Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Comprehension is apparently a lost art

The following conversation occurred in an email thread:

Me: I cannot ping or browse to the server name you gave me.  Also, I need to know the UNC path to the directory where I'm supposed to drop the files.
Him: (forwarding an old email) You mean this server?
Me: Yes, that one (copies and pastes in the ping results)
Him: Oh, I had a typo in the server name.  Oh, and here's the FTP account information you need.
Me: Um, my process doesn't use FTP.  It uses UNC paths to a file share.  I need either the UNC path or if this process is going to run local on that server, the actual physical path.
Him: FTP is not configured on that server yet, but it's getting set up today.
Me: o.O

Seriously, people.  I've been in 3 meetings for this project, and in each one I specified that the process we're migrating uses UNC, not FTP.  It would require a significant rewrite to get it to use FTP.  I even sent out email messages documenting that requirement.

Reading comprehension is not that difficult.  Oh, and when you are a Business Analyst and part of your job function is gathering and documenting requirements, don't you think it would be a good idea to actually make note of an iron-clad requirement that is called out?

Color me unimpressed with this particular BA.

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