Re: Re: Information gathering exercise

>  > - a good CEO should know that a happy engineer is a productive
> engineer, and the inverse is also true
>
> In my experience, this argument is a disaster with any management that
> does not have a tech/engineering background.  While we all know it is
> true, it comes off as whiny when pitched to most non-technical types.
>
> If you want to successfully pitch the CEO, first you have to understand
> what he/she is worried about.
>
> Worried about quality?  We have to pare down our test suite because the
> hardware is so slow.  Now bugs are slipping through.
>
> Worried about risking schedules?  Our integration testing takes days on
> this old hardware, and that keeps biting our schedule right in the @!*.
>
> Worried about customer perception?  If the customers knew we were
> developing on such old equipment, they might not think as much of our
> products.
>
> Worried about productivity?  Our machines keep crashing because they
> don't have enough memory - talk about wasted time/money.  Engineers are
> cheap, you know...
>
> Worried about money?  Failed projects are usually more expensive than
> successful ones.  (see risk, schedules, customer perception, etc).
>
> Bottom line - know your audience and talk to them on their terms.  Plus,
> be ready with the facts (cost, timing, etc) when you get to "yes" so you
> can close the deal.
>
Problem is, his system while not bleeding edge is already way better than
mainstream (unless it's a single core, maybe, but a 2.4 will I think be a
dual core).
The only real problem may be the relatively small harddisks, easily
rectified by plugging in an extra harddisk in every machine at minimal
cost, but that won't give him the flashy quad core machines with 16GB RAM
he craves.

He should get used to having less powerful machines at work than he's used
to having at home for his gaming and internet use.
That's almost always been the case for the last decade or more, at least
for technical/dev staff (see my earlier reply for what I've seen happening
for upgrade cycles in several places I've worked).