Background

American Automated Accounting and Computing was a small firm whose primary business was installing Basic 4 mini-computers, and customizing the general accounting software that came with the system. They also acted as a dealer for the Lockheed System 3, essentially a clone of the IBM System III mid-range computers. In 1978, they had sold a system to a small manufacturing company in Montara-by-the-Sea, and things had gone downhill from there. The machine had been installed for a few months, and was not yet up and running. The employee whose job it was to assist with the installation had been fired, and they had no other employees familiar with the system. The customer was threatening a lawsuit.  I was hired by American Automated Accounting and Computing to get the system working. This was my first programming job.

It took a few weeks, but I got the system working, helping them convert their old software to the new platform, and there were no lawsuits.  I am telling you this story to illustrate something that I learned very early in my career.  They are no job descriptions in information systems, there are only problems that need to be solved.

I have spent more than 25 years solving problems for a variety of businesses.  I have had managers tell me that there was a problem in a specific area of the business, and I was asked to propose a solution, design it, program it, install it, and train the users.  I have also been handed detailed specifications and asked to perform only the programming phase of a project.  And I have done everything in between.

Another consultant once told me "Never tell a client you don't know something.  Just get the job, then spend all night reading the manual."  I won't do that. If I can't help you, I will tell you.  If I'm not sure, I will tell you that too.  There are technologies that I know, and there are some I do not.  While I enjoy learning new things, I am not going to charge you for that experience.