I have found that convincing management is really more a matter of showing
them “evidence” in addition to my own opinion. So, get case studies.
Or get anecdotal evidence. See if you can use Ruby for a small project
where the Bourne Shell or C, or Visual Duh would have been used…
Talk to your in-house Java people. Ask them to please just review some
of this “evidence” and try it out. If any of them have worked with
scripting before…they will probably like it.
You see, management typically is averse to RISK. I have been on job
interviews where the manager said they would prefer to use software X for a
project, but even though it was a better product, they didn’t want to be
singled out as the “bad guy” who suggested it… so they went with
Micro$oft because they said they could just blame it on them. When you
can tell UPPER management that they have to wait for a BIG company to get
around to fixing it, OR that the big guy is to blame , then your job is
safer [ and with all of the layoffs we’ve witnessed, they are REALLY
averse to risk]. [ This does not imply that the intention is to lay blame
on them for a fixable problem ].
This reminds me of the character - Vs - GUI debate. If I want to check
on a backup, or check on a print job from home, or over a not-so-fast
connection, do you think I care about the GUI interface which takes 3 to
5 times longer to get to ?
Or do I want to just telnet in, and type a command, get my data and logout
in the same timeframe…?
GUI’s are ALOT sexier than character based apps. The marketing people
say so. The perception is that GUI is therefore always going to be
better… I think it depends on what purposes these changes
serve…
In the case of support personnel …SPEED is paramount. IF you are a
data entry clerk, GUI’s are not going to remain sexy - or very
exciting beyond 30 days if the old interface allowed them to work faster,
or was more helpfull in doing their jobs.
Good Luck…we’ve all been there…
Greg
Shannon Fang
<xrfang@hotmail.c To: <ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org>
> cc:
12/11/02 06:36 PM
Please respond to
ruby-talk
What do you mean making waves? Confused…
Shannon
···
Subject: Re: help – persuade my boss to adopt ruby
On Thu, 12 Dec 2002 08:00:28 +0900 “Ted” ted@datacomm.com wrote:
Unfortunately, people rise in management by NOT making waves…
Hi Phil,
You are absolutely right. What they fear is that:
- Currently only I understand Ruby.
- Java is in vogue. They want the language to be there after 10-20
years…I am currently writing a small introduction letter to my boss…
Shannon
