A glass house divided - Technology Transfer - Column

George was having one of those days. In fact, the last few weeks had been full of those kind of days. George, one of the senior PC programmers on staff, had worked at Acme Services for more than 10 years. He was generally trusted and respected, and his managers had learned to rely on him.

"Hi, George," called Sally, the systems programmer. "Been busy?"

"Crazy," he replied. "It's almost too much. It seems that I can't please anyone anymore. Apparently, it doesn't matter what I do or am capable of doing; everything has gotten so political."

"George, that doesn't sound like you. What's the matter?" Sally asked.

"Sally, you know I got into the PC programming group because it was a chance to learn something new and exciting. It's been challenging getting new things to work. It's been mostly fun -- until these last few weeks."

"Why is that?" Sally asked.

"A few weeks ago they decided to purchase a new customer service package. It sounded real slick. It runs as a client/server application using the latest in PC and mainframe software, including relational databases on both the PC and the host."

"I've heard about it; it sounds interesting," she said.

"It is. The problem is, it has so many pieces that no one can get a handle on it. My boss, Paula, told me to coordinate the project, but that's been frustrating. It's slow and nobody--including the vendor--seems to know why. I can't be sure, but it looks like the PC portion is working OK. The DB2 folks told me that it doesn't look like a DB2 problem. I talked to Sam about the CICS portion, and he said that there is not much work being done in CICS."

Sally asked, "What does Sam think the problem is?"

"He felt that the delays were somewhere in the network or on the PC. The network analyst said that the line was not very busy and that individual messages were not that large. She said to talk to the LAN people. The LAN seems to be running fine, and so does the PC database server.

"It is just driving me crazy," George concluded. "Something is wrong and I can't find out what. They all say it's not their piece. Paula is pressuring me to figure out what the problem is because we are approaching the end of the evaluation period. We need to know if the system will perform. Just because the system starts on the PC, everyone thinks that anything it does falls in my area."

"It does sound like you are having trouble getting the right people involved," commented Sally.

"You bet I am."

"You know, George, Alex in research had been trying to convince someone all last year that Acme should get started with client/server applications. I think he would like to get involved and he is familiar with quite a bit of the technology. Do you think Edna would let him help you on the project?" Sally asked.

"She might. No one else but me seems to have this project as a priority. The vendor has sent a couple of software engineers out several times, but they think the problem comes from the way we are using the system. Each of them also seems to have a limited set of skills. Maybe Alex has some insight into how it all fits together.

"Sally, I am going to talk to Paula about getting Alex's help. Thanks for the idea."

George felt hopeful that one of his two major burdens might be lifted. He walked quickly to his boss Paula's office and explained his troubles with the customer service project. He told Paula what he had tried to do and his frustration in trying to evaluate technology that he didn't fully understand. Finally, he asked if Paula would talk to Edna, the head of research, and see if she would let Alex help on the project.

"Sounds like a good idea, George. I'll talk to Edna. Is something else wrong?"

"Yes. I guess what's really annoying me is that new financial system you asked me to work on."

"Well, that should be quite a challenge. It will be a true client/server system with application programs running on both the host and PCs. Why is that bothering you?"

George responded, "You know that Frank is the mainframe programming manager in charge of that project. His people have been handling the financial systems for years. He has never let any 'outsiders' work on his systems because he says the information is too sensitive; it has to be done just right.

"When you asked me to work on the project, you told me that Lou [the manager of mainframe and PC application development] wanted this to be a joint project. We would develop the PC portion and Frank's people would write the part that runs on the host."

"That's right, George," said Paula.

"Well, none of his programmers or analysts are familiar with PC languages. Most of them barely know how to get into the LAN and use a word processor."

Paula interjected, "That is one of the reasons Lou asked us to become involved in the project. I don't think Lou is ready to train his mainframe developers in PC technology at this time. He wants to get a client/server application working and then evaluate how well the technology can work in our environment."

She continued, "Lou said that he would like to draw on existing skill sets from the PC and mainframe programmers and get the first project running quickly. It seems that Alex and Edna have gotten Don [head of MIS] excited about the idea of offloading work from the mainframe, and Lou wants to get something done quickly."

George responded, "I didn't know that. Apparently, neither does Frank, because he does not want any part of this joint development. He said that there would be no way anyone outside his group could learn enough about financial systems to do a good job on his application. He said he would never be able to support code written by other groups that his people might not understand. He does not want me or anyone else developing application code for 'his' financial systems."

"George, I can see that must have hurt. Yet, I don't think he was being personal," Paula said.

"Paula, we have worked with other groups to develop joint projects. Last year I developed that marketing support system so the sales reps could use their PCs to answer customers' questions onsite.

"We got the specs and developed it within our group. The only real coordination we needed with the mainframe group was to exchange record formats uploading and downloading data."

"That's true, George," said Paula, "but the new system is different. This

application will involve true client/server programming. Part of the applicaton logic and files will live on the PC; part will live on the host. Applications will be tied closely together. That means both groups will have to work closely."

RESOLVING TURF ISSUES

Paula paused and then added, "Frank probably feels that we are invading his turf. He may be worried about maintenance after the project goes in or about ending up responsible for something that he doesn't control."

George considered this. "Paula, I can see all that, but it still makes it hard on me. I'm not trying to push my way into Frank's system. He is so resentful that I don't know what will happen next."

"I don't know either, George," Paula replied. "Let me talk to Frank and Lou and see what I can do."

Keller is manager of systems programming at Yellow Freight Systems, Inc., Overland Park, Kan., and a long-time DP professional. Allen is senior vice president for information technology at Sears Mortgage Corp., Riverwoods, Ill.

COPYRIGHT 1992 Wiesner Publications, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group