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11/30/2006: "Surfacing Momentarily For Air"
My job is nuts these days.
I'm a lead process developer on a software project. My job is to take a commercial web-based software package and, working with the software vendor, a team of coders, and my user community, bash the sucker into something that will work in the factory. It's a challenge, and these days, it's all-encompassing of my time. Through the magic of the internet, let's travel back and see how the last 24 hours have gone in my life ...
Wednesday, 6:00 AM - I'm teaching a class on our software to a group of pilot users today at 8. It will the the third straight day with a morning class. Normally, I'd get in at 7 to unlock the classroom and fire up the computers, but I was working with my software writers to fix some bugs last night, and now I have to modify all the training shop orders I'll be using in the class - all 24. So I'm in the hoteling center for an hour before heading off to class.
8:00AM - Class starts. This is a lively bunch - I could really use a whip and chair.
9:00AM - My cell phone goes off in the middle of a demonstration. It's on vibrate, so I glance down and see it's my project manager. He knows I'm teaching this morning, so it must be bad ...
9:15AM - Class breaks and I return the call. Our pathfinder effort, which we've been working towards for 6 weeks and is scheduled to start on Thursday morning, has hit the fan. Apparently, the managers in our pilot area - who've been working with us all along - have finally realized we're serious about turning on our software in the morning and have suddenly developed a full-blown panic attack. I send two guys from my team off to hold their hair as they puke ...
10:00AM - Phone goes off again during another key moment in class. They'll just have to wait this time.
11:30AM - Class breaks and I return calls. Everyone's calling everyone else and no one knows what's going on. The project manager calls a meeting for 3 this afternoon to pick up the tattered pieces of our pathfinder.
12PM - Looks like I actually get to eat lunch for a change.
1PM - Telecon with our software vendor in Minnesota. This is an easy meeting, since they've already delivered their software and wiped their hands. If only it worked as advertised ...
2PM - Telecon with our partners in Huntington Beach. They're putting in the same software package as us and are a few months ahead of us. That means we're supposed to be learning from their mistakes, but it doesn't always work that way. Agree to set up an online meeting with one of the HB developers at 4:30.
2:45PM - I end the telecon early so I can head to another building for the emergency meeting.
3:00PM - The team meets to figure out what is really wrong and what is hysteria. Turns out another software project - one to bring a unified, information-rich screensaver to every computer in the factory - blew through the area where our pathfinder is to start. The management assumed they were from our team, and when the installation techs pissed off the managers they blamed us. Communication is clearly an overrated skill ...
4:30PM - I'm still in the pathfinder meeting, but receiving "where are you" emails from the HB developer. I tell him to keep his shorts on; I'll be ready by 5.
5:00PM - Start telecon / WebEx session with HB developer. I'm now back over in the hotelling center where I started the day - my fourth different work location today. Thank god for mobility ...
5:30PM - Crashed the application server. Fortunately, my IT guy was still on site to restart it ...
6:00PM - Still working with HB when I get a meeting notice from my project manager. He's negotatied a truce with the pathfinder group, but we'll need to meet with them first thing tomorrow morning - first thing being 5AM. Not sure which irritates me more ... being sent a meeting notice for a 5AM meeting at 6PM by someone who assumes I'll still be checking my email, or actually having checked my email to get the notice ...
6:30PM - Finish up with HB and head home. It's gonna be a short evening.
Thursday 5:00AM - I'm back in the factory, this time in our Proof of Concept lab meeting with the pathfinder managers. Good news: I only have to sit through the first two hours of the meeting, which is basically a hand-holding session. Bad news: it's only because I have another class to teach at 8 ...
8:00AM - Class starts, a makeup session for those who missed the first three. All I'd need is an alarm clock and Sonny and Cher singing "I Got You, Babe" and I'd be living Groundhog Day ...
And so it goes. Today will go like yesterday and tomorrow like today, except I have no idea of how it will fill up - I just know it will.
My job is nuts these days.
And I love it .... 
