Tool Smells

software development

In the tradition of code smells here’s some Enterprise Tool Smells:

• Install time is measured in days.
• Installation involves cryptic steps such as after step 17c, delete these files, then restart the installation script.
• The install software doesn’t fit on a single DVD, necessitating baby-sitting it so you can dump the next CD/DVD when it’s ready.
• Tool promises that regular business people can use it and write business rules in a “natural language,” making code monkey’s irrelevant.
• It has an Enterprise version that installs tons of features, servers, plug-ins, that no one ever uses.
• It uses lots of wizards.
• Company recommends hiring consultants to train you in how to use the tool.
• Despite features like “seamless hot deploy”, any change involves rebooting the server.
• Restarting the service or tool is measured in minutes not seconds.
• No one including the sales team can really explain the licensing terms for all the different purchase options.
• Productivity takes a radical nosedive when tool is introduced, and then mysteriously increases sometime later when employees stop using the tool.
• Support involves filing trouble tickets or issues that are never resolved though sometimes promised to be in the next release.
• It’s in the Gartner magic quadrant.

Ed Gibbs @ October 28, 2005