Ebola Project and Me - A Conversation

Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Ebola: Hello! I'm baaa-aaack!

Me: Swell. Can't you see I'm on the phone, here?

Ebola: Sure, but I wait for no one. I am EBOLA.

Me: You may be EBOLA, but I'm on DUTY. You'll just have to wait until I'm done.

EBOLA: ::pouts::

---some time later---

EBOLA: Are you done yet? Huh? HUH? ARE YOU DONE YET?

Me: Yes. What is it you want?

EBOLA: I need to talk to you about the 21st iteration of the design you did.

Me: You mean the one I delivered on April 14th?

EBOLA: That's the one. We have a VERY IMPORTANT MEETING with the customer tomorrow, and I have VERY IMPORTANT QUESTIONS about the design.

Me: You're just now getting around to looking at my deliverables? You've had them for a week.

EBOLA: I operate on a JUST IN TIME model. Because it sounds IMPORTANT.

Me: If you say so. What do you want to know?

EBOLA: About the software licenses....

Me: I explained that last week. I had to manually adjust to accommodate the new load.

EBOLA: About the server specifications....

Me: I provided the list and the references on April 17th.

EBOLA: But you didn't look them up for me.

::cue crickets::

EBOLA:
And I need the server-sharing load matrix.

Me: The one I've sent twice already? I guess I can send it again...

EBOLA:
About the third party integration...

Me: I documented those requirements in September of last year.

EBOLA: About this OEM proposal...

Me: What OEM proposal? That was never in scope.

EBOLA: Did we forget to mention that? Oops.

Me:

EBOLA: Hello? Are you there? I'll need you on the customer call tomorrow, in case there are questions...hello? How come I can never get any decent engineering support around here?

11 comments:

mom in northern said...

Gee
Can I borrow that picture?

That is the way my current volunteer project has been going. The disc is burned now and I am going to devliver it to the printer in a few hours...
Can you say "changes" after the first proof is run? Hmmmmm thought you could...

Janiece said...

I don't know if volunteer projects are worse or better than paid projects in this respect...

Some dude stuck in the Midwest said...

I know! I know!

We will consider your suggestion, and we will implement them in Phase Nteen.

vince said...

Been there, done that with clients. No current clients however, as the advantage I have is that I can make them go away. And do. You have my sympathy.

Janiece said...

Vince, this one is worth a great deal of money for the company, so I'm gritting my teeth and trying to provide the best support I can.

Stupid economy.

neurondoc said...

Crap. This reminds me of how one firm has been interatcing with us. I am going to print out this picture and bring it to the meeting we are having at 4 today... :-D

neurondoc said...

Aargh. *interacting*.

WendyB_09 said...

Oh, yes. I feel your pain.

One of my groups has an event this coming Saturday. It's a fundraiser for our national foundation. The chairman of the event hasn't even called the volunteers to tell us when to be there and what we're doing.

There's been no promotion at all, local, regional events, national newsletters...not a thing...and the promotion person is a marketing person? huh?

Well, if they have the event, there may be no one there to play and no one there to run the thing.

WendyB_09

Janiece said...

Natalie, that's "Shawn of the Dead," baby. Love that pic.

Wendy, it sounds like your event will be quite interesting for the Chairman. You and the rest of the group can go out and drink!

WendyB_09 said...

Yeah, we've been one of the alumni chapter's that everyone points to and sez "gee, they know how to do golf tournaments right." NOT!

At least not this year. And worse, the guy that's chairing started this event 6 years ago, and should have KNOWN he was in over his head between his new job responsibilites and his volunteer work.

Worse, there are enough people that have worked on the planning committee for this event in the past that know how to do it, and had we known, could have bailed his sorry ass out.

Which means, if he didn't already cancel the event OR reduce the number of particpants he contracted for with the course, we may have to pay the golf club full price for a handful of golfers and a buttload of volunteers. So it will not be a fundraiser.

WendyB_09

MWT said...

That's an awesome picture. ;)