Able & Tireless

Adam 3:35 pm [+]

The wiki. I think I'm going wiki-crazy, but I'm pushing forward with my plan on trying to get other teams to use it with me. So far, I've come up against a massive wall of resistance, but I'm fighting through it. People are scared of change I guess, even if its a good idea. This is the sort of thing I've been getting back from people who I've asked to use it:

"i cannot knowingly contribute to competing dmses or I will get it in the neck. I think it's cool that you guys have somewhere to store your important knowledge and the system is better than others, but i cannot contribute cos as soon as i get found out i will get told in no uncertain terms about what i should have done. this is exactly what my team does, stamp down on competing information sources.

I would like to use other systems, but i just cannot at the moment and as soon as xxxxx, xxx, xxxxxx, xxxxx xxxxx, etc find out about it, you will be asked to turn it off, so please do not ask me to use it or let any of my team (or others that might pass it on) see the system. it will just get ugly. i think it is great that you guys use it cos you have a lot of knowledge that you need to share with each other but the corporate standards monster will stamp on it as soon as they see it as competition for any system they have spent 000's on."

You see the problem? The point is that its not a competing system. Its just somewhere to post information, as and when you think of it. What I don't understand is that this guy is being asked by his boss to collate information on the cms in what I assume is a word doc. Now, how easy would it be, if we used the wiki, for him to just copy and paste whats on there, straight into the word doc. Bit of formatting if thats your thing, and Richard is your father's brother. I do not know how people can be so scared of a meaningless hierarchy that they won't even try something.

I'm pushing on with it anyway, having now got my boss's agreement that its a good plan, and now telling everyone "Its not a competing system, its a totally different thing" just so we don't get any more of this nonsense.

We'll see how it goes.

Thomas David Baker 6:20 pm [+]

Complex Rating demo. Adam on the (crap) speakerphone and can't really hear us. I think he got the idea he had done terribly but his demo was actually the most structured and useful thing in the three hours that some of us sat in that room. After he went off it was more "I dunnos" and "I'll find outs" but without the netmeeting demonstration in between.

The trouble with firing vast numbers of people and shutting down whole operations in other countries (US) or selling them (Hong Kong, Australia, etc.) is when people left behind get asked to look after a system they know nothing about it. Jaws did a fair job of talking about the SSBS billing system (ish) and we knew one or two things about PIRate (some sort of database that deals with the rates we bill at for different destinations/customers). But basically we sat there going, "erm yeah we should know that but I only really know one or two tables in that database." Someone has to find out but fact finding about the databases behind crap applications (almost certainly fed from Excel spreadsheets at some point) is not what I mean when I say, "my job is my hobby."

Intelligent Route Optimisation smells to me like a project that isn't going to go anywhere. Too many unknowns and vagaries. For God's sake the management objective for the project is only to put 80% of the rates into it. If the objective from CloudCuckooLand is 80% what will it look like on the ground?! Of course we did sit there with two people from a third-party vendor today so someone has put some money behind it and thinks it is really happening. They seemed fairly clueful so that's nice. You never know.

Adam 12:26 pm [+]

The complex rating project is all about rating traffic from one carrier to another in a sophisticated manner - being able to say use a rate of x for traffic up to volume i between dates a and b for weekend timeband, then use rate y for traffic between volume i and j between dates a and b for evening timeband and so on and so forth. I've spent the last few months writing the front end to capture the logic of the ratings that need to be done. I've done very little work on the back end that takes the actual traffic and applies the rates entered. Therefore it was pretty stupid of me to agree to demo the front end to some developers who are writing another application that will hang off the back end. All they cared about was the actual calculations that are done with the figures. I'm not entirely sure they cared how the rate data got into the system. After my umpteenth use of the phrase "I'm sorry I don't know", I was wishing the floor would open and swallow me up. So, note to self - always always always prepare for demos. And if you're not the right man for the job, say something before you get into the room.

Adam 10:29 am [+]

Trying to find somewhere to collaborate with other teams, and our internal customers has always been a bit of a drag - Livelink is slow and horrible, emails get deleted and word docs stored on a mapped drive just aren't collaborative. So, I'm currently pretty excited about the work wiki. Here isn't the place to describe exactly how it works, sufficient to say, it provides a place for people to post thoughts, questions and tips quickly and easily. A lot like a blog in fact, but more interactive - our customers can go straight to the wiki and start editing a page - no need for username and passwords, no need to login. Its great because it means that both sides of any project have a place to discuss and document stuff. Prime example is the Content Management System. When the last guy who looked after this left, he spent a week writing a fairly shoddy word doc that didn't really cover much (he was leaving, who could blame him). But what that's meant is that its been a fairly tricky job for me to pick up support and development for this. Not impossible, but harder than if he'd kept documentation. Now of course because I work on the technical side, helping out the Content team (actually called the Group Intranet Team (GIT) - draw your own conclusions), there are two sides to all of this - they make discoveries and have questions - I make discoveries and have questions. Having a single place where we can write all this up, and document it, rather than in a ton of emails which always end up lost or deleted, would not only make the next guy's task easier, it sets up a support area - got a technical question? check the wiki, maybe its already been answered. Further posts here will indicate how successful the plan turns out to be.

Thomas David Baker 9:19 am [+]

I hate to start off on a negative note. But I have to share this email from Internal Communications. What's next? An email telling us that murder is illegal and, what's worse, not company policy?

-----Original Message-----
From: Communications, Internal
Sent: 25 November 2003 16:26
Subject: Message from Peter Dugmore - Use of mobile phones and other electronic information devices in vehicles

You may be aware that legislation to be introduced on 1 December will make it a criminal offence to use a hand held mobile phone or microphone while driving. The offence will carry a fixed penalty of £30, which could be increased up to £1000 if the case goes to court. Next year penalty points will be added to an offender’s driving license. It will also be an offence for companies like Cable & Wireless to ‘cause or permit’ the use of hand-held mobile phones when driving.

Cable & Wireless expects all employees who drive as part of their work to always exercise proper control of the vehicle to ensure the safety of themselves and others and has a clearly expressed policy on the use of mobile phones and electronic information devices:

- The health and safety of employees and other road users is of prime consideration.

- Making decisions or dealing with customers while concentrating on driving a vehicle is not good business practice.

- Mobile phones must be switched off at all times while driving and therefore Cable & Wireless will not supply a hands free kit to employees unless assessed as an essential business requirement and agreed by a Business Head or Managing Director.

- The use of voice mail should be utilised and messages retrieved during the periodic stops in the journey recommended by the Highway Code and Cable & Wireless’s management of road risk policy [intranet only URL]. This approach enables returned calls to be made from a safe position where an employee’s full concentration will be on the business to be conducted.

- In the event that a Business Head or Managing Director has authorised a hands free kit, received calls will be brief and ended as soon as is practicable with calls returned once the vehicle is parked.

- Calls must not be initiated while driving.

Adam 10:26 pm [+]

Welcome To Able & Tireless.

Today I spent half an hour at the end of the day filling in my Daily Task Worksheet, rather than being able to go home. Its so upsetting that I can barely speak. Even now. 3 hours after the event. Although I did manage to fix almost all the problems with the Complex Rating project. And my bonus has hit my account, which is nice. The big question now becomes, do we:

a) ignore the horrible admin tasks (hourly timesheets, skills lists, daily task worksheet) and accept that in March we'll lose some of the bonus for being a "bad employee", but accept that the benefits include a much nicer life and happier existence.

OR

b) Pucker up and fill our the excel spreadsheets and think of the cash and generally be a "good employee" despite the fact it makes life worse.