Thwarted by a Bullet

Recently, it was brought up that we were duplicating the documentation on our project.  The BA writes up a User Interface Specification to explain how a screen works.  Then the QA would take the UI Spec and write test scripts to test the functionality on the screen.  However, when they got done, the test scripts contained no additional information from the UI Spec.  Then, all the test scripts had to be listed in a third sheet to show testing progress - Pass, Fail, Untested, etc.  All this was done in MS Word.

So, we spent weeks conducting meetings to decide how best to reduce this duplication of work.  I came up with a solution that utilized MS Excel to house the UI Spec, with columns that could also be used for testing, and code that tracked and recorded the testing progress.  The solution seemed to meet all our requirements.  There was less effort needed for duplicating work and less documents for housing all the crap we needed.

One day out of the blue, I was informed by the Lead BA that the project team would no longer be using my sheet.  When I asked him why not, he informed me that nobody on the team knew how to make a bullet in Excel, so they were scrapping the whole idea and going back to the old way.  I told him that I could help them figure out a solution, but he told me that it wasn't worth my time, because they'd already started converting everything back to MS Word.

A bullet?  Seriously?  How lame is that?  I did figure out how to do a bullet in Excel using an ASCI code, but it made no difference, as the Lead BA stated.  So, a quick easy solution was passed over in order to go back to what was familiar.  All progress toward a better system thwarted by a bullet.

Unbalanced Raises

In these trying financial times, everyone is feeling the pinch...well, almost everyone.  My company decided to suspend pay raises in an effort to curb costs.  Each year, the subject comes up again, a re-valuation to determine if this year will be the one.  We finally did get our raise, if you can call it that.  It amounted to about $25 a month.  I know that's at least something, and I'm truly thankful.  I was even satiated...that is until last December when the managers and directors pulled in their raises.  Which amounted to about $500 more a month.

Let me put this into perspective.  My bills, based solely on the cost of living, have gone up about $40 or so a month.  That means that I'm now $15 short each month.  Now, keep that in mind when I tell you that when my director got his raise, he started going around the office asking people if they thought he should buy a new Mercedes or new BMW.  I wish that was the end of this story, but it's not.  Last week, he was stopping people in the hall to ask them if they could figure out how to open the band on his new $10,000 Rolex watch.  This show was based partly on his ineptness and partly on his desire to show off the stupid watch.

So, basically he just spent an obscene amount of money on a watch...a watch...seriously, a watch.  I have a $15 watch from Wal-Mart, which tells the time in 2 countries, has a stop watch, is waterproof, and has a little light to see the time in the dark. (And I could easily figure out how to open the band.)  His just tells time.  And what he spent on it could pay my mortgage and house taxes for the entire year!

The discrepancy in raises is bad enough, but his complete cluelessness to how it makes people feel to see him spending money on luxuries and extravagances when they can't even make their bills each month, blows my mind.

Something tells me he didn't need that raise in December nearly as much as I did.