I despise end users

[scaeagles]

I suppose I shouldn't let this bother me, as this type of stuff keeps me employed.

I manage the programming and design of a financial system for a division of a defense contractor.

The users ask for things. I give the users what they ask for. Exactly what they ask for. They look at what I've given them. They tell me it is exactly what they asked for, but not what they want. So I have to change it.

This happens over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

I just spent a few weeks giving them an expansion of a certain financial report. It is exactly what they asked for. Upon reviewing it, they decided they didn't need it after all.

I've had year long project going on changing their financial account structure across the system. Upon completing it in a test environment/database, with everything converted and hundreds of programs modified to accomodate what they asked for, they've decided they just don't like the new structure and are going to change it again.

I'm glad I am employed. It would just be freakin' nice if SOMETHING I did for them SOMETIME they would ACTUALLY USE instead of constantly CHANGING THE FREAKIN' TARGET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[DreadPirateRoberts]

Many times people don't know what they want until they see it. They may think they know what they want, but until they see it and can touch it, it's not real. It's an iterative process

Jobs like these are good to consult on, because they stay around a while. I hope it's not a fixed bid.

[Capt Jack]

I have no comforting words except...

yup.
you have my deepest empathies.

this one is on me :cheers:

[BarTopDancer]

I know exactally how you feel. Really. I do. It's the wonderful world of IT.

[Scrooge McSam]

Jobs like these are good to consult on, because they stay around a while.

How right you are! "Scope creep" paid my bills for a couple of years back in the early 90s.

[Moonliner]

Scaeagles:

In order to help you on this all we need to do is use a bit of predicate calculus. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predicate_logic)
Let's break down your comments into it's symbolic roots.





A A defense contractor.

B They tell me it is exactly what they asked for, but not what they want

C over and over

D they decided they didn't need it after all.



Using the basic rules of induction then it is clear that:

IF A THEN B,C,D is an immutable true statement.

You either have pocket the taxpayer dollars with a smile or
find a new line of work. Personally I went with the latter and never looked back.

[scaeagles]

Many times people don't know what they want until they see it. They may think they know what they want, but until they see it and can touch it, it's not real. It's an iterative process

Jobs like these are good to consult on, because they stay around a while. I hope it's not a fixed bid.

I could buy that, except there is a design review process where they make a request and I basically give them an excel spreadsheet with the layout/information as I understand they want it. Real work does not start until it is signed off on. This is the standard IT CYA way of working, as I can show them that yes, this is what they asked for should they ever complain.

I realize the iterative process part....like I said, it keeps me working. Which is why I shouldn't complain. But it gets beyond frustrating to solve problems for them that they decide later they don't need solved.

And thankfully, I work on a time and materials basis.

[scaeagles]

How right you are! "Scope creep" paid my bills for a couple of years back in the early 90s.

Scope creep....I can deal with scope creep. Deciding they don't want it or just completely changing the rules after a year long effort.....I guess I'm just having a bad day.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

I could buy that, except there is a design review process where they make a request and I basically give them an excel spreadsheet with the layout/information as I understand they want it. Real work does not start until it is signed off on. This is the standard IT CYA way of working, as I can show them that yes, this is what they asked for should they ever complain.

Sounds like you are giving them what they ask for, they just don't know what they want yet.

[scaeagles]

What you are saying is of course true......I'm just frustrated today.

[DreadPirateRoberts]

What you are saying is of course true......I'm just frustrated today.

All you can do is what they ask for, just so long as you did your best. They probably didn't hire you on because of your psychic abilities.

[Gemini Cricket]

You know what you need, Leo? A trip to Disneyland.

[BarTopDancer]

You know what you need, Leo? A trip to Disneyland.

I was thinking he needed a romantic evening with you, iSm, MBC and ML.

[scaeagles]

I was thinking he needed a romantic evening with you, iSm, MBC and ML.

Something tells me that wouldn't really help me relax much.

A vacation, though? Yes. I need a vacation.

[Motorboat Cruiser]

Something tells me that wouldn't really help me relax much.



Ye of such little faith.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

BTW scaeagles, the correct term for the people you are talking about is "luser", as in loser+user. :evil:

[BarTopDancer]

Ye of such little faith.

Ya, what he said!

[wendybeth]

Scaeagles, your OP made me think of Ponine's sig line:

"Originally Posted by scaeagles
I am a hamster. I have a shiny wheel in my cage. I run on it. I run hard. I don't get anywhere except back to the place I was before."

:cheers:Here ya go- it sounds like you could use this!.

[scaeagles]

Sadly, it applies to most areas of my life.

[wendybeth]

I think we can all say amen to that, Leo.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Speaking of lusers, I have to share. This just happened to me. I got an e-mail from an incoming student who said,they notified me that my email account was not activated and that I should contact someone to have that solved so they could contact me about my classes. Is there anything I need to do activate my account?Now the thing is, this was sent from her student e-mail account! If the account was inactive, how could she possibly send e-mail from it? :eek:

I can just imagine her having the following conversation:

Luser: Hi. I'm locked out of my apartment. Can you send someone up to let me in?
Landlord: Sure. Are you calling from a neighbor's apartment?
Luser: No. I'm calling from inside my apartment.
:rolleyes:

[wendybeth]

Lol, SM! Have you heard the "BlondeStar" faux-ad? It's along a similar vein....:D

[alphabassettgrrl]

Stupid never fails to amaze and occasionally amuse me.

I'm sorry your end users have no idea what they want. I know most people have *no* idea what their modification entails. No idea what other things need to be changed in order to accomodate them.

[tracilicious]

Something tells me that wouldn't really help me relax much.



You're most likely quite right. I'm sure you'd feel more invigorated than relaxed. :evil:

[Kevy Baby]

I work in the printing business.

On a typical color print job, the client will often come in to do a press check. This is where they can make adjustments to the color to get precisely what they want. They sign off on what they finally decide upon.

What is a very common occurance is that the client will make one adjustment, then another, then another and finally end up back where they started.

They will see several different variations but eventually sign off on the equivalent of what was originally shown them.

[scaeagles]

KB, I completely understand.

I always preserve what I orginally did for them and often times it comes back to exactly what I gave them the first time around.

[BarTopDancer]

Lol, SM! Have you heard the "BlondeStar" faux-ad? It's along a similar vein....:D

BlondStar (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpxCOBUSsWE)

[BarTopDancer]

My luser experiences are amusing and never-ending.

For those of you who don't know, I work in the local search industry. One of the things I do is sort through the feedback for our site. It is a regular occurance for users to email us thinking they are emailing a business instead (and we have no idea how they are thinking that).

One of the biggest lusers I have ever seen sent us an email thinking we were a specific company. The email was seriously long and was reaming them for a late train, lost luggage and a bunch of other stuff. It went on to threaten legal action if they don't reimburse the ticket. Now, every email receives an automated responce thanking the user for contacing [company name], we'll look into the issue and due to the large amount of email we receive we are unable to reply.

Now for some reason people can't figure out that the words "we are unable to reply" mean "we're not going to write you back" and this person took it to a whole new level. She thought that we were the company (nowhere on our website does it say we are any company other than our own) and said if we (they) don't reply in 24 hours she was going to sue us while dropping the name of her lawyer husband. So I sent her another form email that says thank you for contacting [company], we are a local search engine and we are unable to send your request to the company, please contact them directly.

She replied again and demanded the email to the company she was trying to reach. Sorry, not happening sister. Learn to use google or get off the internet.

[SzczerbiakManiac]

Lol, SM! Have you heard the "BlondeStar" faux-ad? I have—it's brilliant!

[scaeagles]

Another thing killing me recently about "lusers" is their inability to determine if what is on the reports I furnish to them is calculating accurately because they can't remember what he calculations are supposed to be, or can't do simple math, and then claim it doesn't work.

A certain government billing form has a somewhat complex fee structure based on a few variables that alter the algorythms. There are about 15 different ways a certain fee can be calculated because of this. They are too friggin' stupid to figure out that it is working correctly on an individual basis because they are to friggin' lazy to research data as loaded on the contracts.

So I recently had to go through around 4000 contracts to find examples of each way the fee could be calculated and prove to them that each way possible was working correctly. Upon receiving my analysis, all I get is an "Oh, yeah. I guess it does work."

AAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHH HHH!!!!!!!!