OddThinking

Wayne worked on a project installing a custom computer system onto an oil-rig. When the system was ready to ship, they packed it all up into boxes, took it down to the car-park. Then they ran one last test. They unpacked it and set it up right there in the car-park.

After all, an oil-rig is a fairly remote location – it is tough to make a quick trip back to the office to pick up a disk that you forgot. It was worth making sure that everything they needed was included.

Unfortunately, the test was a very good idea! It revealed that the system didn’t work! During the move, some fragile connection broke and it took an additional week before they were able to track down the hardware problem and rectify it. (Ask your favourite Project Manager to to explain what a “critical path” is.)

Problem fixed, the system was packaged back up and shipped to the oil-rig. Part of the logistics was to transport the system to the oil rig via helicopter, where it was lowered to the deck via a cable. As it was slowly lowered, Wayne watched in horror as the cable snapped, and the box containing the fragile system was dropped six foot to the deck with a momentous thump.

As you may have already guessed, because this entry was inspired by a recent, far less dramatic incident that happened to me, upon installation, the system worked first time.