FYI: IM Consumability Survey

Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ Cheers Serge -- Serge Rielau DB2 Solutions Development IBM Toronto Lab

"Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... > Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) > http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ "Consumability"? What are these arseholes doing to my beautiful language?

Captain Pedantic wrote: > "Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message > news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... > >> Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) >> http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ >> > > "Consumability"? What are these arseholes doing to my beautiful language? > Productionising it into something more performant.

"Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... > Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) > http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ > > Cheers > Serge > -- > Serge Rielau > DB2 Solutions Development > IBM Toronto Lab I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying to solve", and gave up. IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms are. Sometimes you just want to achieve better throughput, or easier administration, or just use new functionality. Is this solving "business problems"? I suppose if you wear brightly-coloured framed spectacles, snort a lot of coke and write surveys for IBM, it is. For many of us it's just "using new functionality". I'm afraid I gave up on the survey at this point in order to avoid the inevitable welter of shit.

Captain Pedantic wrote: > "Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message > news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... >> Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) >> http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ >> >> Cheers >> Serge >> -- >> Serge Rielau >> DB2 Solutions Development >> IBM Toronto Lab > > I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying to > solve", and gave up. > IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. > Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms are. > > Sometimes you just want to achieve better throughput, or easier > administration, or just use new functionality. > Is this solving "business problems"? > I suppose if you wear brightly-coloured framed spectacles, snort a lot of > coke and write surveys for IBM, it is. > > For many of us it's just "using new functionality". > > I'm afraid I gave up on the survey at this point in order to avoid the > inevitable welter of shit. I knew I could count on utter refusal of cooperation from those with the loudest voices. :-) If you make it to the end I think there is a box where you could complain about that too.... Cheers Serge -- Serge Rielau DB2 Solutions Development IBM Toronto Lab

Serge Rielau said: > > If you make it to the end I think there is a box where you could > complain about that too.... Yeah, funny that. -- Bye now, Obnoxio "There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the Labour Party. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."

"Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message news:6cic7nF3g8l72U1@mid.individual.net... > Captain Pedantic wrote: >> "Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message >> news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... >>> Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) >>> http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ >>> >>> Cheers >>> Serge >>> -- >>> Serge Rielau >>> DB2 Solutions Development >>> IBM Toronto Lab >> >> I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying >> to solve", and gave up. >> IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. >> Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms >> are. >> >> Sometimes you just want to achieve better throughput, or easier >> administration, or just use new functionality. >> Is this solving "business problems"? >> I suppose if you wear brightly-coloured framed spectacles, snort a lot of >> coke and write surveys for IBM, it is. >> >> For many of us it's just "using new functionality". >> >> I'm afraid I gave up on the survey at this point in order to avoid the >> inevitable welter of shit. > I knew I could count on utter refusal of cooperation from those with the > loudest voices. :-) I didn't *utterly* refuse. I had a go but got frustrated.

Captain Pedantic said: > "Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message > news:6cic7nF3g8l72U1@mid.individual.net... >> Captain Pedantic wrote: >>> "Serge Rielau" <srielau@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message >>> news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... >>>> Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) >>>> http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ >>>> >>>> Cheers >>>> Serge >>>> -- >>>> Serge Rielau >>>> DB2 Solutions Development >>>> IBM Toronto Lab >>> >>> I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you >>> trying >>> to solve", and gave up. >>> IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. >>> Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms >>> are. >>> >>> Sometimes you just want to achieve better throughput, or easier >>> administration, or just use new functionality. >>> Is this solving "business problems"? >>> I suppose if you wear brightly-coloured framed spectacles, snort a lot >>> of >>> coke and write surveys for IBM, it is. >>> >>> For many of us it's just "using new functionality". >>> >>> I'm afraid I gave up on the survey at this point in order to avoid the >>> inevitable welter of shit. >> I knew I could count on utter refusal of cooperation from those with the >> loudest voices. :-) > > I didn't *utterly* refuse. > I had a go but got frustrated. I got about six pages in before I lost the will to live. I got the distinct impression that they weren't expecting anyone to actually finish it. -- Bye now, Obnoxio "There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the Labour Party. They promised you order, they promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent."

On 26 Jun, 22:19, "Obnoxio The Clown" <obno...@serendipita.com> wrote: > Captain Pedantic said: > > > > > > > "Serge Rielau" <srie...@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message > >news:6cic7nF3g8l72U1@mid.individual.net... > >> Captain Pedantic wrote: > >>> "Serge Rielau" <srie...@ca.ibm.com> wrote in message > >>>news:6ci7kqF3gub5lU2@mid.individual.net... > >>>> Your opportunity to "stick it to the man" :-) > >>>>http://www.ibm.com/software/data/info/consumability-survey/ > > >>>> Cheers > >>>> Serge > >>>> -- > >>>> Serge Rielau > >>>> DB2 Solutions Development > >>>> IBM Toronto Lab > > >>> I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you > >>> trying > >>> to solve", and gave up. > >>> IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. > >>> Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms > >>> are. > > >>> Sometimes you just want to achieve better throughput, or easier > >>> administration, or just use new functionality. > >>> Is this solving "business problems"? > >>> I suppose if you wear brightly-coloured framed spectacles, snort a lot > >>> of > >>> coke and write surveys for IBM, it is. > > >>> For many of us it's just "using new functionality". > > >>> I'm afraid I gave up on the survey at this point in order to avoid the > >>> inevitable welter of shit. > >> I knew I could count on utter refusal of cooperation from those with the > >> loudest voices. :-) > > > I didn't *utterly* refuse. > > I had a go but got frustrated. > > I got about six pages in before I lost the will to live. I got the > distinct impression that they weren't expecting anyone to actually finish > it. > > -- > Bye now, > Obnoxio > > "There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason > and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your > panic you turned to the Labour Party. They promised you order, they > promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent, > obedient consent."- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - "Your input has been accepted", well I bitched about the level of support for ISM lets see what happens..

> From: theharlequin36@hotmail.com > Subject: Re: IM Consumability Survey > Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:08 +0100 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > > I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying to > solve", and gave up. > IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. > Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms are. > I should explain why IBM has this "fixation" on "solving problems". IBM is very good at drilling in their sales training. They use a "solution selling methodology". IBM trains their sales force to try and understand the customer's pain. Once they know the pain, then they can address it with a solution. This is the core of their solution selling methodology. So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which of your buttons they can press to help push more kit. For example... Suppose you're in retail and you want to be more than just "PCI compliant". Your pain is that you need to ensure that your customer's credit card details are not going to be exposed within your database. So IBM's solution would be to offer encryption within the database, along with some form of auditing. By answering the survey, you're helping IBM to build a use case along with some form of demonstrating customer demand for a specific feature. Does that help to put things in perspective? -G _________________________________________________________________ The i’m Talkathon starts 6/24/08.  For now, give amongst yourselves. http://www.imtalkathon.com?source=TXT_EML_WLH_LearnMore_GiveAmongst

> So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which of your buttons > they can press to help push more kit. It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. Of course the end goal is to sell more product, but the means to that end is actually to make the product better in areas that are causing customer pain. So it is supposed to be win-win: we make the product serve your needs better, which leads you to perhaps buy more of it *because* it is serving your needs better -- not because someone tricked you into it. Information from prior consumability surveys was used to help choose some of the new features and areas to be reworked in Cheetah and Cheetah 2. When we don't get enough input from actual customers, we have to guess. We try to make the guesses as educated as possible through a formal internal consumability "survey" process, where a cross-section of people with knowledge of a given product (e.g. product management, QA, information development (what we call the tech writers), engineering, tech support, etc.) form a team to attempt to estimate the consumability on numerous different dimensions. I participated in one of these efforts for IDS a year or two ago. We do our best, but the product would benefit even more if real live customers and users like you took the survey, especially if you attempt to make constructive criticisms (not just why some area is bad, but also suggestions for how it could be improved). :-) -- Kevin Cherkauer Software Engineer IBM Informix Dynamic Server -- Database Kernel "Ian Michael Gumby" <im_gumby@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:mailman.1287.1214578783.20610.informix-list@iiug.org... > From: theharlequin36@hotmail.com > Subject: Re: IM Consumability Survey > Date: Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:55:08 +0100 > To: informix-list@iiug.org > > > I got as far as the bit that asked "What business problem are you trying > to > solve", and gave up. > IBM is obsessed with "Business Problems" I am trying to solve. > Or, at least, the people who write surveys and partner evaluation forms > are. > I should explain why IBM has this "fixation" on "solving problems". IBM is very good at drilling in their sales training. They use a "solution selling methodology". IBM trains their sales force to try and understand the customer's pain. Once they know the pain, then they can address it with a solution. This is the core of their solution selling methodology. So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which of your buttons they can press to help push more kit. For example... Suppose you're in retail and you want to be more than just "PCI compliant". Your pain is that you need to ensure that your customer's credit card details are not going to be exposed within your database. So IBM's solution would be to offer encryption within the database, along with some form of auditing. By answering the survey, you're helping IBM to build a use case along with some form of demonstrating customer demand for a specific feature. Does that help to put things in perspective? -G The i'm Talkathon starts 6/24/08. For now, give amongst yourselves. Learn More

"Kevin Cherkauer" <invalid_address@nowhere.com> wrote in message news:g437u2$54s$1@aioe.org... > > So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which > of your buttons > > they can press to help push more kit. > > It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of > the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be > used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. I'm happy to accept that the motives are not cynical. But why do these IBM surveys and Tech Support communications have to be couched in Birtesque management newspeak and jargon? Why do we have always to be solving "business problems"? Technical issues often have a very indirect relationship to the "business problem", so why not let us talk about the technical issue? I suspect that the answer is that the parts of IBM that develop these surveys are dominated by marketing people and business school graduates who wouldn't know one end of a computer from another. When I place a support call I often have to describe the "business impact" of the problem so that IBM can assess if they can be arsed to fix it or not. "I've paid a million bucks for this stuff and want it to fucking work" doesn't seem to be a valid response for some reason that truly eludes me.

"Neil Truby" <neil.truby@ardenta.com> wrote in message news:6cl5hnF3gsl8oU1@mid.individual.net... > "Kevin Cherkauer" <invalid_address@nowhere.com> wrote in message > news:g437u2$54s$1@aioe.org... > When I place a support call I often have to describe the "business impact" > of the problem so that IBM can assess if they can be arsed to fix it or > not. "I've paid a million bucks for this stuff and want it to ... work" > doesn't seem to be a valid response for some reason that truly eludes me. Oops, hadn't quite finished that point before posting it. Obviously IBM has finite resources and has to priorotise the things it's going to fix. But being required to describe "Business Impact" just encourages creative writing, assuming you want your problem looked at . Technical impact and the viability of any workarounds would be much more appropriate. Wouldn't it?

On Jun 27, 12:28 pm, "Kevin Cherkauer" <invalid_addr...@nowhere.com> wrote: > > So to translate IBM speak, this survey is trying to understand which > of your buttons > > they can press to help push more kit. > > It's really not that cynical. They are trying to understand which areas of > the product produce a painful user experience so this information can be > used to decide what areas to prioritize in future engineering work. Of > course the end goal is to sell more product, but the means to that end is > actually to make the product better in areas that are causing customer pain. > So it is supposed to be win-win: we make the product serve your needs > better, which leads you to perhaps buy more of it *because* it is serving > your needs better -- not because someone tricked you into it. > > Information from prior consumability surveys was used to help choose some of > the new features and areas to be reworked in Cheetah and Cheetah 2. > > When we don't get enough input from actual customers, we have to guess. [SNIP] > > -- > Kevin Cherkauer > Software Engineer > IBM Informix Dynamic Server -- Database Kernel > [SNIP] I really hate it when you don't bother to read the post when you respond to it... ;-) First, you're in the "lab" and I think if you were given the opportunity to take IBM's Solution Selling Methodology, you should do so. Its probably the best training you'll ever get out of IBM. If its one thing that IBM does well is understand the selling process. Again, when IBM asks a customer about their "pain" its to understand the business issues that they need help with. There was no cynicism in my post. IBM is like every other business out there. They want to sell more product to make more money. Its called commerce or capitalism. ;-) But hey! What do I know? Its not like I spent 4 1/2 years cross matrix'd to SSD or anything like that. Naw, I don't have a copy of the SSM course book sitting on *my* bookshelf, now do I? ;-) -G

You think you know the one and only thing IBM uses these surveys for. You are incorrect, because I personally know of a second use, which is the one I described in my posting, because I personally participated on the internal team that filled in the internal consumability "survey" for the Cheetah release (11.10). The questions in the matrix we filled in were pretty much the same ones listed on the web site survey. The leader of this team also was involved in the same exercise done earlier for the 10.00 release, and he said they used the results of the 10.00 survey to choose many of the features that were put into 11.10, and named specific ones. You could be correct that the survey is also used for other purposes. But you are incorrect in stating that the sole purpose is the one you have claimed. -- Kevin Cherkauer Software Engineer IBM Informix Dynamic Server -- Database Kernel "Ian Michael Gumby" <im_gumby@hotmail.com> wrote in message news:cee76017-347a-475b-a0a7-24392ee895ee@26g2000hsk.googlegroups.com... <Snip> > Again, when IBM asks a customer about their "pain" its to understand > the business issues that they need help with.