Doug Hughes wrote: > Robert Hajime Lanning wrote: > >> On Wed, 2009-03-04 at 01:19 -0600, Brad Knowles wrote: >> >> >>> Frankly, I've heard much worse comments on campus, told by people with >>> far less consideration of who might happen to be standing around nearby. >>> >>> If upper management wants to gun for someone who's been criticizing them >>> for their stupidity, I think there's a lot of people they'd have to go >>> through before they'd get to me. >>> >>> >> And then there is posting the comment on open record for the world to >> see, anytime they want to search for it on google... >> >> It's not what you say, it's where you say it... >> >> >> > I disagree. What you say is a very significant part of it too. If one > were to just point out facts and let people reach their own conclusions > (trivially, I might add), one doesn't need to resort to direct > implication of a class of people with the concomitant or future > repercussions. Facts without aspersions, clearly and succinctly > presented, speak for themselves. > > If I have a piece of equipment (or software) and I describe all its > faults in gory detail, it may dissuade people from purchasing said piece > of equipment. It's not necessary to speak of the designers, engineers, > or architects of the equipment or question their motives, > qualifications, capabilities, or intelligence. There are a lot of decent > people caught up in bad decisions and projects for more-or-less innocent > reasons. > > $.02 > There are also nontechnical and non-TCO reasons why a particular solution is chosen. Some of them are completely hidden from the technical folk.
I completely understand why Exchange was installed at $WORK, even though it isn't my favourite email solution (by far) on a technical or TCO basis. Those, as it turns out, were not the highest priority issues for my management in relation to the email service. OK, as long as I've done my due diligence in pointing out the technical and cost issues, and management is therefore fully aware - then it's time to move forward with the chosen solution. (Fortunately, *I* did not have to install or manage the Exchange service!) Your management may have similar (not-disclosed-to-you) reasons that Exchange is 'the' solution for your environment. If you do your due diligence, and give them technical and cost analysis data that show the financial impact to your organisation, and management still doesn't go for it - it may not be because they are clueless, it may be because *you* don't have the full picture. You might not like the full picture. It may include politics, partnerships, associations, donations, financial incentives, and other 'soft' issues that go completely against the technical strain of your blood. They may even be covered up by specious 'technical' arguments that have nothing to do with the real reasons - and it is extremely frustrating to hear such arguments paraded out when you know that these are just cover ups for the real underlying issues - or worse, when you *don't* know. Having worked in both commercial and academic environments, I can say that both are affected by similar issues, although with some unique features - academia is more biased by donations and the 'fixed pot of gold that everyone fights over', vs profit margin/bottom line in commerce. Both are very political environments, and politics trumps technical almost every time! One trick that I learned from my last boss in academia - when a direct assault on management is having no effect, get peer pressure going in the right places. In a university, this means the faculty - the administration don't really run the university, they are just there to do the bidding of the faculty. :-) Get some influential faculty member on your side, and he or she will tell two friends, who will tell two friends, who will... beat up the rest of the faculty, and eventually the administration. Of course, if you can't convince the faculty, you're sunk anyway - as I said, they really have the power (financial and political) at most universities, and their influence (I must have Outlook calendaring/email/contacts!) may be the reason that Exchange is the 'anointed' solution. And badmouthing your bosses' bosses in public will not add to your support. Doing it in private with like-minded individuals, however, may not have the same negative effect - misery loves company! - Richard _______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
