Leave your brain on the desk when you go 6

[Gymmeh]

So I am leaving my company at the end of the week.

I was asked to write up a guide on all the excel programs I made and all the facility projects I am working on. I have nothing wrong with this –they are the property of the company- and fully want the next person to be up to speed with this position and what has been done and what can be done.

I wrote a number of excel programs, and have no problem with someone learning them and then using them. My concern is that someone will use them without understanding their limitations and even if I make a guide explaining them. The major one is a guy which was demoted from an engineer position to a sales position for making some decisions which where against Code, just ignorant, and bad. As most of you know, you don’t get demoted for making one mistake… he has repeatedly made mistakes and ignored basic concepts. I was given complete oversight of all his projects to prevent any projects being released that could have problems. Because of this I also know he really wants to do “engineering” and may try to do it after I leave.

What do you guys normally do with information which is only known to you?

Thanks

 

[TheTick]

Leave. That also means leave your responsibility. Mr. Sales is not your problem anymore.

 

[MacGyverS2000]

Unless you feel it will somehow adversely affect your future work or being hired elsewhere, it's their problem to deal with, not yours.

I suggest, however, adding in to the "comment" section of the Excel files (File->Properties, or something like that) that the program was created by you and should only be used by people appropriately trained in its use, results are not guaranteed to fit any specific set of rules and are meant to be a rough guideline only, etc. Do what you can to document the stuff, but don't work yourself to death doing it unless they intend to pay you overtime for the work (and they may want to if the tools are that helpful).

Dan - Owner

http://www.Hi-TecDesigns.com

 

[IRstuff]

Do what you're asked to. State caveats as needed. MAke sure there's nothing omitted that can come back to bite you. Beyond that, you're done.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[JAE]

For the projects:

Just good business practice would compel me to certainly sit down with some individual or individuals and go over each project that is still active.

To help in this process, I'd put together a memo that outlines each project, a brief description of where it is currently at, some past important design issues, concerns, etc. Also state, forward looking, any upcoming concerns or issues you see developing.

The memo can also serve to clarify what you were and were not responsible for in terms of past errors or difficulties in the project process.

For the spreadsheets:

I'd second what macgyvers2000 states and I'd simply put together a list of the spreadsheets that you wrote and then at the bottom of the list write this:

[blue]These spreadsheets were developed by me over the course of ______ years and were design tools that I used on various projects. Use of these spreadsheets is at the users risk. The contents, logical flows, and algorithms utilized require special engineering skills and require complete familiarity with the spreadsheet's contents and limitations. No warranty is stated or implied that the spreadsheet is correct or without errors.[/blue]

If the firm asks you for more than this you just simply have to refuse. Not because you don't want to cooperate but because anything beyond this is really impossible.

 

[DRC1]

Talk to your supervisor. Everyone knows why he went into sales. I wouldn't refuse to do the work, but expalin why you are concerned. They may agree with you and decide they may need to control the use of the spreadsheets.

 

[Gymmeh]

I have written a number of warnings all over the places like JAE's. I did not go into to much detail explaining how to use them. I only explained what they are used for and where I got the equations.

So if someone what’s to use them they will have to look up the equations to know what the variables are. And hopefully learn about the program in the process.

I will talk to my boss when I can catch him in his office about protecting the programs.

 

[TheTick]

Perhaps just take the programs off the network, burn a CD and give that to the boss. Then it is quite literally in his hands.

 

[msquared48]

As a corollary to csd, keep copies of everything you write, to include the computer programs, dated to the day you left. Also, in a spiral notebook, not a three ring binder, document in your own hand writing what you did to coordinate the transfer of responsibility by date and event. Keep this information for a minimum of 6 years. It may save your hide later if it is needed.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[DonPhillips]

Before I left my employers - all on good terms - I burned CD's (my first employer of 15 years) and DVD's (my last two employers) so I would have a copy of what I created. I have actually used them to give former employees documents to uses since they could not "find" them on the network. It was amazing how large the files and the number of them grew. 2 CD's for a 15 year employer, 2 DVD's for a 4 year, and 2 DVD's and 2 CD's for a 1 year employer.



Don Phillips

http://worthingtonengineering.com

 

[RVSWA]

Taking msquared48's suggestion of documentation one step further may be to summarize your concerns in a memo. Provide a copy to the boss and reiterate, in person, your concerns that future users really study what you started. Beyond that, they are going to be responsible for your work for the near future, "owning" your work or spreadsheets is part of that responsibility.

JAE's disclaimer is a great idea that I'm taking to work tomorrow. I might go one step further and add that until the user has reviewed the equations and variables, they should not use the spreadsheet. We've come to be very protective of our spreadsheets because as they grow, it becomes less obvious what things a small change may impact. Ideally, adding numerous comments to your sheet may help avoid some of this "summary work" in the future, but even as I suggest it, I'm guilty of not writing enough documentation.

You may consider an occasional email to your ex-boss to check if he needs any assistance with historical knowledge.
Good luck with your new job...

 

[SomptingGuy]

Slightly different viewpoint...

It sounds like your company was happy to let you write your own "programs" and use them on company work undocumented. So the current problem is down to a lack of QA in your company. Not yours. It could be argued that the ubiquity of Excel is to blame. Untraceable, undocumentable (is that a word?).

I don't know what business the company is in, but when the plane crashes or the bridge collapses, investigators often want to dig deep into any software that was used at the time. "Err, some undocumented Excel spreadsheet I think" doesn't sound good in court.

- Steve

 

[Gymmeh]

SG yes you are very right! Part of the reason I am leaving! Considering the industry we are in, they should have better engineering practice. When I first got here there was no "Tractability" for half the projects produced. Two projects I “inherited” when I started failed preliminary testing, and I had a HELL!!!!! of a time fixing the problems because the drawings and any design calculations had been thrown out or not done at all! Actually from someone’s advice from eng-tips, I started tracking all my work with hard copies, printouts of my excels, putting them in folders to cover my butt.

Then I talked my boss into making an “Engineering Control and Release Form,” basically a cover page which shows a summery of a project. Then have a hard copy of all the work in an “Engineering Log.”

I was also trying to get the IT department to better QA for all engineering computer files.

I could write a 100page document about all the problems with the engineering program here but that’s for another day.

I thought about just moving it to a place where it would just drift into nothingness computer land… by the time someone found it they would have no idea what it is…

 

[MadMango]

Just leave the files on your computer, your replacement will delete them for you. Problem solved.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[RossABQ]

Lots of good ideas; I think the best combination is to burn a single CD for the company, and transmit it with a disclaimer to your boss. Keep copies of both for yourself. Verbal discussion is not any good in court. If you want to go to the trouble, lock all the formulae in the spreadsheets and add some annotation on assumptions implicit in the formulae, right on the page (not as a Comment), so it prints out every time.

I'd also suggest going into Properties in each spreadsheet and making sure that your name is not on there as the Author.

 

[Gymmeh]

Good call Ross, I went through and deleted my name or initials from everything

MAD, we have to keep everything in the "engineering" drive on our server, so the file is not local.

What I currently have set up so everything is password protected and there are hyperlinks to my "Guide" for the programs. Hidden in the guide is the password.
So if someone takes the time to read the guide, they get access to the programs.

I just had an engineer from another company stop by my office and I asked him what he thought, his advice was... even $6000 FEA programs can be dangerous in the wrong hands. Technically its the companies responsibility to hire someone that is competent enough to use his judgment.

 

[IRstuff]

Sure, not only that, but commercial software aren't even guaranteed to operate correctly at all.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[SomptingGuy]

No software, commercial or otherwise, can be guaranteed 100% accurate. But with adequate configuration management in place (a.k.a. version control) it should be possible to revisit any calculation.

- Steve

 

[IRstuff]

Legally, the engineer is responsible for the accuracy for the calculations, regardless whether the software is proven accurate or not.

TTFN

FAQ731-376

 

[Gymmeh]

TODAY IS MY LAST DAY!!!!!! WOOT!

SG, currently the configuration management setup is much better then it was. Actually hard copies of all designs and calculations in files, is a great start! I feel I have done more here than has been done in 12 yrs.

The problem here is the boss doesn’t understand engineering.
One of the things that set me off to leaving is when i was reprimanded for taking the time to produce all the drawings for a particular design and making them as correct as possible, which takes more time then the last engineer.

My boss was like "How is it taking you so long to do these designs, Keith could have these done in a day, all he used to do was just use one drawing and stretch it. Then Mark (the machinist) would fix all the problems in the shop"
I asked my boss "what happens if Mark dies in a freak accident, who’s going to fix all the mistakes?"
My boss just said " I dont know, just have this done by the end of the day."
This conversation was after numerous discussions with him stressing the importance of having correct designs on file, not only for simple manufacturing, simple duplication, but CYA. Some people just don’t get it.

I can't wait to actually work with engineers and have a boss that’s an engineer! and of course the raise is nice to.