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The Nine Circles of IT Hell
snydeq writes "Dan Tynan takes us on a tour of the nine circles of IT hell, a place 'not unlike the underworld described by Dante in his Divine Comedy.' 'But here, in the data centers, conference rooms, and cubicles, the IT version of this inferno is no allegory. It is a very real test of every IT pro's sanity and soul,' Tynan writes. From IT limbo, to tech lust, to stakeholder gluttony, to tech-pro treachery, the IT inferno is not buried deep within the earth, it's just down the hall. 'Thankfully, as in Dante's poetic universe, there are ways to escape the nine circles of IT hell. But IT pros beware: You may have to face your own devils to do it. Shall we descend?'"
If he adds a "how to escape" for each circle, then he did not read it. Virgil had to convince Charon to let them in...
In soviet russia the government regulates the companies.
if IT only put everything in da cloud they would spend days with their 72 virgins
Well that's a pretty large IT group, but from what I see around here, it seems that most IT staffs are largely comprised of virgins...
Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
me: Bad password? I don't give away bad passwords. Not unintentionally, that is. What password are you using?
user:I'm using the password you sent me! is: generic2011
me: what? Are you sure? It starts with an 'i' and an 's' and it has a ':'?
user: yeah.
me: So when I wrote down "Your password is: generic2011" you decided that "is: " was part of the password?
user: Well, Isn't it?
"If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina
For large companies, their IT department *is* 72 virgins
The 10th Circle of Hell is when upper management believes that outsourcing everything will save them money and time.
The 11th circle of Hell is when someone in a high place reads a magazine and decides that the entire company needs to head off in some "new" direction.
The 12th circle of Hell is partnering with Microsoft.
The 13th circle of Hell is partnering with Microsoft.
The 14 circle of Hell is replacing the guy who partnered with Microsoft.
The more I learn about science, the more my faith in God increases.
Have a chatty phone conversation or a drinking lunch with a consultant who's between gigs. Let him tell war stories. Organize according to some metaphor drawn from a widely known but poorly understood work of literature. Beat deadline, knock off early.
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
The key here is communication, I find the more of my day I devot to communication at the cost of getting less stuff done, the better my position becomes. As a coder you can spend a week fixing a part of the system of your own initiative and good will, my point is... propose your project, document it, explain the scope to the best of your ability, as a side-effect its a lot easier to ask for longer time lines when you follow all these steps. The disconnect between IT and senior management is communication, the managers want to manage and know what's going on, but IT is too complex for them so they hire you. Make sense? There is usually a very uneasy trust between IT and senior management that you have to compensate for as well....
No. The only salvation is professionalism.
I realise that I will be shot for saying this, but how come that the only thing that's running horribly in an entire company, is the IT department?
There is a way to just make near-bug-free software on time and the evidence for that rediculous claim is NASA.
I took the liberty of finding the answer to everyone's horror. But before you click on it, you do have to realise that your playground will be over once implementing the solution.
All text-only print-format before your head realy explodes out of anger (ofcourse): http://www.fastcompany.com/node/28121/print
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