Technological Excuses: A Rant : D. Keith Robinson's Asterisk

Technological Excuses: A Rant

May 03, 2005 | Comments 25 Comments

“Can’t Never Did Anything.”

That was something my Mom used to say to me when I was little. And it’s true. There were times in my young life where I had a decidedly “can’t do” attitude. I’d come up with all sorts of reasons why I just couldn’t do something. Of course my mother, with her motherly wisdom and years of experience, knew all too well that I could do these things.

I was either lazy, or scared or intimidated or just plain didn’t want to do. This is an attitude I see quite often from Web professionals and I can’t help buy wonder why.

Technological scapegoat

Now that I’m older I can better recognize the “can’t do” when it pops up, in myself and in others. And frankly it pisses me off more often than not. Sure there are times when you really can’t do something and there are legitimate times when you simply don’t want to do something for whatever reason. But more often than not it seems to be laziness, fear or lack of know-how.

I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say something like, “the CMS won’t allow us to do such-and-such.” Or, “our FlexGUI won’t allow for easy implementation of a liquid layout.”

(That last one is true. Totally hilarious, but true.)

I’ve been guilty of this and to be honest, I’m really working on never again blaming a bit of technology on anything unless it’s really the reason why something can’t be done and I’ve got no hope of trying another technology or getting around it in some way.

Most often it doesn’t even come to that. I sit down and think about it and usually I’ll come up with a solution. Nowadays if I honestly think something can’t be done, I say I’ll try and sort it out and at least give myself a chance to solve the problem before thinking of another way.

I had a Web developer the other day tell me we couldn’t recreate a simple roll-over effect with CSS. Maybe he couldn’t get that working right that second, but it definitely could be done.

Technology shouldn’t make business decisions

In many cases I’m seeing that the technology (or, more accurately, the people using the technology) is driving business decisions. This, to me anyway, is totally backwards. A classic cart before the horse situation. It reminds me of a “dot-bomb” experience I had awhile back. I worked for a company who would let their testing department dictate the release schedule. Sure this was great for the geeks who felt they always needed more time, and simply “couldn’t conform to marketing’s aggressive schedule.” But it drove the rest of the company crazy.

I always thought this was bullshit. I mean, shouldn’t business people make business decisions? If you can’t handle the workload, hire more people. If you’re technology isn’t flexible enough to handle the requirements laid out by your designers, get a new technology. Technology should help you solve problems, not create more.

It’s a people problem

99% of the time I hear someone crow about not being able to do something it sure as heck can be done. Sadly oftentimes instead of actually getting done it gets half-assed or compromised in someway and this more often than not causes failure for the project. You can usually chalk that up to poor decision-making or ego.

And why to companies insist on riding a technology until the bitter end? I mean if it’s really a hinderance and you know it’s going to fail, wouldn’t it make sense to kill it and go a new direction sooner rather than later? I’ve seen millions (yes, millions) wasted on a poor choice of technology.

I think this is usually an attitude problem, cultivated by having to deal with poorly developed technology. There are a few ways around this. First, take a positive, problem solving attitude and second, get better (more flexible, more standard, more appropriate, etc.) technology.

Prepare. Then take a can do, problem solving attitude.

A truly successful business will take a decidedly can do attitude and back that up with solid research, helping to insure the technologies they go with won’t provide any opportunity for a can’t do mentality to rear it’s ugly head.

As well, successful leaders know when to put their ego on ice and pull the plug on something that is destined for failure. A sure sign of successful leadership is how they deal with bad decisions and crisis.

Sounds pretty simple to me.

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Comments

1. Dave P said:

Technology shouldn’t make business decisions

Nothing more true has ever been uttered. I’m still shocked at how seemingly adept business leaders allow themselves to be pushed around by know-it-all IT types.

I suppose in a round about way, it comes back to being their own fault though. Decision makers have heard the call to “listen to your tech staff”. Problem is, their own ignorance causes them to do so even when they really shouldn’t.

In my short career, I’ve learned that techies that can focus on business goals are like diamonds in the rough - although a lot more rare.

Posted on May 3, 2005 10:25 AM | #

2. Rimantas said:

If you can’t handle the workload, hire more people.

What have happened to the Brooks law?

And yes, you end up using not what you need, but what your managers want to buy.

Posted on May 3, 2005 10:34 AM | #

3. Keith said:

Rimantas – Good point. However the idea behind what I’m saying is true and in that case I’m not talking about programming. Ideally you’d have the resources before you begin. I guess it could say “work harder” as well. The bottom line is that something like a testing cycle should never, ever, dictate the release date of a product.

Posted on May 3, 2005 10:46 AM | #

4. Dave P said:

It’s called “crashing the project”, and is common in most Project Managment methodologies.

Just because most software projects seem to have a tough time doing it doesn’t mean it can’t be done - and done successfully.

Wasn’t that the whole point of the post? :-)

Posted on May 3, 2005 10:55 AM | #

5. web said:

Will the “Can do” attiude put flash in an email for me?

This has been tested and failed several times .. but clients keep asking for it?

It’s hard to keep up the can do attiude when you know the results of something.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:02 AM | #

6. Kevin said:

I’ve seen this in a number of large IT organizations that I’ve worked with and I’m equally appalled by the “can’t do” attitude of many of the people I encountered. They can’t get it to work, they can’t meet the schedule, they can’t imagine being flexible or adapting to changing business needs. Drives me nuts.

Rimantas is dead on about Brooks’ Law. It’s not about getting more people, it’s about getting better people. Ones who can factor in business needs and user needs when they work. Ones who understand that programming and design almost never bring us truly unsolvable problems. It’s usually a lack of imagination and ingenuity that leads people to say “it can’t be done”.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:08 AM | #

7. Dave P said:

Flash in an email

Looks doable to me.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:10 AM | #

8. Ipswitch said:

web (#5) I think you’re missing the point. Or maybe you’re just kidding? Of course there are things that can’t be done, or more like it, shouldn’t be done even if they can. But this isn’t the point, I don’t think, of the post.

The point is that people use technological limitations and lack of creativity and know-how to get out of getting things done.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:11 AM | #

9. Keith said:

Web – I think that can be done. However, should you do that? I don’t think so. But really that’s not the point. It’s using Flash, or any other tool, as an excuse to not do something. I see this all the time.

Kevin – Exactly. It’s a people problem usually.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:13 AM | #

10. Gabe said:

Great post. Reminds me of the quote that goes something like “Things that are impossible just take longer”, which is usually pretty applicable.

Posted on May 3, 2005 11:24 AM | #

11. Kevin Tamura said:

Jenel, my girlfriend, was complaining about this last night. Her IT department refuses to network the design department’s Macs. So any of the packaging die-lines she get from vendors need to be posted to an FTP server so the design people (10 feet away) can pull it down and work on them. With a little reading and tinkering the macs could be up and running on the network.

Personally I take the attitude (well try to) of adapt and overcome. It makes life so much easier.

Posted on May 3, 2005 01:17 PM | #

12. Mike D. said:

What I always do to get around that sort of attitude is by asking hypothetical questions like:

“If our president came up here and told you this had to be done or the company would go under, how quickly could it possibly be done?”

or

“If the fate of the world rested on you completing this task, how long would it take you to complete?”

Questions like that force people to throw out the “it’s not worth the effort” side of their argument, which is generally the *only* side of their argument. At that point, they are forced to think of the real work involved and not just what their opinion of the task is.

Posted on May 3, 2005 01:30 PM | #

13. Justin said:

Quote from the first hit from Dave P’s link:
“Would you like to have a signature file on your emails that instantly tells recipients you are a good designer?”

Flash != “Good Designer”

Since this post is a rant, I’ll take this opportunity to mini-rant as well. I’m SICK and TIRED of all of these mindless ‘tech-savvy’ lusers that think [Word/Publisher/Excel/Insert sh*t program here] is the best thing to happen to the computing world since Al Gore invented the Internet. JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN INSERT A CUTE WIDDLE PUDDY TAT IN YOUR QUARTERLY REPORT DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE A ‘GOOD DESIGNER’ (whatever that means) Please STOP sending me e-mails with a damned blue flowered background and more use of the <marquee> than Madison Square Garden.

This flash-in-your-email thing, if it takes off, is going to make me have an aneurysm.

Regards,
Justin (OMGWTFLOLLERSKATES ITS A MARKEEEEE!!!!)

Posted on May 3, 2005 01:37 PM | #

14. Dave P said:

Justin: I’m actually on your side… and I’ve set my email to text only on purpose… I was mearly countering the opinion that it couldn’t be done.

By no means do I think it *should* be done. At all.

Btw, I’m an IT guy speaking here, so some of us do in fact see the light! :-)

Posted on May 3, 2005 02:36 PM | #

15. aaron said:

“Things that are impossible just take longer”

As in, invest as much of your personal time as you like, but we’re clinging to the rough budget estimate you pulled out of your ass in the introductory meeting 2 months ago while the spec was still fluid. Oh, and did we mention we need it tomorrow?

I would love to tinker until I could make a lot neat tech tricks work, reality just keeps getting in my way.

Posted on May 3, 2005 03:31 PM | #

16. JPrime said:

>> And why to companies insist on riding a technology until the bitter end?

This is something I’ve had personal experience with lately. Our CMS truly limits the type of content we can place on a page (horizontal rule anyone? sorry, no can do …) but it is proving very difficult to break the momentum this product has gathered.

Management don’t want to ‘waste’ the money we’ve already spent, even though it would seem to have been wasted already and continues to waste more.

It’s almost like you’re not allowed to make accept taht mistakes can be made when purchasing technology.

Posted on May 3, 2005 06:50 PM | #

17. David said:

> I don’t know how many times I’ve heard someone say
> something like, “the CMS won’t allow us to do such-and-such.”

That might actually be true. CMS are complex things. With good ones, you can do anything you want. With bad ones, you can’t. If the system has architectural flaws, there will be more than one thing (and also more than a dozen things) you cannot do. Stupid hacks to emulate the wanted behavior are not a solution, as they consume too much time and in the end won’t work as intended anyway.
CMS are also expensive. You cannot go ahead and just switch to another one which solves your problem. Okay, you can. It’s nowhere close to impossible, it just takes a huge amount of money and manpower. The problem is: somewhere along you’ll stumble across something called cost-value-ratio. And there’s no point in implementing whatever feature for, say, a web site that would make the customer… uh huh, you’re spot on, some dumb feature the customer won’t even notice. It’s time for a workaround here, time to sit down and decide to take another approach to the problem instead of wasting money and time just because some technology, be it from earth or outer space, can do it.

Posted on May 4, 2005 01:32 AM | #

18. Tomas Jogin said:

“Can’t do” is often –not always– short for “can’t do given these set circumstances”, where those circumstances are usually “the set timeframe” or “the set budget”.

Also, since most clients don’t have an infinite amount of money, one often uses a reusable component to save money and/or time.

Building your project on a reusable component will 1) save you money/time and 2) restrict your project to what that component was designed to do. Sure the reusable component can be extended to do whatever it is you want it to be able to do, be it a CMS or some framework or whatever, but not without breaking set circumstances (license, budget, time).

I don’t see how a “can do attitude” will somehow magically remove the fact that doing things takes time. And time costs money. And usually both money and time is limited, sometimes severely so.

Posted on May 4, 2005 01:35 AM | #

19. Ste Grainer said:

Okay, I confess. I’ve used the technology excuse not out of laziness, but out of having to explain why something *shouldn’t* be done. Quite a few people (mostly the older ones) don’t want to be bothered with long-winded (or even short-breezed) explanations of why something shouldn’t be done. Instead, I find myself on occasion saying that something just isn’t technically feasible, even when I know it is. I know that client education is an important issue, and I do want to help these people understand why some of their suggestions just aren’t a good idea. But if they don’t want to hear it, what other option is there?

Posted on May 4, 2005 06:36 AM | #

20. Keith said:

david – you’ve touched on exactly what I’m talking about. Of course there are hundreds of CMS systems out there that literally can’t do many things. I’ve argued many times in the past that most CMS solutions aren’t worth jack. Still, this is where proper planning comes in, and I’m telling you that sometimes, most times, it’s better to cut your CMS losses early rather than deal with failure. We did that at my last job (Children’s Hosptial) and in the long run saved a bunch of money and ended up with something that met its goals and that we could be proud of.

Thomas – I disagree, in part, with your last point. Sometimes all you need to get something done is to do it. Excuses get you nowhere.

Ste – Well, I don’t think I can argue with that. If you’ve got a client that just won’t listen, I know how easy it can be to not bother wasting your breath. Too bad though.

Posted on May 4, 2005 08:42 AM | #

21. Garrett Dimon said:

Not to get all inspirational on you, but this seems to fall right in line with one of my favorite quotes.

Those who say it can’t be done are being passed by those doing it.

Don’t know who said it, but I love it.

Posted on May 4, 2005 08:43 PM | #

22. Ray said:

Yup. That was a rant. Good read though ; )

Posted on May 5, 2005 06:44 AM | #

23. Jeff said:

Nice article Keith. I do think that you may have missed a crucial point however. DISCLAIMER: I am speaking from my experienc in IT at my company, I don’t want to sound as if this applies to everyone or every company, etc.

Everyday single day, I tell internal customers that something can not be done, and I am not being lazy, trying to sidestep a stupid request, etc. It really is that it can’t be done. No, really. And, it is the fault of the business people who did not trust IT in the first place during technology review, requiremetns definition, etc. The culture here at my job is FUBAR. Problem is, the business people chose the technology to begin with, without a full understanding of the consequences of their decision. This is due to a lot of factors: not trusting IT, rushing projects, etc.

Now Keith will come back and say “then get a new technology”. And he is right. BUT, “easier said than done”, in a culture such as mine couldn’t be more appropriate.

I could go on and on about the circumstances, reasons, etc. But the fact remains, in my company, IT didn’t push back enough against the business people, we let them make the decisions to begin with - “business needs drive technology selection, not the other way around”. In my companies’ case, it didn’t exactly work out. I know this is an exception, but thought I’d share.

Posted on May 5, 2005 10:10 AM | #

24. Keith said:

Jeff – Then get a new technology! Heh, just kidding. I feel for you, and I can see what you mean. But, again, it comes down to a people problem in the end, doesn’t it? Sounds like you’re IT people have a bit of a communication issue with the business people.

You’re situation is probably pretty common, but a whole other issue. I think ideally the business people would make business decisions and IT would take those decisons and make the the appropraite technological desisions. Seems like you’ve got a culture that’s a bit backwards in that regard.

Posted on May 5, 2005 10:28 AM | #

25. Sam said:

Tomas - totally agree with what you say in #18. Particularly about deadlines.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s NEVER tell someone that their estimated timeline is wrong, except to say that it’s too short. If you’re unlucky, you’ll scare them into saying that it can be done quicker.

The other thing I’ve learned is, on the other side, never back down your time estimates. At worst, you’ll be hailed as a miracle worker ;-)

I’ve seen many situations where people saying “look, it just needs to be done, so do it” leads to:

* The people building the project (or whatever it is) get really stressed out.
* The project’s rushed and isn’t done properly
* It’s inevitably late, and the people who refused to take “can’t” for an answer haven’t prepared for it.

It’s not about technology dictating business decisions. It’s about business decisions being made in the light of unavoidable constraints.

It’s called reality, and you have to deal with it.

Posted on May 12, 2005 05:21 AM | #

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