Author: john lewis Date: To: hampshire Subject: Re: [Hampshire] Whatever happened to programming?
On Sun, 7 Mar 2010 10:45:29 +0000
Samuel Penn <sam@???> wrote:
> Many programmers are business people who know how to write VB
> macros in Excel, who end up being told to turn their spreadsheet
> into a business critical application.
Done that with SuperCalc.
In my last employment I had a need for some way of managing an annual
budget running into several millions of pounds sterling and doing
an annual forecast of budgetary needs so we could make bids for our
budget for the following year.
I had no budget for computer software, and in fact there was an express
command from on high that we were not to use any software that that was
not officially supplied.
I had access to SuperCalc running on DOS so used that to do what I
wanted and eventually had a spreadsheet that enabled us to keep track
of what we had 'spent' and to make the budget bids.
I could play around with staffing levels to see what 'savings' could be
made by getting rid of a 'senior manager' for example and replacing
that post with several of the more useful junior staff!!
We didn't actually have any 'real' money as we were funded by HM
Treasury. Savings couldn't get carried over to the succeeding
financial year so had no real incentive to make savings and overspends
were fairly normal and we could, to some extent, get away with such
overspends. (I don't think things have changed much in the last 20
years in that respect)
There were nearly always in those days supplementary budgets,
for specific types of expenditure, handed out near the end of the
financial year so there was always a mad scramble to spend that money.
Lots of redecorating of offices or replacement of furniture arose from
those supplementary budgets ;-)
In my last few years we were allowed to obtain the computer equipment
we wanted rather than having to use what the 'powers that be'
decided we could have, though we could still only 'purchase' stuff
from 'approved suppliers'
Supplementary budgets started providing money for desktop computers so
I was able to set up the 50 station novel network I left the office
with when I retired and as a result moved away from building
management (including budgetary control) to network management.
The official budget management software that eventually arrived wasn't
anywhere near as flexible as my spreadsheet, or so my successor told me!
