Wednesday, December 03, 2008

The wretched "Process"

Do you feel yourself choking when you are asked to design an FIR filter? Do you feel numb when you are asked to write the working of a microelectronic diode? Can you feel your brain cells committing suicide when you are asked to find the equation of the EM wave that comes out of a Graded index optical fiber? Don't worry, IT will take you in after you graduate. Like 'IT' or hate 'IT', most cannot escape 'IT'. Atleast 80% of students graduating from engineering college get into the IT field. This omnipresent field opens its arms to students graduating from all possible branches in engineering. My answer to all the above questions was 'Yes' and thats why I too am in IT.

1 year into this field and I now feel that a corpse living in a graveyard probably has a much more interesting life than an IT professional has. Not that programming is dull, yes it is easy but not dull. I know probably even a 10 year old can do the programming that we do in IT. But its not all that bad. The architecture is huge and is something really worth learning. What makes IT job the dullest job in this world (I know I know.. 'the grass is always greener on the other side') is the process followed. If you were to add 1 and 1 to get 2, IT will make sure that you prepare atleast 20 documents with analysis of all the possible ways by which you can add the 1s, the effect of the addition on derivatives or probability or even global warming and how 1+1 can make this world a better place to live in. Similarly when I get a project, the tasks allocated to me in Niku looks something like:

Estimation Activities_XML_ Beneficiary Name for COS
Traceability Matrix Preparation & Updation_XML_ Beneficiary Name for COS
Configuration Management Activities_XML_ Beneficiary Name for COS
Requirements Gathering & Analysis_XML_ Beneficiary Name for COS
Requirement / Functional Specification Rework_XML_
Beneficiary Name for COS
Design(s) Prep
aration_XML_ Beneficiary Name for COS
User Acceptance Testing Support_BeneBankAcc.Number
in Intermediary
Unit Test Case Preparation_Regression Testing Tool
Release Audit (GLT)_MT940 to XML sub field 7 standardisation
Post Implementation Support_MT940 to XML sub field 7 sta
ndardisation

I dont even know the order in which I am supposed to execute the above tasks. All I know when I get a project is : I get the requirement, I analyze, I code, I test it, I release it to Live, I support it, I take the blame if anything goes wrong with it. I dont want to make 100 documents which I am sure no one reads, I dont want a defect on my name just because I didnt follow the latest version template of some doc in which the word issues was changed to consequences, I dont want to fill up a hundred forms just to make my code go live, I dont want some tool to trace my testing, I dont want to break my head trying to follow the naming convention in thousand different folders. I just want my project to be done my way. The process and the documents are driving me mad. A fews days back they started a new template document just to put in the mistakes found in other documents. Heres one that was sent to me by my APM and I was asked to update it. I nearly killed myself that day.


3 comments:

Unknown said...

And there are people in this world, that are trying to make their discipline more like the IT industry :| Our DSP prof, in mid-sem, launched into a series of boring lectures on Software Engineering and Business Models, purely with the justification that "the IT industry does it, and that's why they are so successful". Until then, that course had been something good.
Whats Niku by the way?
Oh, almost forgot (:P) I graduated!

Unknown said...

oh.. and in answer to the first few questions, I feel like screaming, "YES, YES, YES!!!" (:P)

Savita said...

Niku is a tool where you can see the tasks allocated to you and you put in the number of hours you worked on each task.

and CONGRATS.. Mr.Post graduate..:) When am I getting a treat??