• Changes to Server go to this thread http://overzealousgamers.com/threads/etpub-changelog.6665/

I'll just leave this here - for architects/developers/etc

Sh1rts

Well-Known Member
http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/t/29432.aspx

So nerbItUp/Cows/etc your choices are

pragmatism (implementing the Excel solution was obviously a derp but potentially a huge money-making derp)

or

do-it-properism (which is obviously the RIGHT way but not what the "client" wanted)


what would you have done ?

Me, I'd have taken teh money and then started work on version 2.0, pending the imminent request for a less derpish variant (woot)
 

noobItUp

Super Moderator
Staff member
@ Sharts, go with the web services and toss the excel. I sit on an architecture review board at work and one of the main things we are tasked with is stopping this exact thing from happening. Just far too much scope for derping things up in excel.

As an architect, my job would also be to tactfully slap some sense into business stakeholder with grandiose visions of excel. This may or may not work, but at the end of the day I don't want to work in a shop that rolls like this (if business don't listen to me - forget it).

@ Bain, only some I.T. ppls calls ourselves architects. Its basically because we design how stuffs will be built. We do lots of planning and blueprints etc. Seems as good a word as any.
 

McBain!!

Well-Known Member
blueprints hey? sounds very architechy, so you guys design stuff and other kents build it?
I like your style..
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
Anyone with half a brain knows that the web API would have been the way to go, however with that being said, you would be surprised just how many businesses implement data exchanges, data extracts and other business related process within Excel. Excel is a great tool and in some cases it can be an acceptable solution, but when you start to see what people cram into them and implement workflows into it, it can really make you crawl into a ball and rock yourself back and forth as you descend into madness.

One last interesting thing you will find when you see these "surely this is a simple answer" kind of things is that when business people get in the way and contracts dictate development, you are in for a whole world of pain when trying to do the "right" implementation because if the "right" way isn't covered in a CR or other formal agreement, you open yourself to risk and not being paid. For example with this WTF, if they decided to do the web API and the client decided Excel was the agreed solution, all that work could have been scraped anyway and no money paid, purely because they didn't meet the contracted deliverables!

Corporate IT can be an interesting place sometimes... I'm sure Nooby has some good stories to tell, surely it isn't just me that has witnessed that kind of thing before!

Cheers
 
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