what's in a name ?

There’s nothing worse than slaving away all day over a hot keyboard trying to coerce various pieces of software to synchronise a single customer record from one legacy system to another.

Of course, the mouth-watering and long awaited climax to a hard days graft (and knowledge transfer) finally arrives at 18.47 when you are tired, irritable and just want to go home.

This is it. This is your moment. Seize the day. You are poised of the edge of greatness, about to scale your own personal Everest.

There is only one thing stopping you. We have to choose a name for the ‘customer’.

Your heart sinks as the integrator pauses for an eternity, pauses again, looks enquiringly and then suddenly types in:

Username: TESTUSER FirstName: TEST LastName: USER

You politely plead: ‘That’s really not a good name to use.’ ‘Why ? Oh wait. I get it. We will need more than one account for testing.’ Your mood darkens still further as he modifies the data:

Username: TESTUSER1 FirstName: TEST LastName: USER1

You snap and the wafer thin veneer of professionalism and consulting is shattered. ‘Excuse me. Can I drive for just one minute ?’

Username: MSTIPE FirstName: Michael LastName: Stipe

A small point admittedly but one that significantly increases the satisfaction levels for everyone concerned when that confounded customer finally appears on the other side.

All of which reminds me of another story.