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Why Enterprise Software Sucks

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Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#491

Post by Aeolun »

andrei_says_ wrote: post #432
MarcScott wrote: post #364

I worked at a school that used the Frog VLE. There was a big push for us to use it for student assessment. I tried, I honestly did. 1. I used it to set homework assignments. 2. .py files were blocked and students couldn't upload them. 3. They submitted code as .txt instead. 4. I'd click on my class to view submissions, it showed the top 5 submissions. 5. I'd click on a submission and it would download. 6. I'd view th…

I work in a corporate environment and I also write software -- both external and internal tools. My intolerance to unnecessary pain is one of the main driving forces in creating software-based tools. The amount of pain inflicted on employees by enterprise solutions of various kinds is immeasurable. As a developer, I squirm witnessing so much unnecessary work and discomfort associated with simple tasks. For example, e…

Managing expenses is only a pain because my company doesn’t trust me when I tell them I spent $20 on a meal. And have to give them both a digital, and then physical (signed!) receipt.

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#492

Post by rawoke083600 »

enra wrote: post #280
rawoke083600 wrote: post #86

With JIRA (and most other enterprise ticketing/scrum sofware) EVERYTHING is possible but nothing is easy ! What I want to buy is NOT 1001 to log/validate/confirm/report a "login form" doesn't work issue. I want to BUY someone's workflow that has invested real time and research and optimised the workflow. The software should only have a supporting minor role in this workflow-product. Its like buy a super-duper-expensi…

We are pretty much building this. We want to optimize the workflows so they actually make sense and recommend best best practices. The main thing we want support is individual's and the team's momentum. If the team has momentum, it's feels good and overall the company will make more progress. Features or anything that get in a way of that should be automated or not added at all. https://linear.app

Looks good... but if you want to sell me (based on my first comment)..The word(feature) "issue tracking" should not be the first thing I see. I again "see" just another "issue tracking product" ( with a slick interface). Sell me a workflow-process not software.

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#493

Post by TheRealWatson »

dividido wrote: post #367

I write enterprise software for fortune 100 companies. If I put myself in the user’s shoes and had an alternative, I’d most likely uninstall what we built and jump ship. But they can’t. It’s an internal app and the user is forced to use it. I try and fight for what’s right but if I had a dollar everytime I heard “ we aren’t google/amazon” , “only xx people will use it”, “we are just doing this to get off the old tech…

I agree with all you said but you seem to be referring to internal apps only. The blog talks about enterprise software of a broader scope, things that are built by a 3rd party and the purchase is decided by people that won't be the main users.

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#494

Post by xyst »

TeMPOraL wrote: post #393
lmm wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But the average business does not really have such needs, or at least it can be a mistake to blindly trade off employee happiness and productivity against feature checklists, yet that is typically the approach employed by procurement experts. I think there's a different dynamic at play: the individual is making purchasing decisions based not on what they think the business needs but on what they personally want. E.…

Related, my co-worker and I have evaluated a dozen different tools big and small, including Jira and that Jetbrains thing. And we still can't find a system that would meet our needs, which I think are simple: - Model tasks as DAGs, not as lists. I.e. I want to work with a dependency graph (JetBrains thing sort of can do that with task relationships, but the UI isn't oriented towards exploiting it). - If that's too mu…

What's the point of nested subtasks? I hate creating subtasks as it is, but now I have to create this nasty tree of sub-subtasks?

Almost seems like "micro-tasks" at this point.

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#495

Post by dingo_bat »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #20

I think this gets it wrong. The real reason enterprise software sucks is that enterprises have complex and unique workflows and would prefer to buy software that they can fit to their workflow rather than change the workflows of their profitable business with tens of thousands of staff who will need retraining. If you look at all of the most successful software of all time they are the complete antithesis of the Unix…

Who hates excel though?

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#497

Post by afarrell »

nradov wrote: post #250
afarrell wrote: post #189

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do the users of the software need to know about all that complexity? If the answer is: "they definitely do", then you are right. There's no way around it. If the answer is: "No, they only need to know about 4% of it. The rest can be automated and hidden away." then the problem is that people aren't incentivised to pay the cost of building that software. There is a broad solution: Hire engineers, UX designers, and pro…

In this area of enterprise software, the users absolutely need to know about the complexity for compliance reasons. Any errors can potentially result in criminal charges, civil liability, or at least bad PR and employee morale. Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases. For example, employers sometimes receive court orders requiring them to periodically seize a certain amount from a par…

> Payroll might seem simple but in reality it's full of complex edge cases.

oh I would definitely have assumed so. My question is to what degree does the UI need to lay all that complexity right out for the user and to what degree can it hide it?

If humans inherently need to learn about all that complexity, then the best you can do is make it not-needlessly complicated.

> Please explain how engineers, UX designers, and product managers can "manage" such complexity.

I can't do so in the space of this text box. The answer is practically the field of software engineering.

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I'm curious what your thoughts are on https://docs.gusto.com/ Is it another "yea, this covers 95% of my use cases, but I need that last 5%" Or is it good?

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#499

Post by samayylmao »

MarcScott wrote: post #364

I worked at a school that used the Frog VLE. There was a big push for us to use it for student assessment. I tried, I honestly did. 1. I used it to set homework assignments. 2. .py files were blocked and students couldn't upload them. 3. They submitted code as .txt instead. 4. I'd click on my class to view submissions, it showed the top 5 submissions. 5. I'd click on a submission and it would download. 6. I'd view th…

Have you ever used Instructure? My university uses it (I'm a student). It's really great on the student side and from what I've seen really flexible and easy to use from the teacher's perspective too.

Re: Why Enterprise Software Sucks

#500

Post by segmondy »

MarcScott wrote: post #364

I worked at a school that used the Frog VLE. There was a big push for us to use it for student assessment. I tried, I honestly did. 1. I used it to set homework assignments. 2. .py files were blocked and students couldn't upload them. 3. They submitted code as .txt instead. 4. I'd click on my class to view submissions, it showed the top 5 submissions. 5. I'd click on a submission and it would download. 6. I'd view th…

You could have automated this with a macro or program. Or given extra credit to students that did.
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