Anaheim - June, 1997

6/26 - Singapore Reprise

I'm not really in Singapore, I'm flying back home from Anaheim. The reference to Singapore relates to the software testing that I was doing there last month. We spent the last 4 days testing a newer version of the same software here. Instead of calling the guys in Boston every morning & evening, they came out for the testing too. We had a really productive several days and it was great working closely with them again. We were at the same hotel, so there was time to get together for beers & dinner after we left the plant. We got to know each other quite well & the extra time was really great for planning our approach for the next day. The local guys we were working with were great too. It was a true team effort.

One of the interesting aspects of this product is that the Boston guys didn't write the entire package; they relied on 2 other teams to write certain sections. And it became very apparent that they were very frustrated with one of the key guys who was doing the communications part. This product is totally useless without the his part and we were turning up some serious problems with it. They were some of the same problems that I had found in Singapore but which had not gotten fixed. In fact the guy had pretty much dismissed what I had reported. This time he was basically AWOL when we needed him to work on his stuff & really get to the core problems. It pissed me off because here was a whole team whose efforts were being trashed by one guy's prima donna attitude. And I had my own credibility at stake since I have gone out on a limb to keep the company from using competitive software while we wait for this to be delivered. So I wrote up my observations & concerns and sent a note to the VP in Boston responsible for the overall project. That was yesterday. Today the guy got assigned to a new boss & from what I hear received an "attitude adjustment" too. I'm told he has already fixed one of the serious bugs. A little different side of the business than you usually hear about.

Update on Ron, the cop guy (of the Heebie Jeebie story)... After he left Singapore he went on to Bangkok, where he got caught in a rain storm, slipped & fell on the flooded street (right next to where the lepers beg), gashed his leg, had it treated at an emergency ward, & contracted a still unidentified viral infection! He came home almost on a stretcher. He is back at work now, the infection apparently controlled if not eliminated. But I can't help thinking he should have had his palm read... he might have saved himself a bunch of grief!

Not much else to say about this trip. We didn't go to Disneyland, we were at work until about 7:30 each evening. It's starting to look like my travel schedule in July will be rather light. The product we worked on here won't be ready to go out until August when I expect I will have a lot of requests for help with it from all over. And some of the other projects are kind of incubating. But I think after about August 1st, I will be out for several weeks both Europe & Asia. I will probably have a couple of shorter trips in July for more testing of our product.