Re: Anybody home?

[Hector Mandel <mandel@oxbox.cso.uiuc.edu>]

According to Ted M. de Castro:
> 
> So I leave this message for others to consider - consider importation of 
> such program VERY carefully.
> 
> BTW - I am NOT a programmer and do feel it is too bad it works this way 
> since I feel the rad professionsal IS the best one to design - if not write 
> - the program - since he KNOWS the business.  When the other method is tried 
> - ie. to communicate the needs to a professional programmer - the process 
> STILL fails since the end result is too much programmer - and too little rad 
> professional.
> 
> The right person to do the job MUST be expert at BOTH and before relocating 
> the program should study the methods of the new place it is to be used and 
> then re-write to code from scratch.
> 
> This method works - but is quite expensive.
> 

You are absolutely right on all counts Ted! ...

For the reasons you stated, I rarely respond to inquiries regarding the 
programs we use.  I am both a programmer and a CHP and I wrote the system that
has been in use and served us well here at the University of Illinois-Urbana.
I wrote it in the early eaghties and it has evolved from a tiny little 
Pascal-coded database to a full blown DBASE IV mess.  The few times I've 
showed it to people, either of two things happens: 1-they don't like it because
it's not written in their favorite language and it doesn't fit their
enterprise, or 2-it's the best thing since sliced bread and they want it and 
they want a copy and I have to do a mountain of work to provide them with 
a copy that is fully documented so they understand it.  Of course, I never
get around to documenting it :-)

Anyway, I think that to do it right costs money one way or another.  You have
to either do it yourself or hire a programmer to write a custom application
suited to your specific enterprise.  Trying to write your own stuff if you
are not a programmer will eventually lead to a mess.  Buying an off the shelf
system will cost you a great deal of money and you will undoubtedly have to
spend a lot of money to customize it.  No matter which way you go YOU will
have to be intimately involved in the development and implementation of the
system for a long time.  Even if you do it right, you will eventually have to
start over because it will become obsolete.  The hardware you use will change,
there will be advances in software which will put pressure on you to "upgrade",
and regulators will change the rules on you!

The bottom line is this:  Hire a programmer.  Work with the programmer.  Accept
the fact that the software you develope will require *maintenance* and that 
it will become an integral part of your enterprise.  If you have a large 
radiation safety program, any software you use will eventually become a mess
and will require serious redesign and rewriting. 

Oh...and I left out the most important part:

Make sure that your system works on paper before you computerize it.  If your
radioisotope inventory system is a mess, the problem is in its design and in
the way you implement it now.  If you don't fix it first, whatever program
you decide to use will not fix it and will most probably make the situation
much worse!


-- 


      Hector Mandel, Manager of Systems Services  | (217) 244-7237
      OCCSS, CCSO - Computing                     | h-mandel@uiuc.edu
      University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign  | pager 53171