In 2005 I was an analyst, supporting a large telecommunications company. An Excel issue was passed to me, that stumped those who came before me. A department has engaged an external developer to build a database in Excel 2003, and by the time of my involvement, NZ$80k was already spent.
The problem was that the developer has actually hit many of Excel 2003’s limits in rows, columns and system resources, and was unwilling to accept this as a fact. The secondary problem was that too much money was already spent on the project to make its way under a rug.
The solution was political, and I have engaged my manager’s manager to sit down with the head of the department in question and sell them a SQL database instead. Sometimes, a political solution is more elegant then figuring out how to work within given limits.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
