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Database Solution Architects

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You know Mike Holmes, right?  Admit it. You love Mike Holmes. And you don’t have to be female.

I do too, in a man crush sorta way. I watch his show because I’m an itinerant handyman who’s always doing something to upgrade our house. But his motivation to make sure that quality work is done and done properly as well as educating the public and raising the level of skill in his trades is what earns my respect.

What makes his show even more interesting for me is that the situations he runs into mirror mine to an ridiculous degree.  He’s called in to look at a renovation project done by someone else.  The project was either done wrong, wasn’t completed or has ended up as a complete disaster. As Mike goes through what was done he points out obvious mistakes, glaring errors and examples of poor craftsmanship by workers that “just didn’t care” about what they were doing.

In exactly the same way, I have taken on projects that were obviously done by someone who had no idea of the type of programming they were supposed to do,  were unfamiliar with the development language or just wanted to throw together a quick solution that just functioned enough to satisfy the client.  Too many times I find myself echoing Mike’s phrases such as “Why the hell did they do it this way?” or “This is just wrong” and I’ve even had to (or wished I could) just say “Tear it all down, we’re starting from scratch”.

The IT world is a strange place that has existed without proper certifications or regulations for a long time.  Anyone who has learned to use Windows beyond a basic level can go out and call themselves a “computer consultant”.  There was a time when the Technology Manager in a legal firm would end up being the secretary who got the hang of WordPerfect the fastest.  There is no “Builders Code” that sets out restrictions on the way solutions are implemented.  The certifications such as MCSE, CNE, etc. are based upon theoretical questions that may have no relevance in the real-world solutions the student will encounter.

Things have gotten even more complex now and the word processor is no longer the primary application in a firm.  As I’ll show in another post, it’s all about the database.  But how do you know if someone is actually qualified to design a database solution for your firm?  What certifications can you look for to ensure you’ll get the right product?  This is made all the more difficult by the Two Great Truths of Technology Solutions:

1. Every Firm is Unique
2. Theory != Practicality

You can have two identical legal firms next door to each other, with identical staffing and attorney counts and still end up with vastly different IT requirements as the business focus and characters of the partners determine the direction each firm takes. No school or course is going to prepare a technician for that amount of variability.  In the end you must fall back on experience.  The more actual systems an individual has been involved in along with a record of success is a better indicator of whether they will be able to properly implement your solution

This then, is the root cause of the current problem.  Few IT consultants or developers have the broad level of experience over a large number of years in a wide enough variety of environments to approach every project with complete confidence.  In the end corners get cut, code templates are used that do not fit the requirements, and poorly-coded programs are installed that work badly if at all.  The market is flooded with developers who took programming courses at night school.  Not that there isn’t a place for that level of skill, but at a certain point your going to need someone with real knowledge.

As I wrote in my introduction, I aim to create solutions that not only work, but work well.  This takes time but the end result should always be worth it.  Not just from a “bang-for-the-buck” viewpoint for the client but also from a personal satisfaction viewpoint for me.  I don’t like “kludges”, I don’t like workarounds. Sometimes there is no other choice but if I subsequently come across a better way of doing something I’ll present the client with the option.  I take great pride in my work in the same way any craftsman would.  This may seem anachronistic in the technology world where crashes, kludges and scams seem to be the norm.  But if there is a well-defined goal in a project there is no reason why the attention given to achieving that goal should be anything less than that given by the woodcarver to the cabinet masterpiece.

As Mike says: “When the client is happy, I’m happy.”

I don’t get as many hugs as him though.

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