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Conference 7.286::digital

Title:The Digital way of working
Moderator:QUARK::LIONELON
Created:Fri Feb 14 1986
Last Modified:Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:5321
Total number of notes:139771

277.0. "SemiUseful S.P.D.'s" by 16514::MOELLER (DEC has it [backordered] NOW!) Mon Mar 02 1987 16:42

    I'd like to present the 'Beancounter of the Year' award to the
    person or group who caused the removal of software ordering 
    information from our Software Product Descriptions.
    
    This was one part of the system that truly worked.. functional 
    description and ordering information available on one document.
    
    NOW we can A) flail about trying to find ordering info on a VTX
                  database somewhere on the Easynet, or
               B) carry a 'VAX/VMS Software Order Table' manual around
    
    I'm sure that the paper and ink saved by this omission more than 
    offsets the personnel cost caused by the extra time required
    to look up the information using method A or B above... every single
    time a Field person needs SPD info. Brilliant.
    
    karl moeller sws tucson az
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277.1CAMLOT::DAVISGotta keep raisin' the bar!Mon Mar 02 1987 18:1010
    Having gone through a tedious exercise of gathering Q-numbers recently,
    Karl, I can sympathize.
    
    However, the new SPDs were meant as "international" documents so
    the ordering information was stripped off so that each geography
    could add their own... *alas*
    
    grins,
    Marge
    
277.2Also to eliminate updates...CLUSTA::RYANJeffMon Mar 02 1987 19:114
    It was also felt that the addition of new cpus always caused an
    SPD to be out of date. They were continously updating an otherwise
    current SPD with new ordering information. The SSOT solution was
    to eliminate this update cycle.
277.3Fragmented Information SetsGOBLIN::MCVAYPete McVay, VRO TelecomTue Mar 03 1987 13:4019
    Sounds to me like another case where management and/or bureaucracy
    made it easy on themselves by putting the burden on the end user--that
    is, customer.  After all, the people in SPD know what the procedures
    are, so shouldn't everybody?  (RTFM)
    
    I have complained (mildly) for years about DEC's method of producing
    documentation, and it's a corporate mindset that seems to have crept
    into the ordering system.  HP, Zenith, and LOTUS, to name a few,
    all put out "unified document sets": that is, the manuals you receive
    are for THAT operating system only.  If you order a PASCAL compiler
    for your HP3000 series, you get manuals specific to PASCAL for that
    computer, as one document.  There isn't any of this "User's Guide
    for HP3000 PASCAL" and "Generic PASCAL Handbook" crap.
    
    If you think DEC's one-book-for-each-implementation policy ins't
    frustrating, try sitting down with the manuals for some of the other
    computers sometime.  It's so nice to be able to scan through one
    document set for the information, without having to figure out if
    it's in some special book to the side.
277.4With a big :-)MLOKAI::MACKEmbrace No ContradictionsWed Mar 04 1987 19:317
    Gee...I thought we'd solved the problem by making sure we only had
    one computer to write about, you know, the one that starts with
    a V...  (Yeah, I know, we still sell some of the other stuff, but,
    I mean, that's only because the customers insist on them.  I mean
    if we had it our way, there'd be nothing but VAX/VMS, right?)
    
    						Ralph
277.5Love the SPDs !!DPD01::BEELERWed Apr 15 1987 19:0512
    The "new" style SPDs are truly fantastic. Yesterday a customer dropped
    by to get the price on a software product. He got somewhat upset
    at waiting for nearly 2 hours while I went through a maze of SPDs,
    couldn't find the cross-reference, attempted to run it down through
    VIDEOtext SPDs, suffered through two communications drops, one
    unexpected system shutdown, to be concluded with the office printer
    failing.  I wish these people who make these decisions would, on
    rare occasions, just A-S-K if there would be any impact with a change
    of this nature.  It may be impractical to do so but - *(!&*@@# it
    I'm mad!
    
    
277.625.99.-3CRVAX1::KAPLOWThere is no 'N' in TURNKEYFri Apr 17 1987 17:0418
        I just discovered this sad fact 2 weeks ago, when I was installing
        VMS V4.5 and just about every layered product on an internal
        system for class use. The xref table hadn't been updated since
        V4.3. The nice handy 3 page list has been replaced by a several
        hundred page booklet that no one has seen, that requires you to
        page thru piles of shit before finding the little tidbits of
        information that we need. 
        
        Even worse, when I couldn't find the current list, I wasted 2
        hours searching thru the VTX SPD data base looking for it, unable
        to find it. When someone pointed me to the new list, I extracted
        it, expecting a few pages of printout. I got a 2" thick pile, and
        that took overnight for VTX to extract for me! 
        
        Somebody changed this from the handy reference document that it
        was meant to be into a huge, useless waste of paper. I thank them
        very much :-(