The Value of Code
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Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Value of Code
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From the article...
Now is the beginning of an era where we will have tremendous influence in helping change the way business works.That's about the only thing in the that fine article that I disagree with. I worked with my first desktop business computer circa 1980. It was an HP 2647A with dual cassette tape drives. One of the things it did VERY well (remember that was 34 years ago) was to draw charts from data and it could also be programmed. It even had a kind of programmable (via an HP version of BASIC) interface and I did things like make it possible to have it draw WBSs and material/process flows on the "white side" of Green Bar paper. That single computer made a huge difference because now people could see trends easily instead of having to break out the ol' graph paper, they could see trends, could analyze the structure of a WBS without having to scribble a section out on a piece of paper, and they could post complicated material and process flows on the manufacturing floor without having to wait weeks for a team of draftsmen to do their magic. Quick turnaround on changes also helped a huge amount.
Before that was the ol' Green Bar reports and even those made a huge difference back in their time.
On board my submarine (middles '70s), my hand held, 100 command programmable scientific calculator made all the difference in the world. Long before they came out with ray-path trace equipment, I was able to plot out near, medium, and very long distance ray-path traces that told us a whole bunch of things that I still can't talk about. Prior to that, no one ever did them because they didn't even know what they were never mind how long it would have taken them to calculate to plot (I did learn to love 18" wide, 6' long graph paper! I STILL have a roll of it left for very special projects.)
People who have worked with and understood whatever technology was/is available at the time have always and will continue to "have tremendous influence in helping change the way business works". The only thing that really changes over time is the amount of data, the speed of throughput (thanks to tools available or built), and the rate of change.
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
Jeff Moden (12/1/2014)
......The only thing that really changes over time is the amount of data, the speed of throughput (thanks to tools available or built), and the rate of change.The other thing is my growing scepticism, and my growing belief that Scott Adams has been seen in the building with a sketch book
The same silly mistakes are being made year-in, year-out. Each few years the new kids on the block find the same old poor technique and claim that it will save months off a project. And too many of the older developers become bored with learning yet another new tool that does the same thing. Old system still dont get replaced and hold back the rest of development.
Other than on their marketing I don't know of too many forward looking companies that are still in business.
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Sorry if you've all read this one, think it may have been posted before, but it is relevant to this editorial.
http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2014/11/15/WeRuleTheWorld.html
Do we rule the world? Well, kind of, but not really while we still want pay cheques I guess.
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I hold hope that what I do and have done has been for the benefit of the company that it was done for.
Technology has been a driving force of our species since we started making tools. There have been many hiccups along the way and there will continue to be so.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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I had that in mind while reading this morning article:
Not exactly right on the article but I guess you understand the point, whatever the situation.
(Image taken from : https://www.sqlservercentral/Forums/Uploads/Images/1640668-1.jpg)
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Megistal (12/2/2014)
I had that in mind while reading this morning article:
Not exactly right on the article but I guess you understand the point, whatever the situation.
(Image taken from : https://www.sqlservercentral/Forums/Uploads/Images/1640697-1.jpg)
There is one more arrow and note needed at the very top of the blue line. "Asks geek for script" 😀
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Dave62 (12/2/2014)
Megistal (12/2/2014)
I had that in mind while reading this morning article:
Not exactly right on the article but I guess you understand the point, whatever the situation.
(Image taken from : https://www.sqlservercentral/Forums/Uploads/Images/1640698-1.jpg)
There is one more arrow and note needed at the very top of the blue line. "Asks geek for script" 😀
Spot on. The pair of you.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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Remember the low lying fruit is to help the customer and the salespeople with a problem they already have and are asking for help with. You need to listen to them to figure out where their most valuable roadblocks are.
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Robert.Sterbal (12/2/2014)
...You need to listen to them to figure out where their most valuable roadblocks are....if permitted to do so. Unbelievably the number of places that this is disallowed is quite high.
Gaz
-- Stop your grinnin' and drop your linen...they're everywhere!!!
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Yet Another DBA (12/2/2014)
Jeff Moden (12/1/2014)
......The only thing that really changes over time is the amount of data, the speed of throughput (thanks to tools available or built), and the rate of change.The other thing is my growing scepticism, and my growing belief that Scott Adams has been seen in the building with a sketch book
The same silly mistakes are being made year-in, year-out. Each few years the new kids on the block find the same old poor technique and claim that it will save months off a project. And too many of the older developers become bored with learning yet another new tool that does the same thing. Old system still dont get replaced and hold back the rest of development.
Other than on their marketing I don't know of too many forward looking companies that are still in business.
Agreed. I've seen that happen a lot. I've also seen some of the "new kids" embrace certain older technologies that are tried and true, have always worked, and will continue to work well no matter what handle you put on the tool to swing it into action. There are certain fundamentals that too many people ignore in favor of some shinny new object that doesn't actually get the job done any easier or, sometimes, at all.
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
Dave62 (12/2/2014)
Megistal (12/2/2014)
There is one more arrow and note needed at the very top of the blue line. "Asks geek for script" 😀:-D:-D:-D:-D
--Jeff Moden
RBAR is pronounced "ree-bar" and is a "Modenism" for Row-By-Agonizing-Row.
First step towards the paradigm shift of writing Set Based code:
________Stop thinking about what you want to do to a ROW... think, instead, of what you want to do to a COLUMN.Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
Helpful Links:
How to post code problems
How to Post Performance Problems
Create a Tally Function (fnTally) -
Couple random thoughts/examples here:
In this context, enterprise data starts to feel like that kitchen drawer we never clean out because we don’t really have a compelling reason. We don’t know what lock that old key fits into, but maybe we’ll need it someday, so there it sits, unlocking nothing.
I've got one of these that I inherited I commonly refer to as the "kitchen sink". It started life as a bunch of independent Access databases that got lumped together into one big Access database that got dumped into SQL Server 2005 (I can feel everyone wincing out there). Basically all the data got thrown into it and to get any meaningful data out you have to go fishing around to find it, clean it up once you get it and hope you didn't injure yourself on something unexpected in the process.
Can't get rid of it en toto because there's way too much critical data in it, so I've been slowly re-making it into something useful.
You don’t always need a billion records to derive business meaning. Start by exploring the data you do have. Get the right people in the room and dig deeply into what you have.
Another living example of this. We had a system (brace yourselves) where additional labor above our regular charges was tracked using literally dozens of individual Excel spreadsheets (one per employee for about 25 - 30 employees). One day my boss, who was responsible for processing the billing for this data, showed up at my desk and said, "I don't care how you do it, we gotta fix this." So I sat down and created a solution in SQL Server with an Access-based front end similar to the Excel spreadsheets for data entry. It was based on the principle of capturing the data at the smallest indivisible grain, i.e., one record is X amount of time spent by Staff Y performing Z activity.
It went live a year ago this month and now tracks ALL labor, not just billable labor, provides daily work metrics and I'm working with our Project Planner on ways to integrate his data into the system to make coding more efficient and to extract metrics to give him better data for estimating project costs for customers.
The thing processes maybe 4,000 - 6,000 records per month, but gave us the ability to more consistently capture and more important leverage data we were already capturing in a very inefficient manner. It isn't necessarily how much data you process, but rather how well you do it. What I did has two main tables and a couple lookup tables, some views and SPs to shuffle data back and forth, and an SSIS package that processes data overnight. Not terribly complicated and I'm sure a real SQL guru could improve upon it, but just goes to show even addressing one fairly simple issue can pay big dividends.
(If anyone's at SQL Saturday DC this weekend, say hi to the idiot wearing the kilt - that's yours truly.)
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Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency. -
I know what you mean Steve, but I lose patience for business people who do not know what they want. You and I are technologists. We deliver solutions to business problems. If a business expert, like a finance or accounting person, does not specify the problem to us, I am sometimes at a loss about what to do next. I am a businessman myself, but come on, I am the technologist, not the finance guy. Sometimes they want the solution on a silver platter. I prefer that they know their own needs and specify them properly to me. When I am running the whole show, I have to ask: what do I need you for?
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I work at one of the government agencies that do optimize their work and tries in every way to get it right. We over the past decades continued to align our IT efforts to the Business Drivers and requirements of the people we serve. Government use to just do whatever they did, but the public has taken much more of an interest in the outcomes and process of internal IT.
Government has started to move towards a more transparent model where data is made public in a machine-readable format and is open and usable to all. The road is tough at times and there are changes in the paradigms that have solidified around the bureaucratic institutionalism that has paralyzed much of the flow of data and information for years, but the thaw is starting and there are inroads to more information.
I agree, we need to continue to move technology forward as rapidly as our business and IT professionals can agree on it, and the business can afford it.
Not all gray hairs are Dinosaurs!
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