Following Edge

After almost a week back to work, I'm still only about halfway through the backlog of work. The good news is that I've gotten the most critical work completed... four bulk emails (which are always time-critical) sent in the last week... and a significant new web application completed only 4 weeks after I had planned to complete it.

I developed the new web application (a tiny bit pictured to the right) using the new development system that Keith and I developed earlier this year. Although I was integrally involved in developing the system and although I wrote some of the most convoluted code in the system, I haven't actually used the system to develop any applications yet. Keith has all the expertise in how things actually work (since he's developed the hugely complex application that started the project). So, it's really put the pressure on me to finish this new applicaiton without his expertise while he's been out this week recovering from a wrist injury and work overload. Overall, it was a great oportunity for me to learn practical side of the system myself.

Even with my head-scratching while learning the new system, developing the simple-but-slick new application required only six to eight hours of my time in the last three days. Almost any useful application requires that much effort, and our development system helps to assure that the end result works well and is easy to change and expand instead of being a mess. I continue to be happy with the system.

The bad news is that the manager who is working with the big, complex application Keith has developed wants to talk about "concerns". I've got to call him tomorrow and I'm sure I'll have to tell him there's not going to be a solution to the most persistent of his concerns, the 2-3 second delay in some of the application's operations. The trick is that, with finite (limited) resources, you can never make a perfect system. A few seconds of delay in some operations had to be sacrificed in order to get the application ready in time and to satisfy the long list of requirements for how the system operates. Anne Marie, who has had to use a system with 30-90 second delays points out that the users of our application could have a lot more to complain about.

Given that the other thing he wanted to talk to me about is the schedule for getting more staff using the new system, I think his "concerns" about the system are not as great as his desire to use it. That's the real question, I think... not whether the system is perfect, but whether it's good enough to encourage you to use it. Hopefully, I'm not wrong about how my talk with him will go. It concerns me.

Thanks to all of you who have recently commented recently. Your support is greatly appreciated.