Folks who work in IT/IS Depts--Small Vent

[debster812]

Is it like this everywhere???

I work in the IT support department for our Point of Sale software. I also train and roll out new technology surrounding the software. (We are a retail audio/video company)

Well, we have a new technology (running about 3 months) that is CRITICAL to the day to day running of the stores. This technology runs through our network.

We have been experiencing some major TRAFFIC/USAGE issues on the Unix side which is bogging down my software apps.

It is like hardware and software are the Hatfields and the McCoys. It was like pulling teeth to get a Network Engineer to help me diagnose what was going on. Meanwhile, 130+ stores cannot process sales.

WOW--I guess I'm venting. Sorry.

So, is it like this everywhere? I came to IT from Merchandising, so I am still a relative newbie.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

It seems to me like a management issue. If the technology is that crucial then how is the IT department getting away with ignoring it?
There is a lot of rivalry between software people and hardware people but in my experience, when it hits the fan people get together to make things work, then they go back to harrassing the heck out of each other.

 

[debster812]

Nail on the head Alex.

My network engineer, the head programmer (at my company) and the VP of Programming at our software company are downing the entire system this morning at 1am, running some scripts and hopefully getting this fixed.

You are totally right about it being a management issue. The CIO is in my office, the network engineer is in another office (in another state) and the data center is in my office.

Glad it's not just us with the hardware/software sibling rivalry.

 

[jsmith]

You need a department like mine-i work as a Project manager for internal quality assurance for the teleconferencing division of a major but somewhat disreputable telecom. My entire job is to take new software or technologies and test them against an exact copy of our production enviroments-we test functionality, usablity, compatabilityk, load capability and everything else you can think of. Changes to our customer affecting systems are only made after the new application or equipment is certified-I get caught in the middle of the Hatfields and the McCoys all the time-but customers are never affected and we don't have to put fixes on in the middle of the night.

 

[WebmasterAlex]

What a dream jsmith...
Unfortunately the budget just isn't going to allow that in many places... so we have bleary eyed IT folks...

 

[jfulcer]

Originally posted by WebmasterAlex
What a dream jsmith...
Unfortunately the budget just isn't going to allow that in many places... so we have bleary eyed IT folks...

From one bleary eyed IT person to another, I agree wholeheartedly. While we strive to test every aspect of a new customer software rollout, we don't have the equipment or staff to test as much as we really should/could.

Welcome to the game debster!

 

[debster812]

I agree with Alex and jfulcer. And, I know for sure as Alex suggested, our budget will not support that. Another bleary-eyed one here. Mainly because I have locations on the east coast (with distribution centers that start working at 5am) and locations on the west coast (with locations that do not stop until 1am eastern time). That gives us a nice 4 hour window to run any processes/fixes.

Thanks for the welcome jfulcer

 

[aprincessmom]

I get caught in the middle of the Hatfields and the McCoys all the time

As a PM from a functional area who works with the IT group on an minute by minute basis I can say this is not uncommon. It's pretty much the norm in every company I have ever worked at.

And we're just implementing the software and systems that other people develop. Although I have worked on the development end, too, and it was pretty similar.

And while the people I work with are a great group of people who will always FINALLY pull together and get it done, it irks the heck out of me that I spend hours in meetings trying to get them past the "It's not the network, it's the application", "You're wrong, it's the network not the application", "No, you're wrong", "NO! You're wrong."

Luckily I have a small child and have been able to bring many effective re-direction strategies to the table, providing a great value add for the projects as a whole

I don't know what I can do to ease your pain but I can tell you I feel for you! Daily.