I have a customer. He wanted me to hold his hand while he tried some fairly complex SQL code on his own. When it became evident that he was never going to take the time to learn the db he was taking the data from (and was thereby failing), I told him I could do the work myself as a billable service or he could be on his own.
He chose to accept my work as a billable service. Fine.
It has since become clear that, if he knows what he wants, he doesn’t wish to tell me. I have finally resorted to, over and over, asking him to please give me about three mocked-up records from his hypothetical output to demonstrate what he is looking for. In answer to this (three times so far today) he keeps sending me the code he was working with when he admitted that he didn’t know what he was doing.
How can he possibly believe that offering me code that DOESN’T DO WHAT HE WANTS IT TO DO is going to help me produce code that does?
I think he doesn’t know what he wants, and is afraid to admit it. I can’t explain his behavior any other way.
Crossposted from Epinephrine & Sophistry
So you want to see records (as examples), but he keeps sending you non-functional code instead? Sweet.
Oh, yes, he’s a clever one.
Most recently, he finally grasped that if he asks for a stored procedure that includes all values from column A and column B of a report, they will never add up to column A of the report. He is now asking his boss if the report can be changed so that his stored procedure will add up to column A.
Great plan. Alter the report so that it makes no sense and doesn’t add up, but supports your faulty stored procedure. Genius.
I wish I graded green beans for a living.
Easy. Just set up the procedure to change all the values of column B to zero.
Mmmm, green beans.