Bad, Better, Best in IT


Bad: Cubicle
Better: Office
Best: Whatever works best for you.

Bad: Meetings without agendas.
Better: Meetings with agendas.
Best: Meetings whose need is so obvious to everyone that no agenda is needed.

Bad: Specs, waterfall, Systems Development Life Cycle.
Better: Prototyping, agile, scrum.
Best: Developers with enough domain knowledge to just build it.

Bad: No documentation.
Better: Documentation.
Best: No documentation needed.

Bad: No formal process.
Better: Formal process.
Best: People so much bigger than their jobs so that process is rarely
relied upon.

Bad: Theory without experience
Better: Experience without theory
Best: Both

Bad: Help desk without programmers.
Better: Programmers available to customers.
Best: Code that just works.

Bad: Phone calls
Better: Emails
Best: Application software that encapsulates required communication

Bad: Code with early exits.
Better: Code without early exits.
Best: Code so simple because of the underlying data structure that the
early exit debate is moot.

Bad: Bugs
Better: Fixes
Best: Enough 9's to never notice.

Bad: programmer error
Better: user error
Best: What's an error?

Bad: Missing deadlines
Better: Hitting deadlines
Best: A track record so good that deadlines are never given

Bad: Complex org chart
Better: Simple org chart
Best: Technology so sophisticated, less people are needed

Bad: Non-technical boss
Better: Technical boss
Best: No boss

Bad: Management
Better: Leadership
Best: Self-motivation

Bad: Best practices, with a Capital "B" (industry standards)
Better: best practices, with a small "b" (what we figured out)
Best: Just do your fucking job.

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Published on October 08, 2012 10:46
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