Breathe, KW…

Okay. So I am a systems analyst. I do design work on a huuuuuuuge web application, I define requirements for new and/or changes to our application’s user interface and various pieces of functionality and I write functional specifications that give our development team a blueprint for building out changes to our behemoth product. Making even the teensiest tinesiest tweak to our product can require hours of careful research, modeling out how the new functionality will work and how it will affect other parts of our labyrinthine application, INCLUDING ALL OF THE POSSIBLE UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES.

I do not work alone. My main man is FZ, who has been with the company MANY more years than I have (and I have forbidden him to retire in the near future) and is just over the wall from me. But there are many others I use as resources. We are all subject matter experts and we are all boots on the ground, common sense based people who are committed to providing our customers with uninterrupted service. In support of that goal, we believe in thorough research before committing changes to the app that our customers use..

If we did not operate that way, like say, I wrote up a spec that said something vague like, “Do it like Yahoo does it”, our developers wouldn’t know what to do and would either ask me ten thousand billion questions or “go rogue” and make their own design. That would likely result in our CUSTOMERS (i.e., the people who PAY OUR COMPANY) being left high and dry without service. My company would probably lose its contract and I would definitely lose my job.

Instead, I take my time to write up comprehensive solutions to even the smallest of tweaks, thinking through all of the parts of the product that might be touched. If I do not do that due diligence, I know that dev and QA folks will be bugging the heck out of me. YOU ALL are happy about that. Trust me.

Yes, I am comparing the stuff I do for my lowly job to a certain presidential document that was released sometime today or yesterday. I do not get it. I would hope that anyone involved (in any way) in the tax industry doesn’t get it either. Where are the details? What are the consequences (intended and/or unintended) to our country’s citizens? Meaning you and me…

In other news, the GG spent a good portion of the day dealing with a sewer backup in the Landfill Dungeon. He was sound asleep on the couch in the back room when I got home from work. He had texted me about the backup and how it hadn’t done much damage to the oooogly yellow shag carpet, etc. I texted back that I was discouraged that the oooogly yellow shag carpet and all of the junk down there were not damaged… I greatly appreciate all of his work on cleaning this up but I would like to re-do the damn dungeon somehow. But we’ll see…

Love y’all whatever your polly-ticks, KW (but please please please think about what the Trump administration is doing for you (or not)…)

One Response to “Breathe, KW…”

  1. Margaret Says:

    Great post! Where has common sense and decency flown off to these days??