Ever try to explain something to someone, and they just Do. Not. Get it? No matter how clearly you try to explain it? Share your stories of frustration.
My project manager is like this. She complains that I never keep her in the loop. True, I never do. But there’s a reason why. If I try to explain something to her, she’ll twist it into the most bizarre interpretation ever, then argue with me about it. If I let her drive the project at that point, I’ll end up having to do the most illogical stuff that I know is going to hurt far more than it’s going to help.
A few days ago, a user was complaining that when he tried to submit a web form, he was getting a weird SQL error. (Conversion of string to datatype tinyint.) He claimed that he was having keyboard problems, and when he typed in a number he would sometimes follow it with a dash. Our form accepted this, but SQL didn’t, hence the error. For instance, he might try to type in “27”, but would accidentally type “27-” instead. Our form accepted that. It would also accept “2-7” and, of course, “-27”. The reason we wrote it that way was so that users could enter negative numbers. All ten digits and the dash symbol would pass the validation routine.
The solution was pretty obvious: Only accept the dash symbol if it’s the first character, otherwise raise an error. Simple, right? I modified and implemented the code.
I e-mailed the user with more or less what I explained here. I cc’ed my project manager.
Big. Mistake.
“So now we’re allowing them to enter ranges?”
No. We’re preventing them from doing so.
“But we need definite numbers, not ranges.”
They can no longer enter ranges. Before they could type one in, but they’d get an error. Now they can’t type that.
“So they can’t type a dash?”
Yes, but only at the beginning of a number. That way they can have negative numbers.
“But they’re not supposed to be able to type in negative numbers. A patient can’t have a temperature of negative ninety eight degrees!”
Hopefully a user wouldn’t type that in.
“But users make mistakes! We don’t want them to type in negative numbers! Why did you give them that ability.”
I didn’t. I took away their ability to make a very specific typo.
“And you gave them the ability to put in ranges.”
Noooooo! GAWD! Let me explain again. They can no longer put a dash in the middle of a number, nor at the end.
“So they can’t put a dash anywhere?”
Only at the beginning. In SOME fields on SOME forms they might want to put a negative number.
“So you gave them the ability to put in negative numbers.”
This went on for about ten minutes. Every now and then she’d look at me like I was speaking Chinese, then look to my office mate (who speaks Chinese) for clarification. Office mate says exactly what I’m saying. Moron looks back at me and says “So now they can put in ranges.”
When she finally left the office, she was clearly of the opinion that that I confered this new, “illegal” ability on the users, giving them the power to enter ranges and negative numbers.
As she left, she said “Next time you do something like that, could you run it by me first?”
Yes, I could. I could also hit myself in the head with a hammer. Just as painful but not as time consuming.
