Most business apps end up being overcomplicated and convoluted because that’s what most businesses are:

Overcomplicated and convoluted.

Building an app to operate systems like that will always be an exercise in garbage in garbage out. Fix your process before saying wE nEeD An aPp To Do ThIs. You don’t need an app. You need a smack upside the head.

Yep, got the same problem...
Our production line is to slow. We need a system to track the products at different stations.

I said : but that will not make it faster.
Yes it will. You have to make software...
So I installed a lot of clients, added software and guess what... Production was still slow :/

It least now they have a system that tell the boss that the production is slow xD

Amen.

Reminds me of a post I read long ago which discussed impact of tech on businesses over the years. Hazy on the details but it described how businesses using ERP observed no gains till a little business modelled their processes around ERP. They were able to save on inventory because instead of keeping stocks like others, they used the software to pinpoint when a commodity purchase is needed and ordered accordingly. They also saved on shipment costs because their orders were smaller and could be handled by small pickups.

@Grumm Yup, completely unable to analyze the root cause of the bottlenecks. Typical.

I built a tool for a client who wanted to “improve efficiency” in their supply chain. They wanted a system to monitor their business and an sms anytime something was late. No requirements for doing anything about the identified problems despite my insistence. I got a commission and they got hundreds of texts a day about how their idea hasn’t fixed anything. They just have a different lens to observe their incompetence with.

@anux I installed a small system like this once for our office supplies that were frequently having stock outs due to the people assigned to it not being motivated to do inventory well and their boss scapegoating imagined “theft and excess consumption” instead of fixing the issue. It was a scanner that you could use to decrease inventory when you took something and submitted an order when you dipped below a certain level on an item. Inventory started to get done properly again due to the increased convenience and we had no more stock outs until an anti-tech change in leadership occurred and the system was forced back to paper and we went back to running out of things again. Some people can’t be helped.

@boombodies true. Some people just want some authoritah. Work/efficiency be damned as long as they get a spotlight. Shitty fucks.

@boombodies a lot of businesses do not differentiate the output (features you ship) from the outcome (add value you give to your client/good growth)... So before the Tech rotting start, the produt as totally rotten (deadly salmonela like) and they see it as "technical problems" or other "engineers can't predict"... And yes, it's so fucking bullshit!

An important tenet of good product management is:

IMPLEMENTATION DETAILS SHOULD NOT BE PART OF THE INITIAL REQUIREMENTS.

"We need to hire a team to make an iOS app which shows graphs with a detailed history of our factory inventory manage..."

*ERROR BUZZER*

"Eh... I need to be able to view live statistics about our production process"

"Like, real-time live, or would an update every 10m work as well?"

"Yeah sure"

"Where are you when you need to view those stats?"

"Behind my desk"

"So I can just set a scheduled job to dump the result of this specific SQL query into a spreadsheet for you? And you can make the graphs yourself?"

"Yeah that would work. Although sometimes I like to view at graphs while I poop" (not joking, my boss said this exact sentence once)

"Do you have the Google Sheets app on your phone?"

"Yes"

"Then I can set this up in 15 minutes. I just saved you $25k in app dev costs. I'll accept my $10K bonus"

@bittersweet haha!
Man I really love your eloquence and clarity of thought. Your posts/comments are always filled with reason and insights.

@anux I check your rant history. I see a Haskell aficionado. Didn't expect to fall in love with an internet stranger today.

*Puts on monocle, sips cognac*

@bittersweet BuT wE hAvE tO bE MoBiLe fIrSt!!!!1one

@bittersweet oh you (*^‿^*)