I’ve worked with some pretty rotten software, but management software is easily the most user unfriendly, so my vote goes to HPSM.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    48
    edit-2
    8 months ago

    You know, in a lot of situations, when someone says “the worst part”, it’s not actually the worst part.

    When you use it, it really is the worst part, by far…

    • Admiral Patrick
      link
      fedilink
      English
      47
      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Ha, indeed. To elaborate on that part:

      He made this demo he was so proud of. Watching it interactively, it was like 70 steps of “move mouse {X,Y}, click, copy, etc”. I could literally hear Yakkety Sax in my head as I watched it bumble through.

      After that, I went back to my office and wrote a 30 line Python script that accomplished the same thing, only sanely and with the ability to handle errors. He preferred his method since “it’s easier for our non-technical folks to automate their stuff this way”.

      That was the exact moment I started looking for a new job.

      • Natanael
        link
        fedilink
        108 months ago

        Non tech people should ALWAYS ask the support team when they need help automating IT stuff for precisely this reason.

        • Admiral Patrick
          link
          fedilink
          English
          48 months ago

          Exactly that. When building a load-bearing business process, it’s always critical that the person writing it knows what they’re doing.

      • @tool
        link
        English
        38 months ago

        Before I replace it with something that won’t catastrophically collapse when the wind blows the wrong way, I get some sort of sick satisfaction out of doing autopsies on the house-built-of-matchsticks “solutions” that users come up with and I don’t know why. Some of them are truly fascinating and make you wonder how someone could possibly arrive at that conclusion based on what they were actually try to achieve.

        It’s also why if I’m asked to implement something, my first question isn’t “When does this need to be done?,” it’s “What exactly is the problem you’re trying to solve?”

        What a user asks for and what they actually need very rarely intersect.

        • Admiral Patrick
          link
          fedilink
          English
          28 months ago

          I wish I could hire you and a couple other people who replied to this lol. “Match stick architecture” is definitely something we have and I have been trying to shore up / replace for years.

          • @tool
            link
            English
            27 months ago

            Sorry, I missed this comment. I actually love doing that kind of shit, I get some sort of weird pleasure out of fixing chaotic stuff like that. That tends to be my role almost all the time; I’ll come in, stay a few years, fix everything and get bored, and then move on somewhere else to do it again.

            My current job is the only place that I haven’t done that, because it’s probably the best company that I’ve ever worked for.