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Geoff stated: This isn't a documentation problem, it's a software problem.
[Kimber remarked:] Absolutely!
Geoff continued: This kind of shoddy
product should be redone from scratch. It would be safer, cheaper, and more
effective to hire a competent programmer to rewrite the application from
scratch than to try and fix the existing application.
[Kimber remarked:] (commentary qualifications) I am in the midst of documenting
the backend of a database application. I am documenting the entire database and
UI structure and capturing procedures for administering the database, also.
We're talking detail into the code, just like what Kim is being asked to do.
(commentary) Geoff is right, Kim. This software is junk, and you will spend more
than a year trying to write their way out of the tangle. The database product
I'm working on has some, but not much, commentary in the code for the UI and the
database. But it's very well designed, and we do have rudimentary specification
and design docs. We also have developers who know a great deal about the entire
product and how and why it is supposed to work.
That said, I have been working on the data dictionary portion since early
December. I'm only 2/3 done with defining tables and their columns and have just
begun to work on the stored procedures. Haven't touched the triggers and views
yet, nor the UI commentary to document the forms.
They aren't asking you to document. They are asking you to reverse engineer and
perform an analysis. That's an engineering task. You may be completely up to
that challenge, but is your salary? Is their budget?
I've no idea how big this DB and its UI are, but if you'd like to contact me
offline to talk about the idea in general, I'll be more than happy to chat.
--Kimber
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
It is never too late to plan the adventure of your life.
Kimber Miller
kimber_miller -at- acs-inc -dot- com
Affiliated Computer Services
Dallas, Texas
214.887.7408
