> But when the column was added, they just defaulted it all to USD. So and USD value could be CAD — you "just" needed to parse the address column to find out.
I bet no one even considered the idea that someone in Canada might pay in USD dollars.
I had to... discuss... with someone the possibility that if we were recording money received from a bank, we might do well to record the currency type as well, because... banks can deal with multiple currencies. "No, banks don't do that. That's not possible". This US company was getting ready to expand their services over to Europe, and I couldn't understand why no one could understand that this might be a necessary item to record.
Someone using this system in France to help finance a project in New York, for example, might want to know whether Euros or USD were the subject of the project. This was sort of a PM tool to note the cost of a project and how much was left in a budget - it wasn't moving money directly. We had a system to choose specific banks and note that 'person X moved Y currency units to the project' but... no ability to select the currency units. If it was from a UK bank, it would be GBP. A US bank, USD, etc. I was voted down as not understanding how banks worked.
Months later, a demo was presented right before launch to the people who were financing the project, and they asked how someone would know the currency being used for each project. Back came a work ticket "high priority" because we were already late for launch and multiple screens now had to accommodate this "new" requirement.
I know at least some of this is how I present info, but... being 'nice', being 'inquisitive', raising issues up the chain of command, etc.. rarely work. These sorts of extremely obvious things get ignored until the actual end users bring up the same concern. Somehow I wasn't supposed to know this sort of info because "you're a developer, you're not some international banker". Insane...
For such told-you-so scenarios, when there is a disagreement and you are pretty sure you are correct, raise a ticket, describe the issue and close it "As Designed" with comment detailing the discussion (including the overruling party). Next time there is a ticket to do this with "high priority", tell them "we already have a ticket for this, let me reopen it" for everyone to see... risky though, saving face/burning bridges and all that.
> I bet no one even considered the idea that someone in Canada might pay in USD dollars.
Certainly not I, at the time! (In my defense, I was an intern, and was shocked to learn that rows labelled "USD" could not be assumed to be USD. I hope today I am less naïve… but even by today me's standards, that's pretty appalling data quality.)
> I was voted down as not understanding how banks worked.
Yep, I feel this. The best engineers I have worked with make it their job to become an expert in the subject matter they're designing/engineering software for. I mean … why wouldn't they?
I bet no one even considered the idea that someone in Canada might pay in USD dollars.
I had to... discuss... with someone the possibility that if we were recording money received from a bank, we might do well to record the currency type as well, because... banks can deal with multiple currencies. "No, banks don't do that. That's not possible". This US company was getting ready to expand their services over to Europe, and I couldn't understand why no one could understand that this might be a necessary item to record.
Someone using this system in France to help finance a project in New York, for example, might want to know whether Euros or USD were the subject of the project. This was sort of a PM tool to note the cost of a project and how much was left in a budget - it wasn't moving money directly. We had a system to choose specific banks and note that 'person X moved Y currency units to the project' but... no ability to select the currency units. If it was from a UK bank, it would be GBP. A US bank, USD, etc. I was voted down as not understanding how banks worked.
Months later, a demo was presented right before launch to the people who were financing the project, and they asked how someone would know the currency being used for each project. Back came a work ticket "high priority" because we were already late for launch and multiple screens now had to accommodate this "new" requirement.
I know at least some of this is how I present info, but... being 'nice', being 'inquisitive', raising issues up the chain of command, etc.. rarely work. These sorts of extremely obvious things get ignored until the actual end users bring up the same concern. Somehow I wasn't supposed to know this sort of info because "you're a developer, you're not some international banker". Insane...