A controlling department wasn’t granted any money for digitializing their workflow.
So these guys created their own solution(s!).
Things like dedicated “user interfaces” loading data from tables created by hand.
After years these people realized that data formatting is quite the issue.
They started to put random rules into different tables:
Two empty lines: New Group Data Record.
One empty line: New Subgroup Data Record.
Excel tables aggregating this data via hardcoded links.
A dedicated table to start calculations on parent tables.
They mutated data like this:
Load data from excel files into one.
Manually delete, add or change lines (or columns).
Start a collection run from dedicated excel file and load new excel file data and replace old excel file data.
They had files where ‘it was easier to read’ when they pivot the data. This was troublesome since some values are intermediate results. Dropping one column may imply dropping another one as well.
All workflows required manual alignments along the way.
They were only able to process 10% of the data from a year within a year. Managing millions in cash.
Their data input came from different internal sources. Programs which were written two decades ago once and without any tests. Talking like VB, macro’s from host servers and copy-pasta data from other internal programs.
And don’t get me started on customer tables… They created a zip-code encoded filesystem hierarchy where each customer data (you guessed it, excel file) was renamed and then saved.
In each of these directories where randomly named files if something went wrong; So no actual file patterns to rely on.
I respect them.
They creates a diagram for their tables with word. Word! (Didn’t know either: you can select the web view in the bottom right corner and you get an infitive canvas…)
Madness.
I had a potential client, an accountant. They had their own, uh, system within a spreadsheet. They wanted me to program another system to be able to send their spreadsheet output into our governments IRS. Did a little back-and-forth but could not convince them to drop the idea.
Jesus, this gave me war flashbacks.
Please, do elaborate. Let others feast on your suffering.
May I?
A controlling department wasn’t granted any money for digitializing their workflow.
So these guys created their own solution(s!). Things like dedicated “user interfaces” loading data from tables created by hand. After years these people realized that data formatting is quite the issue.
They started to put random rules into different tables:
Two empty lines: New Group Data Record. One empty line: New Subgroup Data Record.
Excel tables aggregating this data via hardcoded links.
A dedicated table to start calculations on parent tables.
They mutated data like this:
Load data from excel files into one. Manually delete, add or change lines (or columns). Start a collection run from dedicated excel file and load new excel file data and replace old excel file data.
They had files where ‘it was easier to read’ when they pivot the data. This was troublesome since some values are intermediate results. Dropping one column may imply dropping another one as well.
All workflows required manual alignments along the way.
They were only able to process 10% of the data from a year within a year. Managing millions in cash.
Their data input came from different internal sources. Programs which were written two decades ago once and without any tests. Talking like VB, macro’s from host servers and copy-pasta data from other internal programs.
And don’t get me started on customer tables… They created a zip-code encoded filesystem hierarchy where each customer data (you guessed it, excel file) was renamed and then saved. In each of these directories where randomly named files if something went wrong; So no actual file patterns to rely on.
I respect them.
They creates a diagram for their tables with word. Word! (Didn’t know either: you can select the web view in the bottom right corner and you get an infitive canvas…) Madness.
Holy cow :O
I had a potential client, an accountant. They had their own, uh, system within a spreadsheet. They wanted me to program another system to be able to send their spreadsheet output into our governments IRS. Did a little back-and-forth but could not convince them to drop the idea.