Solving 'real life' problems

[camjocotem]

I am aware of best practice methods and ways that things should be implemented but across some jobs I've ended up with systems that put me in a hard place.

I was thinking maybe it would be useful to get a list of short-term fixes to problems to tide people over until time gets allocated to solve problems properly if anyone wants to share?

[camjocotem]

For example:

I have to do work on a rather old website which uses VB Asp.NET / JQuery

This was under no source control / had no build process / had no deployment methods and all changes are literally made by connecting to the project on the server with Visual Studio and making the changes directly.

Long story short, I wasn't able to work on this on my local machine or implement it in any build/deployment process.

 

I used to take .zip backups of the website (Yuck!) before doing any changes but after some time realised I could make a local git repository on the server that I could work with.

It's still a crap solution but it's a bit more managed than what I was working with before.

[Guest]

Lustig what needs to be done long term & then breakdown short term with dates you think they should be completed is great 

 

when people are difficult, remain professional. Never outlast emotion. 

 

If you would like some help with people skills, Human Resources might be a good place for advice if you ask politely. 

“I don’t have any issues but in the case I ever end up in a situation, what are some good ways to prevent social issues?” 

 

Human Resources is the department in charge of “if they’re a problem, we get rid of them, or change them.” More or less. 

[cluelessgenius]

dont underestimate the cost of change itself. i often find myself thinking "this would all be way better if we used XYZ" but even if channging it costs no money and very little time. other people working on it might already be used to the old ways and sometimes its worth to quit asking after the first time got shot down.

 

always remember who you are talking too. customers dont wanna hear the technicalities or wouldnt understand if they did. for example im a consultant so im hired full time by my company and then im activly working at the clients company most of the time. so once a month we have a metting with all consultants at the "home" office.

and everyone reports how their projects are going. i seem to be almost the only one who knows that my boss doesnt wanna hear about the software. he only wants to know if theres problems with the working conditions,if the client is happy with your work, if the client is looking to hire more people (potentially from us) and how long our current contract with them is so he can plan what to do next. 

 

make friends - i always struggle to just randomly start caring for strange new coworkers lifes but social interaction with your coworkers is more important than the actual quality of your work. at least in my expierence. "hes a bit new to everything so i have to double check all his work right now but hes a good dude its all cool"