Getting Her Done ....
I just spent the last week being re-acquainted with my number one principle of software development – namely that it’s the business process that is the most difficult part of my job – not the technology. This fact is why I insist on using products like Excel and Access with VBA and is why I worry about the drive on the part of Microsoft to “professionalize” Office development with products like VSTO.
I have built a budgeting program for use by a corporation with $60+ million in annual IT expenses. The development process over the last three budget years has meant two or three months every summer changing this and then changing that as their processes evolved. Frankly one of the major reasons for these changes has been the flexibility of the Access/Excel/SQL Server tools I have been using (and frankly I guess my skills with them to a great extent). I could make the changes they wanted (needed?) quickly and successfully.
This year this process that was to start in June was moved up to the end of April on two weeks notice, and then further telescoped from a May 15 completion to May 5th with two days notice. This involved setting up the new year (the program had never been used without major changes two years in a row without the grace of some testing time) so it was new ground for the app.
This meant implementing an Acess/SQL Server application for use by IT managers worldwide (among the worst of possible user-bases by the way ;-)), then creating a series of comparative Excel Pivot Tables on very short notice (try email request at 5 pm needed for 8 am the next day?).
At the same time I had a month-end process to manage for a new application at another client and on-going frustrations with a well-meaning but anal-retentive DBA trying to get an AD user group set up and applied to a series of tables on short notice at yet another client ……..
All this was only possible because of the flexibility and connectivity of my tools – using OLEDB to connect my Pivot Tables, Access ADPs to manage my SQL Server Stored Procs and Tables and VBA over everything with flexibility and reliability.
Of course there is a school of thought that says development processes should be more deliberate and disciplined – but tell that to the CFO who decided to move up the Budget process, and the business that needed to do their month-end come hell or high water (literally).
I am finding lately that my favourite phrase is from Larry The Cable-Guy – “Git ‘Er Done !!!”.
It’s business process and culture that defines what “it’ is and “it” doesn’t care about technology – just results. Of course it is my job to design my technology solutions and to choose the tools to accommodate the fact that sudden change is going to be the only constant. I choose Excel/Access SQL Server with VBA to achieve that and have trouble imagining another way.