Lessons from the Shark Tank

When Users Get Creative

Client is giving contract developer pilot fish the requirements for a new system to manage his transport business. According to the client, an open ticket should be valid for return travel up to a month after the outbound journey. How should the system calculate "a month after"? fish asks. Thirty days later? "No, one month later," says client, "the same date in the following month." So what is the date one month after Jan. 31? asks fish. Client: "February 31."

Time-out!

This machine shop uses PCs just for time and attendance reporting. But one morning, arriving first-shift workers call the help desk to complain that they can't clock in. "They said they could see the log-in screen but couldn't type their IDs and passwords," IT pilot fish says. "A trip to the shop floor proved them right and made it clear we needed to lock down the PCs much tighter. Someone on second shift made a screenshot of the log-in screen, then saved it as the wallpaper on all the machines!"

Yeah, but It Worked, Didn't It?

User is getting an error message she doesn't understand, so support tech asks her to send him a screenshot so he can see what she's talking about. "A few minutes later, he gets a PDF file attached to an e-mail," reports a pilot fish on the scene. "She took a picture of her computer with her digital camera and e-mailed the picture to him."