Make Mine MAPPER #21 -------------------- by Rob Haeuser The Quiet Revolution Gets Noisy ------------------------------------------------------------------- WARNING! The following article was written immediately after Austin and Houston newspapers revealed that TDHS had shown favoritism to a particular vendor regarding the bidding process and the use of in-house equipment. It was no coincidence that the CIO (Chief Information Officer) was recently replaced. Needless to say, this struck a particularly raw nerve with me, as you may sense as you read on... If the focus for this issue is government systems, and you work for a government agency, does that mean that everything you do is in focus? Sorta like the fish-eye camera lens effect, where the whole image is in perfect focus, but completely distorted none-the- less. Let's continue to mangle this metaphor momentarily. Doesn't it just tick you off that the objects in the center get a disproportionately large chuck of the image area? Huh? And that everything else is scrunched down to teeny weeny little bitty blobs of finely detailed after-thoughts? Oh, sure, you can see them, if you whip out the magnifying glass, crank up the halogen floodlights, and run them through some distortion-correction software, but who goes to that much trouble? As H. Ross Perot (who is this guy?) once said: "I don't know why they call me aitch"; or, as they say here in Texas: "If you've got an aitch, scratch it!" Well, get ready, folks, 'cause I just walked through a poison ivy patch. Ok, I admit it, I'm on my soapbox again. But that's only because it's such a teeny weeny little bitty soapbox, climbing up it hardly takes a baby step. So here I am. And you know why? Because there is an industry-wide conspiracy to relegate MAPPER to the "end-user computing" cubbyhole, treating everything done with it as just some "interim" solution until the "real" software can get around to doing the job. I'm here to tell you right now that the word "interim" was never in MAPPER's dictionary: it's used by people with vested interests in other software! Ha! Admit it, you've heard it all before. "That interim MAPPER system sure bailed us out of a jam." "So how's the new system doing?" "You really want to know?" "That bad, eh?" And on and on, ad nauseam... What ultimately gets me, though, is when the question is finally popped: "So why did you ever convert from the MAPPER system?", and the answer goes something like this: "Uh, duh, blubber, slobber, snorkel, snivel, dribble, doodle, uh..., I dunno. I guess that's what management wanted. Somebody else made the decision." The other side of the coin is when MAPPER is never even given a chance to make the other side look bad, which it usually does. A case in point is the decision early last year to do an EIS (Executive Information System) and whether to develop it in MAPPER or ORACLE. Keep in mind that we already had MAPPER, years of experience developing industrial-strength systems, and all the hardware necessary to do an EIS. You'll never guess what zone they decided to enter. Yes, that's right, it's twilight, folks. Do de do de, do de do de. Here it is more than a year later, the ORACLE EIS is just now coming on-line, isn't quite what the executives want, and has cost the agency nearly a half-million bucks in ORACLE consultation fees alone. Hey, big deal, right? Let those execs just sit there and wait, and wait, and wait... Ah, government at work. Should I be bitter? Hell yes! After all, I had estimated 6 months for the project, with my salary during the time (which is really unreasonably low) as the only real dollar expenditure. Want a laugh? That would have amounted to just over 4% of the those consultation fees. Gee, I could have put that half-million to good use... So what's the point? I guess it's like fishing: the biggest one always seems to get away. Arr, arr. But, in the meantime, don't forget that the freezer is full of filets just waiting to be served. Or, in the case of MAPPER systems, just waiting to serve. So let's poke our collective heads in the fridge and see what's thawing (say that last part real fast ten times). It's not until you conduct an inventory that you realize the extent of your collection. What's this? We've got just about every breed ever conceived in here! Some of them downright prehistoric, to boot! Can you say shark? First, an idea of what we currently have: 4 MAPPERs, a 2200/644 split into two 622's running a MAPPER each, a 2200/424 running two MAPPERs, roughly 6,000 registered users, 141 run designers, and over 200,000 reports in 1,049,408 tracks of disk space. An average sized shop, I'd say. Now, you'd think with all that hardware and all those users that something's getting done, wouldn't you? You're absolutely right! Bong! You win the $64,000 question. No matter what area you look at, there's MAPPER. I started to make a list, and when I realized that it might take forever, I decided to just list some of the major areas. Every reference to a MAPPER "system" will be indicated by an "*" (that's a splat to you old-timers, but I said "an" anyway). You've got your BARS* (Budget Analysis Reporting System) if you spend money and LAR* (Legislative Appropriations Requests) if you want to beg for it. The latest development with the LAR system is to add support for other state agencies. Golly, do you think it would save money if state agencies shared computer resources? Duh. Every two years the Texas legislature convenes, and we go to LBAT* (Legislature Bill Analysis and Tracking). Then it's time to do some cash control*, I'll warrant*. And what to do with the cash? Procure*! What was that policy again? It's the PTS* (Problem Tracking System) if you've got a problem. Work requests are logged into the CTS* (Central Tracking System), but it's the SOS* (Supply Order System) if you need a pencil. Got some capital equipment*? A warehouse to maintain*? Doing any automation tracking*? Managing any contracts*? And how about those vendors*, eh? Sounds like a lot of business management* to me. The Legal Opinion Document Storage system is LODS* of fun. If you have appeal, maybe the Hearing Officers* will listen. Want to track an applicant*? Log a job audit*? Review the qualifications*? Track correspondence*? Plan employee training*? Have some goals and objectives*, do you? Doing any travel*? Got some vouchers*? Who is the Auditor General*, anyway? Is he related to the Investigator General*? TNAS, JABS, and SIP (not a combination fencing match/wine tasting) data are reduced by you know who for graphing*. Got data lines*? If you've got trunk lines*, you better buy the next size up. Want continuous statistics* stored from a UTS400 that is constantly signing on the various pieces of the network? What is TCU* data, anyway? The entire network configuration* is stored, and terminal configurations* are fed to the network semi-monthly. Since we are a human services agency, we have a lot of client- related stuff. Child protective services* has been in a pilot for years. Family self-support*, community care*, aged and disabled*, indigent health care*, medical eligibility resource assessments*, medical transportation*, HEAP* (Home Energy Assistance Program), foster care*, reconciliation exception tracking*, day care licensing*, CANRIS* (Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Information System), etc. Had enough? One of the greatest ironies is that the JOBS system in Linc uses MAPPER to remotely print the huge amount of letters the system generates (between the proverbial ROC and hard place?). I say ironic because of the little race between MAPPER and Linc in developing this system. Did I mention the fact that MAPPER beat Linc by months and was available by the federally mandated deadline? Just another one of those interim systems, I guess, cause it's running in Linc now. Too bad the users preferred the MAPPER version... I almost forgot Sperrylink* (oops, I mean OFIS, dufus), which has about 1,165 users. Our coordinator system* is on auto-pilot, happily storing daily log data, stats on files, rid counts, moving test runs into production, controlling deferred aux output, verifying that a cycle-merge was done on time, etc. etc. And all of this should be documented in the Systems Catalog*. Am I rambling yet? The problem with all of this is the pervasive attitude among those who simply don't know anything about MAPPER that somehow, because of the infamous "end-user" label, that it is a toy, not to be used when "serious" systems need to be developed. Please refer to the systems mentioned above, and then go slam this article on the desk of the bottle-necking butt-head that's constantly holding up the show. If protecting children from abuse and possible death isn't serious, then, I admit it, we're just playing. But if you really want to get the job done, just do it! To paraphrase Grace Hopper, the famous Navy Admiral: "Make sure you're right, and then go ahead and do it. It's easier to get forgiveness than permission." ------------------------------------------------------------------- Rob Haeuser has over 17 years of Data Processing experience. He has been the MAPPER Coordinator for the Texas Department of Human Services since 1983. Covering MAPPER topics ranging from technical to tacky, his never-ending quest is for truth, justice, and the MAPPER way.