Almost 5 Years Later
"If ____, then allow ____ Else ____. Nope, that's not it. We all fall into that."
"Ok, what does the next one say?"
Apply, rinse, repeat.
I work in IT, and most of my job is trying to break the system that my programmers build. It's actually really fun. I enjoy finding the weak parts of the system and fixing it! One of the big projects from last year that I worked on was the online class schedule rewrite - I wrote a blog about it, remember? That's what I do for a living - I try to break things.
One of my current projects is moving the graduation application online. The U currently has a paper process.... because apparently we still live in the 1940's. My department is working tirelessly to update the system to the 21st century, and it's exhausting. Deadlines are tight, and workers are few. This online grad app has been in the works for years, but kept getting postponed, due to lack of system understanding. As a professional IT person, with a deep understanding of PeopleSoft (*insert skeptical look*), I was assigned to do what has been tried and failed 3 times previously - to publish the online grad app by March 2nd. Of this year. I know.
PeopleSoft delivers an online grad app, so we didn't have to build it from scratch, we just had to understand the functionality, and then modify the system to work the way we need it to. My programmers finally finished adding all the mods this past week, and I have dived in, testing every little button, process, and function to assure us that it will actually work the way we envisioned it would. It's intimidating, to be sure, since we're changing the entire graduation process, and has caused much stress on my side - although, let's be honest; what doesn't cause me stress?
I created a bunch of test situations, set up test students, and started, you guessed it, testing. I set up a few students, then discovered that one link on one of the pages was not functioning properly. It was supposed to say "Diploma Name," but instead it was saying "Edit Name" and linked to a name editable page. I tried getting rid of it, I tried figuring out where the page was coming from, I tried changing the set up of the students I was testing.... and finally I went to my boss. She was as confused as I was, and we eventually went down to our developer to see what was going on. That led to us wading through PeopleCode for two and a half hours while we tried to figure out what was causing this random link and text to appear.
We have two test environments, and it was only occurring in one of them, which was even more confusing, because the code was the same in both! We spent hours reading "If, then, else" statements, trying to see if one of them was why this random link was occurring. We rewrote the code, we deleted parts of it, we added code, we created new test functions, we deleted students..... it was one let down after another. We could not figure out what was going on. We finally located the page that was being pulled into the link and took away security for the page - which means the students weren't able to click on the "Edit Name" link anymore. However, the text was still not working, so finally, after hours of trying to figure out what was going on, reading PeopleCode, adding and removing security, we figured out how to hardcode the system to override the PeopleCode that was overriding the rules we had created in set up. (Have I lost you yet? I never feel like I'm speaking in too technical of terms until I get a blank stare from people. Since you're reading this, I can't see your face, so I have no idea if this made sense to you or not. Just know we could not figure out what was going on, and had to override the whole system to put in what we wanted it to say).
We still have no idea why it was pulling in the random link and text, but we feel confident in the fix we put into the system.
As I was telling my mother about this, I started thinking about how this relates so much to my own life! In the beginning of this experience I was working on the system myself, trying to figure out if it was working properly, if it was going to break if we pushed the wrong button, or if it would stand the test of time. When I found a problem, I proceeded to try to figure out why it was happening, and fix it. I tried everything, and eventually had to go get help from people who know better than me. As we sat and worked tirelessly for the next couple of hours, trying to figure out one piece of code that wasn't working, we finally had to override the whole system to get the result we needed.
In life, we are going along, trying to figure things out on our own. We get stuck, or faced with different options, and turn to others around us to help us figure out what we should do. Those people are our friends, family, Bishop, the Prophet's counsel, and the Lord, through prayer. We finally end up doing something completely different than we had planned, but that works just as well! And sometimes we don't know why. We don't know why we can't do things the straightforward way, or why we're not allowed to push a button, metaphorically, and fix a problem in our life. Sometimes we don't understand why we start down a road, thinking we know the reason why we're going down it, only to have something completely different occur.
For example, I moved to Salt Lake when I was 21, thinking I was going to get married. I thought I would get here, meet the man of my dreams, start having kids, and be a stay at home mom. That was why I thought the Lord wanted me to move to Salt Lake all those years ago. Almost 5 years later, I have discovered more about myself, my hopes, my dreams, my weaknesses, my beliefs, my personality, my character, and my strength than I ever realized I didn't know about myself. It isn't the wrong path - it's just different than what I had initially planned. And get this - I love this plan. I love all the experiences I've been able to have, the learning I've done, the people I've met, the places I've been, the books I've read, the songs I've sung, the person I've become. I've loved it!
I feel like I've written this blog a million times before, but it's because I really do feel this way. One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to mold a system into what we as the Users want it to be, and I see so much of God's hand in that - as He's working to shape us into the people we can become! It makes me think of this Mormon Message:
"Ok, what does the next one say?"
Apply, rinse, repeat.
I work in IT, and most of my job is trying to break the system that my programmers build. It's actually really fun. I enjoy finding the weak parts of the system and fixing it! One of the big projects from last year that I worked on was the online class schedule rewrite - I wrote a blog about it, remember? That's what I do for a living - I try to break things.
One of my current projects is moving the graduation application online. The U currently has a paper process.... because apparently we still live in the 1940's. My department is working tirelessly to update the system to the 21st century, and it's exhausting. Deadlines are tight, and workers are few. This online grad app has been in the works for years, but kept getting postponed, due to lack of system understanding. As a professional IT person, with a deep understanding of PeopleSoft (*insert skeptical look*), I was assigned to do what has been tried and failed 3 times previously - to publish the online grad app by March 2nd. Of this year. I know.
PeopleSoft delivers an online grad app, so we didn't have to build it from scratch, we just had to understand the functionality, and then modify the system to work the way we need it to. My programmers finally finished adding all the mods this past week, and I have dived in, testing every little button, process, and function to assure us that it will actually work the way we envisioned it would. It's intimidating, to be sure, since we're changing the entire graduation process, and has caused much stress on my side - although, let's be honest; what doesn't cause me stress?
I created a bunch of test situations, set up test students, and started, you guessed it, testing. I set up a few students, then discovered that one link on one of the pages was not functioning properly. It was supposed to say "Diploma Name," but instead it was saying "Edit Name" and linked to a name editable page. I tried getting rid of it, I tried figuring out where the page was coming from, I tried changing the set up of the students I was testing.... and finally I went to my boss. She was as confused as I was, and we eventually went down to our developer to see what was going on. That led to us wading through PeopleCode for two and a half hours while we tried to figure out what was causing this random link and text to appear.
We have two test environments, and it was only occurring in one of them, which was even more confusing, because the code was the same in both! We spent hours reading "If, then, else" statements, trying to see if one of them was why this random link was occurring. We rewrote the code, we deleted parts of it, we added code, we created new test functions, we deleted students..... it was one let down after another. We could not figure out what was going on. We finally located the page that was being pulled into the link and took away security for the page - which means the students weren't able to click on the "Edit Name" link anymore. However, the text was still not working, so finally, after hours of trying to figure out what was going on, reading PeopleCode, adding and removing security, we figured out how to hardcode the system to override the PeopleCode that was overriding the rules we had created in set up. (Have I lost you yet? I never feel like I'm speaking in too technical of terms until I get a blank stare from people. Since you're reading this, I can't see your face, so I have no idea if this made sense to you or not. Just know we could not figure out what was going on, and had to override the whole system to put in what we wanted it to say).
We still have no idea why it was pulling in the random link and text, but we feel confident in the fix we put into the system.
As I was telling my mother about this, I started thinking about how this relates so much to my own life! In the beginning of this experience I was working on the system myself, trying to figure out if it was working properly, if it was going to break if we pushed the wrong button, or if it would stand the test of time. When I found a problem, I proceeded to try to figure out why it was happening, and fix it. I tried everything, and eventually had to go get help from people who know better than me. As we sat and worked tirelessly for the next couple of hours, trying to figure out one piece of code that wasn't working, we finally had to override the whole system to get the result we needed.
In life, we are going along, trying to figure things out on our own. We get stuck, or faced with different options, and turn to others around us to help us figure out what we should do. Those people are our friends, family, Bishop, the Prophet's counsel, and the Lord, through prayer. We finally end up doing something completely different than we had planned, but that works just as well! And sometimes we don't know why. We don't know why we can't do things the straightforward way, or why we're not allowed to push a button, metaphorically, and fix a problem in our life. Sometimes we don't understand why we start down a road, thinking we know the reason why we're going down it, only to have something completely different occur.
For example, I moved to Salt Lake when I was 21, thinking I was going to get married. I thought I would get here, meet the man of my dreams, start having kids, and be a stay at home mom. That was why I thought the Lord wanted me to move to Salt Lake all those years ago. Almost 5 years later, I have discovered more about myself, my hopes, my dreams, my weaknesses, my beliefs, my personality, my character, and my strength than I ever realized I didn't know about myself. It isn't the wrong path - it's just different than what I had initially planned. And get this - I love this plan. I love all the experiences I've been able to have, the learning I've done, the people I've met, the places I've been, the books I've read, the songs I've sung, the person I've become. I've loved it!
I feel like I've written this blog a million times before, but it's because I really do feel this way. One of my favorite things about my job is that I get to mold a system into what we as the Users want it to be, and I see so much of God's hand in that - as He's working to shape us into the people we can become! It makes me think of this Mormon Message:
So often, the Lord sends us down roads we never would have gone down, but that we need to go down to feel sure of our future, and the decisions we're making. Sometimes it seems like we're hitting a dead wall, but many times the Lord has us go through all that effort just to know that that is the wrong decision! He will help us know the right decisions as well as the wrong, if we're willing to ask. I feel like I often will try everything, think of every possible situation, and decide to move forward, and the Lord says no. I get so confused, because I've done all the research and thought it through, but that's not what the Lord needs me to do, so I put my trust in Him and say, I've done all the work on my side; the Lord is now going to take care of the rest. Notice how I said I did all the work first. The Lord expects us to put forth the effort, and then he'll provide an answer. I love that. He didn't give us agency just to take it away for Him to run the program - we all get to use our agency to learn and grow and then use our faith to follow the Lord! I love that.
Well, that's a look into the joys of an IT girl. I really do see the Lord's hand in all that I do, and it is such a humbling experience.
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