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 Issue
6
With the Drivers Allowances project almost finished, Angie Baxter is looking
for new challenges. But old bugs and new enemies lurk in the path of every Senior
Developer, as Angie is about to discover.
Monday
I can hardly believe it, but the Drivers Allowances project is nearly finished. Even
better, Mike says that the Implementation team will be doing the live installations, so
instead of trudging round depots for six weeks I’ll have a backup role and be free to
apply my state-of-the-art browser-hosted client skills to another project. Denny, with his
usual charm, calls this ‘being unemployed’ and has marked out a ‘find Angie
something to do’ area on the whiteboard. The truth is he’s jealous because
it’s me, not him, who’s been pushing back the client-side frontiers these past
few months, while pushing his precious C++ out of the limelight too. I’m discussing
my next move with Mike later in the week, and expect to get something really juicy.
Tuesday
It had to happen. The DA sign-off is a couple of days away and the ‘Bad
Category’ bug has resurfaced. I’m certain I killed that one three months ago,
when the culprit turned out to be Carl’s Weekly Consolidator control. I ask him to
check it again, but he replies, smugly, that I signed for it so it’s my problem now.
Kevin overhears and tells him to get off his backside and sort it out. Carl, who hates
Kevin ‘coming the heavy project leader’, goes off muttering about
‘daddy’s girl’. This makes me mad, and angry with Kevin for thinking I
couldn’t deal with Carl myself. I have a go at them both, so now there’s bad
feeling all round and the system is still bugged. All in all, it’s a complete
disaster.
Wednesday
It’s obvious that Carl is dragging his heels over fixing his Consolidator control. In
the meantime the clock is ticking towards DA signoff, and if it’s postponed
we’re all going to look bad. When I ask him about it he snarls back that he’s
also on deadline for Phase 1 of Customer Auto Scheduling which is, as he puts it, “a
bit more important than a few drivers’ meal tickets, Ange”. I reply, “In
that case I’ll just have to wait, but at least I’ll soon be free of
drivers’ meal tickets for good and on to something where, hopefully, I won’t be
quite so dependent on temperamental C++ prima donnas for my source code.” Two can
play at being bolshie, and I’m as good as the next man any time.
Thursday
Carl finally comes over, smiling, and tells me that his control checks out 100 per cent.
Still smiling, he then asks if I’m sure the data is being written transparently on
the server side. Instantly I realise what a fool I’ve made of myself. Tearing round
to the data management desk, I find that in the latest model my data is triggering stored
procedures that are sending perfectly valid records into the BC set. The fix is easy, but
fixing things with the C++ Mafia won’t be so simple. As a down-payment I allow Denny
an unchallenged “this client-server stuff is tricky for beginners, you know”,
but realise that’s just the start. To my surprise, Kevin is sympathetic, saying that
once Carl and Denny get into their self-righteous mode it’s best to avoid them
altogether. Taking his advice, I log off and head for the sanctuary of the Ladies.
Friday
We’ve made it - Bill Hammond has signed for the DA system and installations start
next week. Mike rewards us with the customary Sparkling Wine party, and singles me out for
special praise for my IE4-based client conversion. It’s a great moment, spoilt only
by sour looks from Carl and Denny, whose egos are obviously still bruised after my
‘prima donnas’ jibe. Ignoring them, I go to Mike’s office for my
next-project meeting. He congratulates me again on the DA client, and says he wants me to
build on it by balancing my front-end skills with in-depth experience of IIS4 and MTS2.
He’s got the perfect slot for me too - Customer Auto Scheduling, where I can learn
from Carl and Denny while still having time for my DA backup role. Stunned, I thank him
for his confidence, and go back to tell my new teachers the good news.
Top of the page
Issue 6 - Contents
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Angie >
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Issue 1
Issue 2
Issue 3
Issue 4
Issue 5
Issue 6
Issue 7
Issue 8
Issue 9
Issue 10
Issue 11
Issue 12
Issue 13
Issue 14
Issue 15
Issue 16
Issue 17
Issue 18
Issue 19
Issue 20
Issue 21
Issue 22
Issue 23
Issue 24
Issue 25
Issue 26
Issue 27
Issue 28
Issue 29
Issue 30
Issue 31
Issue 32
Issue 33
Issue 34
Issue 35
Issue 36
Issue 37
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