6 Things that scare the living daylights out of IT pros

Its Halloween today, some of you might be creeped out by zombies, ghosts and monsters, but IT workers know that just a few simple words can be scarier than any ghoul or axe murderer. If long hours and failed projects terrify you, then these 6 things will chill you right down to the bone.


Horror 1: “Can we add one more feature?”
You need to be able to stop your users from adding in random new requests at any point in the project, or you’re never going to be able to create a proper, working product. Things like that can result in massive delays and cost increases, developers have to not only add new features, but change previous code and design.

Horror 2: “But this one has all this cool stuff.”
It’s very common for hopeful customers to be dazzled and awed by a products feature list and to then be convinced that all their troubles will be fixed by the many fancy bells and whistles. They should really be asking themselves about specific problems they need solved and looking for the products that address them.

Horror 3: “We don’t have the time or money to test it.”
Developers know the importance of a high quality testing regime for software, but to many people testing is just a waste of money and time. They hire great developers, they've played around with the application, it all looks perfectly fine, what more could you need? You need high-quality testing if you don’t want the results to be disastrous.

Horror 4: “But we've always done it this way.”
Any big IT project involves some change, but sometimes change can be bad and meet resistance from customers that just adds on more time and difficulty to your project. “We've always done it this way.” Is often code words for something different like “We don’t know why we do it this way, but we’re comfortable with it.” Silly problems like this can form an invisible barrier and stop projects from getting done.

Horror 5: “We’re assigning more programmers to the project.”
You can’t just throw more bodies at the problem and expect it to go faster, 10 programmers won’t finish a project faster than 5 programmers would and in fact the project may be slowed down. Beware the horrifying scenario where more and more people are assigned to a late project in a panic.

Horror 6: “Documentation is just slowing us down.”
Charging ahead without bothering to leave a breadcrumb trail of documentation behind you is a disaster waiting to happen. Documentation helps your project from being a huge, confusing mess! Whether its requirement documents that shows everyone what’s actually going to be built or the code documentation that ensures that people know how to use what you've built.

Forget ghosts and goblins this year, these nightmarish things ranging from wasted IT resources to failed projects, these 6 short sentences will truly make all the IT pro’s blood run cold this Halloween!

For all your IT needs this Halloween, contact us at The Computer Guyz in Cape Town and Centurion, we offer general IT support, website design and hosting, friendly advice and so much more.  


Written By: Christine Romans
CopyWriter at The Computer Guyz Cape Town

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