Are the posted questions getting worse?

  • Alvin Ramard (11/29/2010)


    It's time for the business owners to try and figure out what they forgot in the requirements.

    What requirements?

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
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  • GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    Alvin Ramard (11/29/2010)


    It's time for the business owners to try and figure out what they forgot in the requirements.

    What requirements?

    Shame. Have you two forgotten this is a family-friendly forum?

    Quit using dirty words like req... req... Oh, I just can't say it!

    Brandie Tarvin, MCITP Database AdministratorLiveJournal Blog: http://brandietarvin.livejournal.com/[/url]On LinkedIn!, Google+, and Twitter.Freelance Writer: ShadowrunLatchkeys: Nevermore, Latchkeys: The Bootleg War, and Latchkeys: Roscoes in the Night are now available on Nook and Kindle.

  • Brandie Tarvin (11/29/2010)


    GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    Alvin Ramard (11/29/2010)


    It's time for the business owners to try and figure out what they forgot in the requirements.

    What requirements?

    Shame. Have you two forgotten this is a family-friendly forum?

    Quit using dirty words like req... req... Oh, I just can't say it!

    I'll finish it for you:

    WIRE MINTS

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
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  • GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    Alvin Ramard (11/29/2010)


    It's time for the business owners to try and figure out what they forgot in the requirements.

    What requirements?

    I guess that means they forgot a whole lot!



    Alvin Ramard
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  • Steve Jones - SSC Editor (11/29/2010)


    For e-comm, holidays don't make sense, and maybe not weekends. My point is more that the downtime is the time to do deployments, though often that doesn't match up with traditional work hours.

    My previous jobs have had:

    1. Wed night deployments, every week.

    2. Friday night deployments, once a month. Actually twice. Once for test systems, once for prod.

    3. Sat night, 11pm to 5am Sun, once a quarter.

    IT and business have always had a push/pull relationship, but I've rarely, if ever, been a fan of maintenance/regular deployments being done in non-business hours. I realize impact to business is high if anything goes sideways, but finding out the next morning, or Monday, something went wrong always stinks.

    Major deployments, yes, off to the weekend. Regular maintenance deployments? No, they shouldn't need to be. Under most circumstances these deployments should take an hour, two at most, if you're prepped properly. That's a lunch hour, maybe with a little left over. There's usually no reason to overwork your IT staff because the rest of business doesn't want to be inconvenienced.

    I regularly ask in interviews when they deploy. If the answer is 'only Saturdays', I'll move on. I have a life, the company I work for isn't allowed to eat it unless it's an emergency. Especially as Steve mentioned above, for a QA/Test system. IT needs to work the *occassional* weekend, when that rare and horrible thing happens. Server busts, massive back end switch, you name it. To expect it regularly means you just make my workweek Tuesday through Saturday and call it even.


    - Craig Farrell

    Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.

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  • Side note, I live in a desert, in a place called 'Valley of the Sun'.

    Global warming my arse. I think I just frosted my toes off having a smoke.

    http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=phoenix+weather&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=567204dc07534ddc


    - Craig Farrell

    Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.

    For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
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  • GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    Grant Fritchey (11/29/2010)


    GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    Greg Edwards-268690 (11/29/2010)


    Maybe they want to add some new enhancements.

    Nope. No new enhancements. I think that a Dec go-live interferes with vacation plans

    Exactly! I regularly have to remind our local project managers, "Uhm, do you really think trying to release on December 23rd is a good idea? Will you be available if there's an outage on the 24th?" Same thing with almost any other holiday too, but it's especially surprising at Yule.

    In this case is was supposed to be 1st December. I would certainly have been available if there had been a problem.

    At the bank we used to have a full system freeze (NOTHING changed) from 16 December through to the 2nd week of January.

    A couple jobs ago we had really tight change mangement. All the programming was done in China and the PM's were chineese speakers who worked directly with the business to get requirements and with the programmers on their part. Not only did they freeze development and go live for the Christmas period they would also freeze it for chineese national holidays and for the week around the chineese new year.

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  • Craig Farrell (11/29/2010)


    Side note, I live in a desert, in a place called 'Valley of the Sun'.

    Global warming my arse. I think I just frosted my toes off having a smoke.

    http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=phoenix+weather&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=567204dc07534ddc

    I'm in the 'Valley of the Sun' as well... I'm actually using my jacket.

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  • Craig Farrell (11/29/2010)


    Side note, I live in a desert, in a place called 'Valley of the Sun'.

    Global warming my arse. I think I just frosted my toes off having a smoke.

    http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=phoenix+weather&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=567204dc07534ddc

    Sunny and 56? That's a nice spring day, what're you complaining about?

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  • jcrawf02 (11/29/2010)


    Craig Farrell (11/29/2010)


    Side note, I live in a desert, in a place called 'Valley of the Sun'.

    Global warming my arse. I think I just frosted my toes off having a smoke.

    http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&hl=en&q=phoenix+weather&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&pbx=1&fp=567204dc07534ddc

    Sunny and 56? That's a nice spring day, what're you complaining about?

    It's fall and summers are ~115 degrees. Dangit, that is not a nice spring day to us here. 😀

    That's also in the sun with no wind. Feels around 45 degrees.


    - Craig Farrell

    Never stop learning, even if it hurts. Ego bruises are practically mandatory as you learn unless you've never risked enough to make a mistake.

    For better assistance in answering your questions[/url] | Forum Netiquette
    For index/tuning help, follow these directions.[/url] |Tally Tables[/url]

    Twitter: @AnyWayDBA

  • Craig Farrell (11/29/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (11/29/2010)


    GilaMonster (11/29/2010)


    In other news...

    The project from hell (the one that I spent evenings, nights and weekends on to try and meet impossible deadlines) has had the go-live date pushed out from beginning Dec to early January (by the business owner). Why? No reason, just because.

    Sounds like an excellent reason.

    "Sir, we're screwed, the contractor was right!"

    "Well, under all that's holy don't let THEM know that, peon!"

    "Of course sir, we've made it a 'vague managemental decision'."

    "Good peon. Back to the pits."

    I nearly choked, and had people staring at me when I read this!!! ROFLMAO!!!

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  • CirquedeSQLeil (11/29/2010)


    On the flip-side, I see your point and think that weekends are the times for doing deployments. Less impact to the business and make sure we have people to support the deployment.

    Trouble with that is that maybe weekends are very short: with deployment to customers in different time zones (12 hours apart) and in places where "weekend" is Friday+Saturday as well as places where it's Saturday+Sunday what's left of weekend is at most 12 hours long, maybe only 5 hours (because some people have sunset to sunset days, not midnight to midnight; and when the customers operate 24/7 anyway (although 03:30 to 05:30 and 10:30 to 12:00 maybe tend to be slack times) deployment absolutely has to be planned very very carefully.

    Tom

  • Tom.Thomson (11/29/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (11/29/2010)


    On the flip-side, I see your point and think that weekends are the times for doing deployments. Less impact to the business and make sure we have people to support the deployment.

    Trouble with that is that maybe weekends are very short: with deployment to customers in different time zones (12 hours apart) and in places where "weekend" is Friday+Saturday as well as places where it's Saturday+Sunday what's left of weekend is at most 12 hours long, maybe only 5 hours (because some people have sunset to sunset days, not midnight to midnight; and when the customers operate 24/7 anyway (although 03:30 to 05:30 and 10:30 to 12:00 maybe tend to be slack times) deployment absolutely has to be planned very very carefully.

    An unplanned deployment should not happen. A poorly planned deployment should not happen. They happen anyway, but they most certainly should be tightly planned. Have contingencies and a rollback planned as well.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
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    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
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  • WayneS (11/29/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (11/29/2010)


    On the flip-side, I see your point and think that weekends are the times for doing deployments. Less impact to the business and make sure we have people to support the deployment.

    And compensate those working with equivalent comp time during the week prior/after.

    Heh... now THERE's a thought. Just imagine how much better managers would plan if the folks in IT were paid (drum roll, please)... HOURLY!

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  • Jeff Moden (11/29/2010)


    WayneS (11/29/2010)


    CirquedeSQLeil (11/29/2010)


    On the flip-side, I see your point and think that weekends are the times for doing deployments. Less impact to the business and make sure we have people to support the deployment.

    And compensate those working with equivalent comp time during the week prior/after.

    Heh... now THERE's a thought. Just imagine how much better managers would plan if the folks in IT were paid (drum roll, please)... HOURLY!

    You have me slobbering over that. Paid hourly would be good for my pocketbook.

    Jason...AKA CirqueDeSQLeil
    _______________________________________________
    I have given a name to my pain...MCM SQL Server, MVP
    SQL RNNR
    Posting Performance Based Questions - Gail Shaw[/url]
    Learn Extended Events

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