There ya go again...

Last week I received an email from a client. Actually, it was addressed to the team in general, but all the other bosses were CCd, including mine. The email was sent by a SAVP who's in charge of the MIS department. The email read:

Hope we can finish this everything and get the users' sign-off (even just the verbal ok) within the day. WE could at least have half of a problem out of the way.

I am also very disappointed that we seem to be going at snail pace with regard to the [BUG] problem. We cancelled 2 telecons because we did not have anything substantial to report or even discuss with [VENDOR]. I hope we can change this trend.

[MY NAME], can you spend more time with [US, THE CLIENT] until the rest of the TO DO items are satisfactorily completed and we have some success? We need you on site for this. Having [SUPPORT ENGINEER] here is okey but there are some things which could be hastened with your inputs. The de-commissioning of [YOU COMPANY's] support network substantially hampered communications a good part of last week and previous one.

Thanks!
The SAVP

If I have learned anything from experience with this client, I know that if I replied to this, there is a big probability that the big boss himself will chime in next. The big boss is a SVP and is the CIO of the client group of companies. He owns the Project.

I am no longer a stranger to this. Whenever there is an issue, someone starts the fire... someone pours the fuel.. and someone fans the flame. By the time the CIO chimes in, everybody is already running around like jackrabbits on fire. It's actually very effective. Even fun to watch... if only I wasn't in the middle of it all. Everytime he bangs the table, they hear the sound in Melbourne, Singapore, HongKong, and NY. Sometimes there's really a problem, but sometimes its really just small issues. But big guns are big guns, and they always have the same effect.

"When you’re up to your nose, keep your mouth shut"

Experience in dealing with escalating issues has taught me that it’s more likely to get positive results if you do face-to-face discussions. Emails are a breeding ground for misunderstanding... specially when something is already starting to heat up. They simply do not convey the proper tone, facial expressions, and deliberate delays in the way you answer or ask questions, gestures, and other nuances of a dynamic conversation. Of course, there are times when this is impossible like when you need to discuss things with people from outside the country, but that's a separate thing.

The truth of the matter is, I have already been overstaying with this client for 7 or 8 months already. The Technical Support SLA (Service Level Agreement) specifically states that we are only required to place 1 support engineer onsite for a period of 12 months commencing after the stabilization period expires. We already have 1 engineer here but I have also been here all the time (well mostly) offering and sharing my expertise on site for free. Technically speaking, this is above and beyond what is required of me and what we had been hoping for them to understand is... this is value-added service. This is the partnership that we are talking about. This is us going the extra mile.

My continued presence is really overkill. Doing support work does not require a fulltime Project Manager on site. I am actually baby-sitting this thing until the new project finally kicks-off. In fact, if I were busy right now, this wouldn’t have been a real issue... but since nothing is really on my plate, it sort of is.

So I finally receive the email from my boss... and to make the long story short, he is asking about why I haven’t been reporting on-site a lot lately, hence the complaint from the client. I guess as far as perception goes, it really does look bad on me but the truth is I've got reasons and these are very good reasons.

The client support team has been involved with us throughout the entire lifetime of this project. This project took about 9 months to complete, plus another 8 or so months now doing post-implementation production support. So practically speaking, they have been immersed in the technology for over a year and a half now. We have gone through a lot, playing Sherlock Holmes investigating all sorts of things and because of all the customizations we did for them, we have been able to turn up 6 bugs from the product. The vendor actually had to release several major patches for these bugs. Now if you consider the fact that this is a big product from a big vendor that is being used worldwide by fortune 500 companies... 6 is a big fucking number! This isn't some small shit were talking about here...

Anyway the point is, you would've expected that the client team would be experts by now. But alas, my gargantuan efforts of knowledge transfer seem to have been worth naught. If you think about it, it is actually unbe-fucking-lievable. A lot of times, they seem to actually understand you... even nodding at you. It’s really convincing. There are times when I need to do something in the server room and protocol states that I be escorted and watched closely inside, lest I give in to my urge to fucking screw their servers to kingdom come. So every time I do this, they are always there watching over my shoulders and I even explain as I go.. even entertaining stupid questions about why I have to restart the services when I change something, etc.

My point is, there is simply no way to wean them off of me, if I continue to stay on site. They are fucking addicted to receiving directions from me that they can’t even tie their own shoes now. Even testing a patch like this one seems too daunting for them, never mind the fact that the patch readme file had step by step procedures in them. Never mind the fact, that the actual procedures are things we've actually done a thousand times before when we were investigating previous problems. Never mind the fact that I already did this in front of them before I went to Singapore this month. My God! There has to be some point where you should say enough is enough! Jeeezzaaaazzzz!!!


[Catching my breath]

Anyway, so I explain everything to my boss. I tried calling several times but couldn’t make contact. He is probably travelling, that guy is in and out of airports. So I sent him an email and haven’t received a reply for the past 2 days now. I got a sms from him this morning about something else and not about the complaint issue, so that usually means everything is ok and they understand my point. He's just not too big on saying.. "OK, OK I get it." But I forgive him since he makes up for it on other things =)