It's the old "Oh hell, you've done what I said and not what I meant" scenario.
It started off simple enough. Boss Man sends me several documents and says he wants them "automated". By this, he means that he wants me to create HTML forms where people can enter the information rather than filling out a paper form. I talk to him about it for a bit, and we arrive at an understanding. Basically, I just need to present the form, do a little data validation, and when finished, present the form in a printable format.
So off I go. I grab the first form, convert it to a template, and write up a simple script to present the form, do some basic validation, etc. Basically, just what he said he wanted.
(Surely you can see this one coming ...)
No, no, no. This needs to validate against the Systems database and cross reference against any affected systems. If the user says the form relates to an Exchange server, it needs to be smart enough to create a cross reference entry for every fucking Exchange server we have. Same for Sendmail, Linux, Windows NT, 2000, 2003, etc. And, any time we bring up a system on the Systems database, we should be able to see and access all of the forms related to it.
Basically, it needs to be tightly integrated into a system that doesn't even exist yet. Huh?
I'm sure, at some level, this is all my fault ... like when I accepted employment at this institution ...
Posted from exitwound.org, comment here.
