Leaving the Job
Published: 2007-04-06
Category: Life and stuff
Tags: work, job, great-plains, project
Language: [English]
page views: 500

Almost precisely a month ago I decided I'd had had enough.

On that day, a month ago, they broke me. I couldn't take it anymore. At last, I realized that my current job was bad for me, both mentally and physically.

I guess that upper management never considered that they might loose their entire IT team to a badly conceived project.
I'm pretty good Head of IT. I care for my team. I care for the problems of the organization. I try not to solve symptoms but eliminate that what causes them. I hate patches and work overtime to find structurally sound solutions. And most important of all, I'm just enough of a evil bastard that people don't come whining to my department because they refuse to think for themselfs.

In fact I loved my job, I really did. And there was so much stuff I could have done for that organization. So much to improve. Things were just getting together, getting to the point where we could turn it into an almost decent part of the organization.

Then upper management decides that, a year since it's final implosion, the previously failed ERP system has to be reimplemented.

It's never easy, implementing an ERP. Everybody knows that. An ERP touches every part of the organization. There's an almost infinite number factors to consider. Technical, procedural, organizational, financial, emotional. The works. And it all has to work together, between teams and little kingdoms. Otherwise it will implode under it's own weight, since you will never get any coherent data out of the thing.

I've often compared getting a ERP implemented to running a full marathon. All 42KM of it. Whether someone gets to the finish-line has much more to do with their preparations in the months before the marathon then with the day itself. If you don't have the focus and prep for that race, there's just no way you're going to finish it. End of story.

Now of course, anybody can decide that they will run a marathon. And many people do decide that. But only a fraction has the dedication and time to do the training. So, what do the rest do? Well.. they decide that they'd better change hobbies. That, after all, running isn't for them. And that's fine.

So, if implementing an ERP is like a marathon, and the management has decided we're going to run it. Then all of the organization should be focused, on doing what it takes to us get to that finish. This might mean not doing some other hobbies and postponing some projects. The idea being that later we can do all of these things, and more, since our physique improved dramatically.

So there I was, 8 months ago. Head of IT. Management wants to restart the ERP implementation. Sure I have something to do with this. It's software after all. Unfortunately upper management had decided on Microsoft's Dynamics GP 8.0 (formally known as Great Plains). Implementing version 7.5 was a complete failure. And now, in their infinite wisdom, have decided to implement 8.0 [1], without ever consulting any IT people (!!). But since IT is only a small part of any ERP implementation, sure, if everybody does their job like they have to, my people can take care of the IT part of it. No sweat.

So, when management only says that it's important, but doesn't change any priorities to make it happen. In all the meetings about the ERP it is "extremely critical", but none of the plans of management change to make this "critical" thing actually work. It's like saying that you are going to run those 42K, but never allocating the time for training or changing your diet.

I see that this happening. And, I start sending warning signals to management. For six months I send warning signals, almost weekly. First just hints, then reminders, suggestions, warnings, predictions, each one more dire then the previous. And nothing. Never did they really listen.

I raise the fact that there are no commitment of people to be in charge of the modules. That the people that have to decide how they want to do it are not deciding. How the consultants are just having the high-level view, but never get down to floor level to see if it really works. That our organization is a triangle, and Great Plains needs a square, so it will not fit in the current structure. That where are no processes in writing, or any descriptions of whom does what. That people are not getting the training they need. That there is no information on what procedures have to change (chicen-egg problem) etc, etc, etc.  

And each time, either it's brushed aside and ignored or they turn around and say "so if it's a problem, then you do it". When this project started out, I was supposed to supervise the tech aspects of this project like I have 5 others. And with each passing month, my responsibilities are more and more. Until anything that actually has to be done, has been assigned to me.

I am really impressed by the amount of confidence that management has in my abilities to execute. But that's just not real. And if you're wondering, in my IT department we're having a structural people shortage (another choice of management), so I can't delegate to my own resources to handle the extra work load.

Then it's end of November, 40 odd days to the launch. The application developer for the company (he depended directly on the general manager, and is not part of IT department) is called into a meeting with management about his advances in preparing all the systems that have been written over the last 2 years to patch up the missing pieces of Great Plains. This guy never had any official role in the new implementation. Now management wants to know "how things are going". And surprise, surprise, almost nothing is done. And another surprise: "We can't go live, if these systems are not available. The guy has been busy for months with new applications requested for management it self. So when should he do the migration? And to top it all off at beginnings of October, he offered plan for migration that ended somewhere in halfway January. It had been send to management, but, it seems, they didn't even revise it.

A snap decision is made. The developer gets re-assigned and I'm now his direct boss. Of course, this puts the self-esteem of the developer even further in the toilet. So, great, I have a really capable and expert developer. But I can't push him much, since management broke him for me. Thanks a lot! Ahhh.. and of course I get a new task. It all needs to be migrated by 1st of march. Literally: "Take the 1st of march and calculate back from there". Since I have a fixed date, I go into scope management.

Management is explaining delays due to "Internal systems that need to be migrated first". But we all know that's just a convenient lie. There are so many things not really, that even if these systems had not existed, there's no way in hell we would have been ready for January.

We work diligently to migrate all of the systems. And one by one they come on-line for Great Plains 8.0. One silly detail is that non of the details are being filled by the rest of the organization, so we often invent how it will work. Making up and defining as we go along. And by the first of march, the applications really are migrated. The developer, after much doubting, makes the right decision, and finds a new job. He informs the organization in January to leave halfway through February. Leaving me again without an expert developer.

Then it's the end of February. Most of the IT systems are migrated, but none of the other things that need to be done for this to work correctly, have been done. We're now 3 months passed the original launch date. I decide to go all out. First I talk to the project leader. He seems to listen, we plan a meeting with the general manager to see how best to continue.

Next day we talk to the general manager. And it all turns out to be the same thing. They will support "the decision making process" while I do all the work by my self, Also have to prepare the work for the people that have to make the decisions.

The day after that there just happens to be a "executive comity" meeting. Where the management meets with the consultants to discuss the state of the project. And I'm also invited. During the meeting, the consultants get a bit of an idea how my organization is attacking the problem. And, strangely enough, they end up saying much the same things i was trying to say the day before. Basically "It is not optimal that the IT person, does these tasks". The the response from management is "At this time, we have decided that our internal structure is best served by this division of tasks". After the meeting, the people from my organization converse together. And they start talking about the money aspects of the things presented. Never did they even consider the other aspects raised in the meeting. All they discuss is the monetary issue. and none of the others raised.

And this is the moment i broke. I see an organization in denial. If we go life in  this situation the organization will be having an informational heart attack, before even passing the 10 kilometre mark. Disaster is guaranteed if things say the way they are. But nobodies listening.

Realizing that probability of success is now zero, I evaluate clearly how the coming months will look like and what my options are.  What can I do?
 - I can renounce to the project. This is probably what i would have liked to do the most because, remember i love my job as head of IT. But refusing to work on something is weak basis, and either wont work or will get my ass fired.
 - I can just shut-up, work the best i can, and wait for it all to fall apart. That would probably take around 4 to 6 months to happen. That would mean 4 to 6 months of feeling crappy. Of feeling like a failure. And then, once it is all over. Someone will have to pay the price. Since I have had my fingers in all of the thing, I'll be the obvious "Guilty Party". No matter that I have been warning for over a year that things are not working out. I failed to inform my management of this reality. Not a nice prospect. To be all depressed and doubting myself while looking for work.
 - I can just keep quiet, and look for something else to do and just leave the organization. Very much like my developer colleague did 6 weeks earlier. This is what I chose to do.

So, when I found something that suited my needs. I wrote my resignation letter with the legal 30 days notice. And two weeks ago, I passed it to the general manager.

Strange thing was. That he asked me what the problem was. He told me he didn't think it was wise for anybody that i would leave the organization at this moment. He seemed to have Listened to me, and started moving a lot of stuff the way I have been saying for months how it should be done. It was quite tempting to believe and make it work. But I am broken. I have said the same things many times. I should not have to present my resignation papers before they take me serious. I'm not for playing those games. Besides, I already made a deal with an other organization to start working for them. So after thinking it over for a weekend, I decided to go ahead and leave anyway.

Even stranger, my job assignment since then has not been "document and transfer knowledge" but: "End the migration phase and start doing tests with the users". I truly do not understand what the use of this is. But ohh, well. Other thing is that now, 2 weeks later, nobody knows what's going to happen with the people left in the IT department. They management hasn't talked to them at all about me leaving and what's going to happen. The morale is through the floor for the people staying in that department, and one is now on sick leave.

Everybody is tired of the strain this ERP has put on it IT department. There is no light at that tunnel anymore.

The strain of this ill conceived project that was initiated without any of the players being involed and nobody feeling responsible for it's outcome. I think it will cost the organization dearly.

[1] Great Plains it self: in two years of observing, experience and suffering, i can conclude that it is one of the most sad pieces of software I have ever seen. It is a sad sad thing, even for Microsoft. It has such gaping security holes that it's not even fun to hack. It has mayor data integrity and usability issues. But really that's all part of a article that one day soon, I will have to write.