I wouldn’t quite classify this as automation, but I’ve been fighting for the past year for better scripting tools. I work on kiosk-style systems on customer networks. A big part of my job involves connecting to a device, pulling some logs, and running connectivity tests. I created a PowerShell script to automate this and submitted a KB so that others could use it, which sat in the approval queue for a few months before it got rejected.
I reached out to the team who rejected it and was told that all scripts need to be approved by a senior. I told them that a senior had reviewed it and approved it, and linked them the approval which they would have seen anyways. They then said that it also needed approval by the development team. “Okay,” I said. “What’s the process to get that approval? I don’t see any documentation about it.” After a number of emails to several different departments, I found that there is no process. I bugged everyone I could think of but got no replies; my manager got about the same.
In the 12+ months it took to come to that conclusion, I’ve made scripts to automate just about every common fix we apply. Right now most of our KBs instruct us to schedule downtime with the customer to fix things using the GUI, but that’s not necessary for 90% if these issues. I’ve submitted KB revisions for each of these, all of which have been rejected because they need an approval that doesn’t exist.
I’ve brought this up to my manager several times and gotten my seniors to back me up on how much time these scripts save. I’ve shown how effective these scripts are when we have system-wide critical issues where I save us hundreds of man hours of work. None of this has made any difference; apparently the development team just can’t be bothered to create a webform or whatever or even just answer emails.
Sounds like your manager needs to take it up the chain. Get one of the people that manages the money in on this. “The development team’s refusal to engage in [standard process] is costing the company hundreds of man hours”
I’ve just given up at this point. I have my scripts and I’ll share them if I’m helping someone with an issue, but it was such a fight to even get them rejected that I don’t want to bother with that again on top of the rest of my work. If nobody in this chain that I’ve already gone through seems to care, and if developing these scripts doesn’t change my eligibility for a promotion (which I’ve been directly told it doesn’t), I don’t see the point in pursuing it any more.
I know I am just a random nobody to you, but I’m not satisfied with this response. If you have exhausted all options, then you need to be working on updating your resume. Your boss might not have enough juice to push this through for you, and in that case, it’s probably better that you find a new job. I don’t think you’ve exhausted all options, I think you came face to face with the reality of the corporate workforce, the reality is that most people are trying to get by with “good enough.” They are afraid of the implications of you outworking them and making them look worthless, or you automating something so much that it cuts the departmental budget. If what you’re saying is true, and you can reduce hundreds of man hours, then you should fight for your ideas. Know that fighting for your ideas doesn’t mean that you will be praised from day one. People will poke and prod, criticize, kick the tires, make excuses, etc. Stand by your work and always come back to the table.
"Okay, I heard your proposal on how to validate data integrity in the event that we become a multi-vendor environment. I understand that parsing/wrangling data can be challenging. However, in the event that our environment adopts XYZ infrastructure, I am using tried and tested industry standard modeled languages. All major vendors support this language model, so it would not require a complete re-engineering.
life is too short to work for shitty bosses man. But don’t spend time feeling sorry for yourself.
I’ve thought about it many times but can’t find a good way to implement it. I don’t have access to the company’s GitHub or any shareable network locations. Don’t want to upload to my personal GitHub either since there is proprietary information in some of them. Right now I have them shared in a OneNote notebook that I manually update as I revise the scripts.
Look, I can’t advise you to do one thing or another, but I’ll give you some career advice that has worked well for me: don’t ask permission. Most of the time, the documentation is out there on how to get what you want and you can do it yourself. I won’t have my work be wasted by someone else’s laziness. And if your direct report doesn’t like the idea, tell him you want to discuss it with his boss. Make your case to someone who cares. You have every right to make use of whatever tools will help you do a better job.
What does making your case look like? It looks like making PowerPoint presentations, detailing a cost(man hours, oversight responsibilities, etc), detailing desired results, showing what impact this will have on the team, showing how long it will take to train your average joe on using these scripts, showing how much time can be saved.
Your boss might be chilling because he’s waiting out the clock on his career. You’re not. Stand by your ideas, people will stand by you. But you will have to fight for your ideas, and you need to be comfortable doing that. I’m not saying it’s not hard, it is soul crushing to get your ideas shot down. But you can push through.
It’s funny you would reply about that: I actually did escalate it again and I’m working on getting a process implemented. It’s like pulling teeth, but I’m determined to get this fixed. Luckily my manager is finally with me on this, so I’m making some real progress for once.
I wouldn’t quite classify this as automation, but I’ve been fighting for the past year for better scripting tools. I work on kiosk-style systems on customer networks. A big part of my job involves connecting to a device, pulling some logs, and running connectivity tests. I created a PowerShell script to automate this and submitted a KB so that others could use it, which sat in the approval queue for a few months before it got rejected.
I reached out to the team who rejected it and was told that all scripts need to be approved by a senior. I told them that a senior had reviewed it and approved it, and linked them the approval which they would have seen anyways. They then said that it also needed approval by the development team. “Okay,” I said. “What’s the process to get that approval? I don’t see any documentation about it.” After a number of emails to several different departments, I found that there is no process. I bugged everyone I could think of but got no replies; my manager got about the same.
In the 12+ months it took to come to that conclusion, I’ve made scripts to automate just about every common fix we apply. Right now most of our KBs instruct us to schedule downtime with the customer to fix things using the GUI, but that’s not necessary for 90% if these issues. I’ve submitted KB revisions for each of these, all of which have been rejected because they need an approval that doesn’t exist.
I’ve brought this up to my manager several times and gotten my seniors to back me up on how much time these scripts save. I’ve shown how effective these scripts are when we have system-wide critical issues where I save us hundreds of man hours of work. None of this has made any difference; apparently the development team just can’t be bothered to create a webform or whatever or even just answer emails.
Sounds like your manager needs to take it up the chain. Get one of the people that manages the money in on this. “The development team’s refusal to engage in [standard process] is costing the company hundreds of man hours”
I’ve just given up at this point. I have my scripts and I’ll share them if I’m helping someone with an issue, but it was such a fight to even get them rejected that I don’t want to bother with that again on top of the rest of my work. If nobody in this chain that I’ve already gone through seems to care, and if developing these scripts doesn’t change my eligibility for a promotion (which I’ve been directly told it doesn’t), I don’t see the point in pursuing it any more.
I know I am just a random nobody to you, but I’m not satisfied with this response. If you have exhausted all options, then you need to be working on updating your resume. Your boss might not have enough juice to push this through for you, and in that case, it’s probably better that you find a new job. I don’t think you’ve exhausted all options, I think you came face to face with the reality of the corporate workforce, the reality is that most people are trying to get by with “good enough.” They are afraid of the implications of you outworking them and making them look worthless, or you automating something so much that it cuts the departmental budget. If what you’re saying is true, and you can reduce hundreds of man hours, then you should fight for your ideas. Know that fighting for your ideas doesn’t mean that you will be praised from day one. People will poke and prod, criticize, kick the tires, make excuses, etc. Stand by your work and always come back to the table.
"Okay, I heard your proposal on how to validate data integrity in the event that we become a multi-vendor environment. I understand that parsing/wrangling data can be challenging. However, in the event that our environment adopts XYZ infrastructure, I am using tried and tested industry standard modeled languages. All major vendors support this language model, so it would not require a complete re-engineering.
life is too short to work for shitty bosses man. But don’t spend time feeling sorry for yourself.
Fair enough. Hopefully you can keep using those scripts even if nobody else uses them.
Sounds like something you could fix with a repository. Teach your coworkers how to use git
I’ve thought about it many times but can’t find a good way to implement it. I don’t have access to the company’s GitHub or any shareable network locations. Don’t want to upload to my personal GitHub either since there is proprietary information in some of them. Right now I have them shared in a OneNote notebook that I manually update as I revise the scripts.
Look, I can’t advise you to do one thing or another, but I’ll give you some career advice that has worked well for me: don’t ask permission. Most of the time, the documentation is out there on how to get what you want and you can do it yourself. I won’t have my work be wasted by someone else’s laziness. And if your direct report doesn’t like the idea, tell him you want to discuss it with his boss. Make your case to someone who cares. You have every right to make use of whatever tools will help you do a better job.
What does making your case look like? It looks like making PowerPoint presentations, detailing a cost(man hours, oversight responsibilities, etc), detailing desired results, showing what impact this will have on the team, showing how long it will take to train your average joe on using these scripts, showing how much time can be saved.
Your boss might be chilling because he’s waiting out the clock on his career. You’re not. Stand by your ideas, people will stand by you. But you will have to fight for your ideas, and you need to be comfortable doing that. I’m not saying it’s not hard, it is soul crushing to get your ideas shot down. But you can push through.
Estimating the savings with actual numbers and CCing some high level executive could have been worth trying, if you didn’t already
It’s funny you would reply about that: I actually did escalate it again and I’m working on getting a process implemented. It’s like pulling teeth, but I’m determined to get this fixed. Luckily my manager is finally with me on this, so I’m making some real progress for once.