1–10 of 15 posts
Looking to spend less time updating logic and more time building systems.
As an example, maybe they want to change a cutoff from $100 to $50. You can provide them a standard query for modifying this field. Then they can change the cutoff value as needed. You could keep the SQL to yourself and just plug the number in that they gave you and run it yourself. Of course if you code it as an SP then it's fairly trivial to stand up a basic service and UI in front of it for them too.
At a prior job I managed an Access application. Several accountants wanted to query some of the data but were not willing to work in Access. I used Excel to query the data they wanted. Then they could sort and filter to their hearts content.
We've done some things like that. The best thing I've seen for trivial business changes is to train two business people how to update the fields they need to. It works best with a simple UI in front of it. As an example, maybe they want to change a cutoff from $100 to $50. You can provide them a standard query for modifying this field. Then they can change the cutoff value as needed. You could keep the SQL to yoursel…
Would MS Access be an option? I know Access has a bad reputation, but it is very good at giving non-developers a tool to write queries. There are likely other low code tools that would work, as you mentioned. At a prior job I managed an Access application. Several accountants wanted to query some of the data but were not willing to work in Access. I used Excel to query the data they wanted. Then they could sort and f…
- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_rules_engine
- [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_rule_management_syste...
- [2]: https://www.drools.org/
Would MS Access be an option? I know Access has a bad reputation, but it is very good at giving non-developers a tool to write queries. There are likely other low code tools that would work, as you mentioned. At a prior job I managed an Access application. Several accountants wanted to query some of the data but were not willing to work in Access. I used Excel to query the data they wanted. Then they could sort and f…
Oh interesting, will look into that! Excel works for one-offs, but with repeated queries, or if they're exploring data that they don't know exactly how they'd use, or if they want to affect changes in a system ("send email to all these customer ids"), they'd still have to come back to me?
Depends. I was dealing with accountants who were very at home in Excel. They were fine with linking Excel to a whole table or query and sorting and filtering for the data they needed. Note that Excel can be actively linked, rather than just doing a one-time import. Something like emailing a subset of customer ID's would have needed my involvement. My users were mostly using the data for discovery, looking for patterns and trends in workflow and client needs.
We've done some things like that. The best thing I've seen for trivial business changes is to train two business people how to update the fields they need to. It works best with a simple UI in front of it. As an example, maybe they want to change a cutoff from $100 to $50. You can provide them a standard query for modifying this field. Then they can change the cutoff value as needed. You could keep the SQL to yoursel…
Makes sense, that's what I've seen other folks do. I'm curious if you've seen them ask for more features over time, more actions, ability to manage the rules they write - and whether the full blown version of what they need was easy to support?
Overall, it depends on the system if it saves time/effort or not. If the changes are infrequent and basic, you might as well just have them send an email and plug it into an SQL template that you saved from the last request. If it's repetitive and frequent, then I think it makes sense to build a simple UI and let them deal with it.
It could also depend on what you like. You mention wanting to build system over changing business logic. So maybe you would like building the system for them to make thier own changes vs making updates yourself.
I do feel you om the business logic stuff. I'm currently dealing with a problem because of the business requests. They commingled business display content and system data in one field, then the other team decided they would change that field content per the business request without consulting with downstream systems. Not to mention they aren't properly following json format so we have to do some escaping/parsing before running the message through a real parser... it's so frustrating. And of course the pressure is on me to fix it, and my suggestion to roll back that change the broke multiple systems was a no-go. Apparently form is more important than function.
Check out our solution at https://www.seliom.com
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Oh interesting, will look into that! Excel works for one-offs, but with repeated queries, or if they're exploring data that they don't know exactly how they'd use, or if they want to affect changes in a system ("send email to all these customer ids"), they'd still have to come back to me?
>they'd still have to come back to me? Depends. I was dealing with accountants who were very at home in Excel. They were fine with linking Excel to a whole table or query and sorting and filtering for the data they needed. Note that Excel can be actively linked, rather than just doing a one-time import. Something like emailing a subset of customer ID's would have needed my involvement. My users were mostly using the…