>This same sentiment is why, to most of the business world, their IT
>shops are just big black money-sucking holes full of sanctimonious
>nerds who do a bunch of shit that the nerds can't explain to the
>business, but to some degree, the business knows they need.
>
>At our shop, the nerds don't understand why the users called the
>helpdesk to complain their PCs are acting slow today - if they had only
>read the 35 page manual sent to them 4 weeks ago it clearly
>explained that today is "upgrade all your software day" and things might
>seem sluggish. Oh sorry, today is when you do FI close? Oops!
>
The problem is not with the nerds; it's with management. The nerds will
implement any program or feature they are asked to. If that work does
not satisfy the needs of the users, this is because the original spec
did not reflect it and because management is largely brain dead.
That's why software is the product (in an ideal world) of teams of enginees, testers, and those who specialize in the "user experience."
I am, right now, a very unhappy user of a editing/publishing system that is completely brain dead and which is administered by engineers who don't give a damn about users. "Our editor isn't very good at tables? And you say technical manuals need a lot of tables? Maybe you have to rethink that...." etc.
Joanna