said firmly by a senior manager is sometimes useful.

i.e. STFU and do something about fixing it in the new version.

Surprised how unsubtle some people can be, frequently for situations which are a complete horlicks very important people were involved in setting them up.

As I said to a colleague earlier in the week "VP X mandated this, I'm not going to argue with him,just try to lessen the pain".

 

[DodgyAgent]

Why should I offer solutions. The only thing I want from the initial meeting is what they perceive is wrong or needs to be improved so I have time to identify means of solving their perceived problems.

Preferably with a couple of quick wins followed by an expensive long piece of work.

It is a fair comment but what was wanted was to outline a solution and how we would go about it. The fact is that we can actually patch up and repair two thirds of the problem and replace the other third of the system, again something we can do ourselves. It is the latter part that is important we already know that whoever implemented/designed and maintained the existing system was wrong. The client knew that and so did the PM we didn't need a f**king technical expert to spend the entire meeting sucking in breath and shaking his head.

 

[stek]

If I've learned one thing over many years contracting it's not to rubbish the current systems, you're bound to upset someone if you do.

 

[DodgyAgent]

'that was then, this is now' said firmly by a senior manager is sometimes useful.

i.e. STFU and do something about fixing it in the new version.

Surprised how unsubtle some people can be, frequently for situations which are a complete horlicks very important people were involved in setting them up.

As I said to a colleague earlier in the week "VP X mandated this, I'm not going to argue with him,just try to lessen the pain".

Vetran the job is yours!

 

[suityou01]

Vetran the job is yours!

No. You need Suity.

HTH.


Sent from my iMinion using Tapatalk

 

[eek]

If I've learned one thing over many years contracting it's not to rubbish the current systems, you're bound to upset someone if you do.

Yep, never insult a system in front of a developer, always the users /process.

Never insult the process in front of anyone else, you just need to change the system to ensure it fully reflects it.

 

[cojak]

'that was then, this is now' said firmly by a senior manager is sometimes useful.

i.e. STFU and do something about fixing it in the new version.

Surprised how unsubtle some people can be, frequently for situations which are a complete horlicks very important people were involved in setting them up.

As I said to a colleague earlier in the week "VP X mandated this, I'm not going to argue with him,just try to lessen the pain".

And as I replied to the Upstart Contractor in my first week - "There are probably valid business reasons for not following 'best practice' (have you asked?), and I like this contract - I have no intention of being terminated...".

 

[darmstadt]

It is a fair comment but what was wanted was to outline a solution and how we would go about it. The fact is that we can actually patch up and repair two thirds of the problem and replace the other third of the system, again something we can do ourselves. It is the latter part that is important we already know that whoever implemented/designed and maintained the existing system was wrong. The client knew that and so did the PM we didn't need a f**king technical expert to spend the entire meeting sucking in breath and shaking his head.

Possibly your fault. I noticed the royal 'we' which means that you already knew about this and should have discussed this previously with your techincal expert...