The Gray Nature of Priorities

September 10, 2008
Add Comment

In my last post, I mentioned that I was finding myself a little overextended and needed to stop the blogging for a bit. I am in a little bit better shape now and have started getting things into a rhythm so I am going to slowly start ramping back up again. The decision to hold off, and now to gradually start writing again, is all about my personal priorities and the gray area that separates them.

My priorities, on paper, are pretty simple. My family always comes first – always. My career and job come second, blogging and the Java Users Group comes third, and other personal activities, such as woodturning, come last. While such a list appears pretty simple, there are always gray areas that situations fall into. For example, I thoroughly enjoy and look forward to the time I get to spend with my daughters and wife each night, however at times I have to forego that in order to work a last minute business critical issue or to host a JUG meeting. This is expected and the norm for almost everyone on the planet. Things come up and priorities sometimes shift. The thing that I always try to keep in mind is whether the opportunity cost of the shift makes the action worthwhile or not.

I recently went to visit with clients for a week. In this case the opportunity cost is that I miss out on a week of being with my family, my number one priority. This automatically means that the return from the action, the trip, must be higher to compensate for the opportunity cost. In this case it was. By making the trip I got to know our clients better and started to build report. In addition, I got immersed in the project and got moving much quicker than if I had skipped the trip. The ROI here is that I made the right move from a career standpoint – the customers will be better served, which will ultimately reflect well on me.

So I helped my number two priority but hurt my number one – how can I possibly compare the two when they are so distinct? Enter the gray area. The nature of priorities is that they are often interconnected. Since I am not independently wealthy, the success and comfort of my family is directly tied to my performance in my career. My career has a subtle but existent tie to blogging and the JUG. My personal activities determine my stress levels, which have a direct correlation on my job performance and family life.

Once we take this into account we can reanalyze the situation and see that while I did directly hurt my number one priority, my family, by taking the trip this was only in the short term. Because the potential of furthering my career has a direct impact on my family there is an indirect benefit that comes from me pursuing priority two, work, in lieu of priority one, family. Because my family is indirectly benefited by my other priority it made it acceptable in this case.

As another example, with this switch to a new role I felt that I was going to be strapped for time anyhow and something had to give. In this case blogging fell out because the return I get from it isn’t high enough to warrant skipping family time. Now that things are slowing and the dust is beginning to settle a bit I am slowly starting to reintroduce writing to my daily/weekly regiment. However, if a higher priority comes up it may very well fall out again.

Priorities are odd little beasts that invoke as much emotional response as they do logical. I guess the real goal at the end of each day is to be able to look back and see that you have acted in a way that it serves your priorities in the right order, either directly or indirectly.


A little tightly wound

August 26, 2008
2 Comments

I haven’t been writing near as much lately as I usually do. I have recently taken on a new role at work and am in the process of transitioning from the old role and into the new one. There is a ton to learn and it is all due yesterday so I have routinely found myself working 60ish hour weeks since I started and have simply not had much time to write (other than the 20 hours I spent in planes and airports last week).

I am committed to making this project work, which means that I need to continue to get a grasp on what I am taking over. That said, my posts will likely be sparse for the next few weeks until things settle down. I shall return…


The Creative Solution

August 23, 2008
Add Comment

Have you ever looked at a system, software design, or document and thought, “What the hell were they thinking?” If you said no then you are likely pretty new to software. If you’ve been around for more than one job you’ve likely seen things that will make you cringe. So the question is, if everyone realizes that the concepts are bad, how do they ever come into existence?

There are two reasons. The first is simple to explain: naivety. People that are new or simply “don’t get it” have a tendency to produce poor quality softare. This is the minor case because these people eventually learn the errors of their ways and learn to do it right. The other pimary cause is purely financial in nature.

When companies find themselves locked into a solution they no longer consider to be on par with their expectations they begin to find creative solutions to the problem. As an example, let’s look at the fictional companies of Western Paper Co. (WPC) and Eastern HR Corp (EHRC). WPC purchased the HR management software of EHRC a long, long time ago for way, way too much money. They were the only option at the time and they fit the needs of the organization. Over the years WPC has been approached by many other vendors that could handle the same things that EHRC could, for half the price. However, WPC found themseles entrenched in the applications and realized it was very expensive, time consuming, and difficult to move away from EHRC. So the fees continued.

A certain budget review was finally reached and WPC started tryng to figure out where the hell all of their budget was going. Oh, yeah: its EHRC. So they decide that they are going to limit the number of transactions that they are going to do with EHRC. The $500 data queries, the $5,000 onsite meetings, and the uber-expensive “training session” were all now suspect. Instead of paying $500 for each data query they began using macros to pull data from a human interaction (web, gui, etc.) application. Instead of upgrades to the software they started looking at “supplemental” products that would add to the main application without producing a lot of overhead but created much more system complexity. They began foregoing training and started to lack in best practices.

Why? Because the software they originally bought was too expensive. So how do they get out? Slowly.

Because the system is now entrenced within the core business it is no longer a simple matter of switching a software application. This is because the software now has business processes, departments, and budgets all built around it. These things, despite their intangible nature, are far more of a burden to migrate away from then the typical software application. This is why even bad companies (like EHRC) are able to maintain a profit with a bad product. At one time the bad product was “cutting edge” and sold. Then people got stuck.

In short, there is no silver bullet to get away from an inappropriate product. Only time will heal the wounds. However, the next time you see a questionable system, application, or document design think about the two ways that bad designs happen and ask if the solution was the best possible one given the situation. If not, condemnation is warranted. If so, then the entire organization should make it a top priority to move away from the sub-par solution in lieu of a better one.