Kooky Plant...
Here's what my little garden by the pond is looking like these days...
There's a little succulent/cactus like thing in there to the right of the orange and blue flowers. See it? I can't remember what it was called. Over the last few days, it has done this weird thing...
This offshoot just shot up out of nowhere and is about five times longer than the plant is tall. It looks like it's going to pop a bunch of little flowers.
After that, I don't know what's going to happen. Perhaps they will sprout wings and turn in to butterflies or something.
Also, that picture of me on my profile was from when I was in Portland and Rachel came to visit. She brought me coffee in bed and I fell asleep. This morning, Jake brought me coffee in bed. And I did the same thing. I woke up to a little splash and found I had spilled some. And I was laying on Rachel's side of the bed. And I started to change the sheets and then couldn't find a clean set. And then I got to work and forgot about it until Rachel went to bed a little bit ago. I have apologized. And she found a clean bottom sheet somewhere and a different clean top sheet somewhere else.
I haven't given you a work update lately. It's pretty much the same old thing. Only it is freshly frustrating because I recently had a meeting with my friend who is one of my bosses and thought that things were going to change. But then when I asked my project manager to set up a project kick off meeting, she told me that they already started the project and I should talk to our customer to get the information I need. If my role is developer, then my project manager is supposed to get the requirements. Maybe when I get the requirements I'll ask her to do the development. Add to that the fact that my project manager has the key code I need to be able to VPN in to the servers I need to work on and, well, it's frustrating. She said she'd get that in the mail to me today. And she was supposed to have sent it last Monday. So maybe she'll send it next Monday and I'll start working late next week or something.
Then on another project, another hassle that pretty much boils down to, "Eric, you know that problem you fixed a while ago? Well, the customer still isn't satisfied, what do we do." And I say, "Well, if it were my decision, we should do A, B, and C, that's my recommendation, but it's your customer, so you need to make this decision." And I get back, "OK, what do we do, I guess we could do that, let me check, what do you think, let me cc somebody else so he can make the decision I guess."
People don't make decisions. And they don't follow up on things. And it is frustrating.
It's been like that from almost the first day I was there. I was in Chicago in a conference room and one of the owners walked in and said he wanted to do something. And one of the other owners said, "Are you sure you want to do that? Did you check with so and so?" And the first owner said, "No, I haven't talked with so and so." And the decision remained unmade.
When I ran my own business with Cuz, we made decisions quickly and did whatever needed doing. Before that, I worked at SSG before it became Eclipse Networks and we had this whole culture of, "Closing the loop." No task was completed until the status of completion was communicated to all affected parties. And if progress was delayed by a decision maker, you had the right to say, "This is the situation, the deadline is in two weeks, and I intend to do A, B, and C, unless I hear from you by the end of business in two days." That almost always got a response - somtimes it would be "Do A and C, but hold off on B until X happens." Other times it was, "That sounds great, and you should also do D." And if the decision maker did not respond, it was OK that you did A, B, and C because you communicated your intention in a timely manner and then were empowered to make a decision.
Anyway - the little kooky flower plant is cool. And Michael is up here helping get our house in order and get ready for that garage sale we still haven't had and won't have this weekend or next either. But it's all organized now. I want to leave my garage door open just to show off to the neighbors. And Jake got his own chores done and helped Grandpa in the morning. His friend Travis came over in the afternoon. That turned in to a sleepover. They are having fun.
Tomorrow I am going to finish my expense reports and submit them and I guess contact the customer to get my business requirements.
There's a little succulent/cactus like thing in there to the right of the orange and blue flowers. See it? I can't remember what it was called. Over the last few days, it has done this weird thing...
This offshoot just shot up out of nowhere and is about five times longer than the plant is tall. It looks like it's going to pop a bunch of little flowers.
After that, I don't know what's going to happen. Perhaps they will sprout wings and turn in to butterflies or something.
Also, that picture of me on my profile was from when I was in Portland and Rachel came to visit. She brought me coffee in bed and I fell asleep. This morning, Jake brought me coffee in bed. And I did the same thing. I woke up to a little splash and found I had spilled some. And I was laying on Rachel's side of the bed. And I started to change the sheets and then couldn't find a clean set. And then I got to work and forgot about it until Rachel went to bed a little bit ago. I have apologized. And she found a clean bottom sheet somewhere and a different clean top sheet somewhere else.
I haven't given you a work update lately. It's pretty much the same old thing. Only it is freshly frustrating because I recently had a meeting with my friend who is one of my bosses and thought that things were going to change. But then when I asked my project manager to set up a project kick off meeting, she told me that they already started the project and I should talk to our customer to get the information I need. If my role is developer, then my project manager is supposed to get the requirements. Maybe when I get the requirements I'll ask her to do the development. Add to that the fact that my project manager has the key code I need to be able to VPN in to the servers I need to work on and, well, it's frustrating. She said she'd get that in the mail to me today. And she was supposed to have sent it last Monday. So maybe she'll send it next Monday and I'll start working late next week or something.
Then on another project, another hassle that pretty much boils down to, "Eric, you know that problem you fixed a while ago? Well, the customer still isn't satisfied, what do we do." And I say, "Well, if it were my decision, we should do A, B, and C, that's my recommendation, but it's your customer, so you need to make this decision." And I get back, "OK, what do we do, I guess we could do that, let me check, what do you think, let me cc somebody else so he can make the decision I guess."
People don't make decisions. And they don't follow up on things. And it is frustrating.
It's been like that from almost the first day I was there. I was in Chicago in a conference room and one of the owners walked in and said he wanted to do something. And one of the other owners said, "Are you sure you want to do that? Did you check with so and so?" And the first owner said, "No, I haven't talked with so and so." And the decision remained unmade.
When I ran my own business with Cuz, we made decisions quickly and did whatever needed doing. Before that, I worked at SSG before it became Eclipse Networks and we had this whole culture of, "Closing the loop." No task was completed until the status of completion was communicated to all affected parties. And if progress was delayed by a decision maker, you had the right to say, "This is the situation, the deadline is in two weeks, and I intend to do A, B, and C, unless I hear from you by the end of business in two days." That almost always got a response - somtimes it would be "Do A and C, but hold off on B until X happens." Other times it was, "That sounds great, and you should also do D." And if the decision maker did not respond, it was OK that you did A, B, and C because you communicated your intention in a timely manner and then were empowered to make a decision.
Anyway - the little kooky flower plant is cool. And Michael is up here helping get our house in order and get ready for that garage sale we still haven't had and won't have this weekend or next either. But it's all organized now. I want to leave my garage door open just to show off to the neighbors. And Jake got his own chores done and helped Grandpa in the morning. His friend Travis came over in the afternoon. That turned in to a sleepover. They are having fun.
Tomorrow I am going to finish my expense reports and submit them and I guess contact the customer to get my business requirements.
posted by Eric Soderstrom at 10:55 PM
1 Comments:
I was thinking maybe you could send an e-mail to the customer listing what their requirements are & when you will deliver the solution for those requirements. If anyone has different requirements, they must be submitted no later than COB July 6, 2007.
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