Re: Senior Developer looking for your asst in employmt issue (not job seeking!)

From: BJ Freeman (Newsgroup_at_newsgroup.news)
Date: 05/08/04 

Date: Sat, 8 May 2004 13:45:50 -0700

I am looking to augment manpower for SQL 7 server and ADP. only Stored
procedure used in ADP.

We will eventually be converting to

postgresql and Java interface.

email me if you interested.

"Timo" <timo@noneofyer.biz> wrote in message
news:MPG.1b069282f18a94d19896f4@msnews.microsoft.com...
> Xavier,
> In light of your boss's instructions to you to use "a Microsoft
> tool" and his express desire to get "rid" of the Access
> application, his bringing in FileMaker Pro's putative RAD
> capabilities and his own skills with that tool as evidence of your
> alleged incompetence is both irrelevant and unfair. FileMaker is
> not a Microsoft tool. And what are the Microsoft counterparts to
> FileMaker Pro? Access and FoxPro.
>
> Where you seem to me to have miscalculated, is in thinking you
> could successfully convert in only 5 man-weeks (plus whatever
> overtime your were willing to work) a project of the described
> scope: 8 tabbed pages containing ~15 controls each, bound to a 40-
> table SQL Server database via undocumented client-side queries,
> where the original application apparently had bugs or was not
> functioning as expected. It could be that some of those queries
> were flawed and would require investigation. Was there any client-
> side enforcement of business rules? Was the server enforcing the
> referential integrity?
>
> Perhaps you would have had a slighly greater chance of timely
> success by converting the thing to Access ADP. That would have let
> you focus on the logic of the app without having to spend so much
> time on the custom databinding classes and presentation layer. But
> to begin to judge the situation really requires that we know if
> your boss wanted to get rid of Access entirely, or simply wanted
> to get rid of the problems arising from the original two-tiered
> client-side implementation, whatever those problems were.
>
> However, it's quite evident to me, from your description of the
> situation, that you are not an incompetent developer. If there is
> incompetency to be found in this situation, it is in the arbitrary
> deadline of 5 man-weeks to fix a broken application of this scope.
> Regards
> Timo
> P.S. I've been developing multi-user database applications since
> 1985 (shared CPU mainframe with dumb terminals, DOS shared-file
> networked apps, networked Access.MDB apps, Access ADP against SQL
> Server, VB 2-tier and 3-tier client-server apps against Oracle and
> SQL Server, and most recently .NET WinForms and ASP.NET. Also
> earning today only about 35% of what I earned throughout the
> 1990s.
>
> In article <eKQxY64MEHA.3348@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl>,
> suggestion@x2sw.com writes...
> >Community,
> >
> >I am dealing with a tough employment issue in which a supervisor - who is
> >not a developer - is insisting that I am incompetent as a basis for my
> >dismissal from a public entity (a California school district). Wondering
if
> >you'd mind sharing any thoughts you might have as a basis for my
argument?
> >There are no other developers in the midst who can substantiate what I
have
> >to say vs. my supervisor.
> >
> >I've been working professionally as a developer since 1993. I have
advanced
> >experience with Visual Basic versions 3 through 6, Access versions 1.1 to
> >2000, SQL Server versions 4 to 2000, the .NET platform, Sybase, ASP 3 and
4.
> >I have consulted for the United States Navy, Bankamerica Mortgage,
> >Neutrogena, express.com, SunAmerica. In 2000 I even marketed a shareware
> >product developed in VB, called Acidizer. I am no longer marketing or
even
> >distributing it, but there are still links for it all over the Web.
> >
> >I began employment in my current situation on June 25, 2003. Prior to
> >starting, I interviewed with my supervisor in April, who told me then
that
> >he had an Access application that he needed to rid himself of, and that
> >whichever new platform could be used wasn't important to him as long as
it
> >was a Microsoft tool and worked successfully.
> >
> >I learned immediately that this conversion project needed to take place
by
> >August 1, 2003 - a mere five weeks. As it turned out, it was an Access
> >front end linked to a SQL Server database. It was shared on the local
area
> >network by about twelve people. There were no written technical
> >specifications or user manual. The SQL Server database consisted of
about
> >forty tables with foreign key relationships.
> >
> >I proposed to rebuild the front end as an ASP.NET application, mainly to
> >reap in the benefits of a thin client. I sought to mirror the existing
> >design to lower the learning curve. The existing design consisted of one
> >form with a tab control containing several tab pages (maybe 8) and those
> >pages containing maybe 15 controls each, all data bound to ODBC linked
> >tables (this was not an Access ADP project) and a gaggle of slow-running
> >local queries. My liason for usability testing was a novice user in
another
> >department who still, at this point, had a lot of trouble understanding
> >things like data relationships.
> >
> >I made assurances to my supervisor to meet the deadline, sink or swim. I
> >set to meet my deadline by developing an ASP.NET object class to mirror
> >Access data binding. I developed ASP.NET containers and controls with
the
> >same properties and functions as the Access object model. Subforms!!!
> >Figured out ways to make data binding and error reporting work with so
many
> >controls and subforms in an ASP.NET page all at once.
> >
> >I didn't make the deadline, despite working plenty of unpaid overtime. I
> >hadn't had much time to understand how the current application was used -
> >basically, the users were used to having eight full tabs of data
available
> >to them at all times without any refreshing, and I couldn't incorporate
this
> >into a web interface without lots of changes. About three weeks later, I
> >ended up just stabilizing the Access application (after all that) and
it's
> >been purring ever since.
> >
> >My questions, if you please:
> >
> >1) Could this have been accomplished using any Microsoft development
> >platform in just five weeks, without me having any familiarity with the
user
> >base, the data relationships on the back end, the idiosyncracies of the
> >front end; also short of testing, training, and user acceptance?
> >
> >2) My supervisor's experience is in network technologies and not
> >development. He's a director, but has limited management training and no
> >exposure to the "developer community." What is the likelihood that he
could
> >really understand the ramifications of converting (porting) a
client-server
> >application?
> >
> >3) My supervisor has offered that he could have re-built the entire
> >application -by himself - in Filemaker Pro over the course of a weekend.
> >Based on what you've read, what would be the likelihood of such, even for
an
> >experienced developer?
> >
> >4) Did I act in good faith, or would you say that I am incompetent?
> >
> >If you choose to give your frank response, please share a name and
telephone
> >number if that's okay. I just want to make sure that management knows
that
> >there are real people connected to my evidence.
> >
> >Thanks and best wishes. My hearing's on May 13, 2004.
> >
> >
> >Xavier Jefferson
> >Hit reply, or respond to [x](a)[v]{i}(e)[r]{j} at yahoo.dot.com
> >
> >
> >

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