To the Travel Sector Account Manager,
Slaughter McTone Regis Consultants

Mr Jones,

With the help of the new RAD task force, I have successfully implemented an electronic system for approving PC purchases. This in itself was a triumph, as conventional wisdom at BritBreak suggests that it is impossible to implement any program, however small, in less than six months. Admittedly we had a little trouble getting it to run on the network, and it did prove more buggy than expected - even so, we put a working system in place in two weeks.

This should have meant that I had a shiny new PC in front of me by now. Sadly, while I had revamped the mechanics, I had not dealt with the people. The concept is simple. The request for a PC is raised directly into the system by the Desktop Group. This was done without problem. It is then available for simultaneous approval by the three senior managers involved, using a simple electronic signature. Disaster! Unlikely though it may seem, either the senior IT managers do not like computers, or they don’t know how to use them. My PC, the test case for the system, is still awaiting approval by the IT Director. Apparently he had his secretary print the approval request on paper, then put it in his in-tray where it remains. I mentioned this to the PC support people - when they’d stopped laughing they told me of the time they had unplugged the IT Director’s PC to set up a presentation. Three weeks later they returned to his office - it was still unplugged. Education is now high on my agenda.

Better news from the group examining the technical approval structures. They have accepted that the forms can be replaced with my electronic system, and will soon be reporting on an streamlined committee structure. So to the highlight of my report. Inspired by the DSDM seminar I attended last month, I suggested to the DP Manager, Arnold Potter, that we set up a small, cross-disciplinary RAD task force. I was surprised when he agreed very quickly, as Arnold is very much of the old school, allegedly preferring that users sign off functional specifications in blood. He was very enthusiastic about my cross-disciplinary concept, but pointed out the practical difficulties of setting up a new group from scratch, and instead has converted the recently disbanded Advanced Technology Group into my RAD task force. Initially they were a little uncertain about such a hands-dirty role, but they’ve taken to it surprisingly well. I can confidently predict that by the end of the year we will have the whole of the DP department converted to RAD methodology.

No time now to go into the details of the Internet debate. Hopefully we have reached compromise by asking Steve Loss, the user enthusiast, to dummy up some pages. Apparently he has an HTML editor acquired from a magazine cover disk.

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Copyright © Creativity Unleashed Limited 2006
Last update 13 September 2006

The Troubleshooter column relates the experiences of a fictional consultant. Although the context is made up, many of the experiences related in Troubleshooter have happened in real UK businesses.

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Originally published in PC Week magazine.

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