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Coronavirus - how is it/has it affected you?

Old Skier said:
As someone who has spent the last 20 years in IT I can assure you that it is more common than you may think that there are failings on new mission critical systems. Banks have done it and it’s very common in the public sector and it’s normally because some “expert” convinces management that “it will be fine”.
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Indeed - banks often struggle replacing or integrating new finance/customer systems with their massive (often Cobol) legacy systems...but we are not talking complex financial records in ancient legacy systems here.

Maybe 'management' would be less accepting of 'expert' advice if they knew that the system had huge public visibility and that it was critical to the health of the nation (literally).
 
AdamW said:
Gym has told us we have to use mask walking between equipment from tomorrow but not when working out. Not sure if I missed the news on that?

They said government guidelines were making them do it
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We've been asked to wear one when going into the building to get to the gym equipment not walking between equipment.
 
The supermarket has started temperature testing again since the border partially reopened last week (even though everyone arriving goes to a quarantine center)

Played golf at an away course a week ago and moving between clubhouse, on-course villa & beachclub we were temp tested several times every day bu no masks needed at that time

Face masks are a pop-up industry now with no end of options/designs of fabric masks available. Rule unchanged, if out of the house you must wear a mask
 
been off and looks like the conversation is about the Excel 'software glitch'. While it sounds end of the world for everyone - i am not surprised by the use of Excel. Excel is potentially one of the most used data mapping tool when it comes to databases. You will be surprised how many banks, insurance, defence etc run on Excel.

Having said that, i am using that as an excuse for what happened. Usually, you want to have a check-balance process - which might be a simple visual check on # of records, checksum etc.

I would easily choose Excel as President of the United States
 
chellie said:
We've been asked to wear one when going into the building to get to the gym equipment not walking between equipment.
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Ditto. Although they've also now stopped the need to book into a specific session. Not sure now is the time to be relaxing things.
 
Kaz said:
If Excel has been used it’s a clear sign that no IT experts have been involved. Classic approach by business users who think they know what they’re doing.
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Quiet the opposite I would have thought. Systems have been cobbled together in haste. Testing systems never had to integrate with any central database/reporting systems. Most would be fairly siloed systems. The fastest integration would have been a simple Excel with some FTP for transport.
‘Management’/Politicians would have no clue about integration but would rather focus on cute looking charts.
There might have been a proposal for a more robust integration platform, but that would have scrapped. Now everyone would be breathing down that junior guy in Accenture/Capita who initially provided the correct design.

I wonder what ‘The Register’ would have to say on this. I could post the ‘Data Loss’ video from Thick of It but it is not allowed
 
Kaz said:
If Excel has been used it’s a clear sign that no IT experts have been involved. Classic approach by business users who think they know what they’re doing.
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Apparently from Hancock the issue was with legacy system(s) that plans are in place to replace. You would expect him to have known of issues with one or more of his critical systems(s) and hence would have known of the associated risks. Maybe he wasn't told that one of his critical systems was hanging on a shoogly peg. Meanwhile the good news reported is that 51% of those missed have now been contacted...
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
Apparently from Hancock the issue was with legacy system(s) that plans are in place to replace. You would expect him to have known of issues with one or more of his critical systems(s) and hence would have known of the associated risks. Maybe he wasn't told that one of his critical systems was hanging on a shoogly peg. Meanwhile the good news reported is that 51% of those missed have now been contacted...
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The risk appears to have been identified and new systems are in the process of being built. Rush it and the same thing will happen again. This is a long term issue that must not be rushed.
 
SwingsitlikeHogan said:
I doubt many elderly (or indeed any of us) would find it very nice having half a doz kids at their door 'demanding money with menaces' (as that is what 'trick or treat' seems to me - and what guising never was)

If a neighbour or a friend with children let me know in advance that theirs - maybe with a few others - would like to come round and would I be OK with that - then fine. I'd welcome them to my door.

But random children/youths? No thankyou. Sorry.
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Just tell them to come back when they're younger.
Said that once to youths.Walked away for three steps before the penny dropped.
 
Old Skier said:
The risk appears to have been identified and new systems are in the process of being built. Rush it and the same thing will happen again. This is a long term issue that must not be rushed.
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Yes the risk was identified but somehow what happened still happened - and that's not good risk management, though on the surface nothing to do with Hancock. Though someone reporting to Hancock on the IT systems providing E2E 3Ts should have been on top of the risk.

We should not make excuses about the failings here - this happened and it shouldn't have - and given the nature of the failure that alone is not acceptable and is not defensible. It could and should have been avoided.

The fact that for some this builds on, at best, a 'perception' of government mis-handling of 3Ts is unfortunate for Hancock. He most certainly didn't need it. And public confidence in the 3Ts system didn't need it (BTW - in not blaming the government for this I aim to not be political. This is all about service governance)
 
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Kaz said:
The cheap and dirty integration route would have been to use a flat CSV file. The only way Excel would be involved is if that was where the source data was held.
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Feels to me something like a load of spreadsheets or .csv files of testing results data from here, there and everywhere being brought together and loaded into a 'central' Testing logging system - and the resulting aggregated Testing data set being too large for the export file from that system that has then to be loaded into the Test and Trace system. Or something like that. A bit poor really.
 
Rolls Royce once decided to make the turbine blades for its RB2-11 gas turbine engine out of carbon fibre due to it being light and strong in torsion. They later found when putting it in service the carbon fibre broke down in heavy rain. It just about bankrupted the company.
Has anyone never made a mistake?
 
SocketRocket said:
Rolls Royce once decided to make the turbine blades for its RB2-11 gas turbine engine out of carbon fibre due to it being light and strong in torsion. They later found when putting it in service the carbon fibre broke down in heavy rain. It just about bankrupted the company.
Has anyone never made a mistake?
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Plenty.... here are a few famous ones >> Great miscalculations: The French railway error and 10 others http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-27509559


However software integration is a well understood process. So you would expect a decent level of (software integration) testing. Sh**t happens in software , but cant hide behind it.

This will shake confidence... I would appreciate honesty rather than spin about rouge algorithms and zombie programs
 
SocketRocket said:
Rolls Royce once decided to make the turbine blades for its RB2-11 gas turbine engine out of carbon fibre due to it being light and strong in torsion. They later found when putting it in service the carbon fibre broke down in heavy rain. It just about bankrupted the company.
Has anyone never made a mistake?
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There is no need to make excuses for the company or whoever was managing the system. Yes we all make mistakes - but that does not excuse the mistake - especially when the system has massive public visibility and potential damage to public health and confidence.

Also we have heard about this error - but as they did not pick up on this error straight away have they checked back all previously data loads and transfers to assure us that this was the first time that the limit (or whatever it was that went wrong) was not exceeded and that data was not lost from earlier transfers.
 
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On Sky last night, one of their reporters was explaining how the problem occurred and he said that it is never a good idea to use Excel as a database management tool, it isn't one. The basic problem here is the NHS IT infrastructure. Those with a long memory will recall that NHS IT disasters are common, and this one occurred because PHE just didn't have up to date or well integrated systems. That is not PHE's fault, the same problem which affects every other part of the NHS. It would seem obvious that at the start of this process when Serco-Deloitte Test and Trace was being plugged in, that someone should have checked that the systems were adequately robust.
 
Had a meeting yesterday and officially redundant - 12 weeks notice starts on the 8th October and finish on 31st December. The company claims covid but I'm sure they had this in the planning for a while. Still ridiculously busy and the staff taking over from another group company are beginning to realise what they'll have to cope with - good luck to them!!

Onwards and upwards!
 
AmandaJR said:
Had a meeting yesterday and officially redundant - 12 weeks notice starts on the 8th October and finish on 31st December. The company claims covid but I'm sure they had this in the planning for a while. Still ridiculously busy and the staff taking over from another group company are beginning to realise what they'll have to cope with - good luck to them!!

Onwards and upwards!
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This happened during the credit crunch, companies using it as an excuse to cut wage bills to the bone whilst telling those that remained that they should just put up with it as they were lucky to have a job.
 
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