Programming Logic (?)

I made a living for a good many years working as an analyst in several data centers. As an analyst it was my job to translate the needs of the customer into simple words and phrases that the programmers translated into computer code so the customer could get the information he wanted in the format he needed. While it was often a chore getting the customer to understand that some of their dreams were not achievable I generally had a much harder time getting the programmer to understand just what needed to be done. As a rule programmers are bright, articulate, eager and without a shred of common sense. Without exception they always thought that the code they produced was sufficient to answer all needs and that others (such as myself) had no business questioning their logic.

Over the years I developed a pretty good skill set in adapting the programmer’s zeal to real world situations and giving the customer a product that answered their need and didn’t obscure the reason for getting there. Now retired from the data world I recently ran across a brilliant illustration of an analysts failure to communicate and control and a programmers need to write “brilliant code”.

One of my email accounts, run by a national company, was hijacked by a spammer who proceeded to make my life “interesting” for several weeks. After attempting lots of hopeful solutions I went through my email provider and asked them to block my account until the issue was resolved. Notice that I had to go through my email account because the provider does not offer any phone numbers to call.

Now that my account is blocked when I try to access the email account I’m directed to a screen that explains the account is blocked and that they will send an access number to an alternate email account. The issue is that the alternate account is one that I had over 10 years ago and dropped about two moves ago and there is no way to change the alternate address, I also have no idea how they got it but that’s a side issue. As of right now it’s a perfect closed loop situation, create a screen that could contain incorrect information and fail to provide an escape route when the screen proves to be a dead end for the customer!

Next week I’ll block out a full day to call corporate and talk my way down the hierarchy until I find someone who can break me free. All because some programmer thought of an elegant way to help the customer and an analyst failed to spot a dead end in the making. Wish me well…it might be some time before I resurface.