Battleground Brunei
A client of mine in Brunei was very pissed with a bug in their mission-critical system. The problem was related to bad code on a poorly-maintained database that was shared by many others. My CEO got so pissed with the overall architecture that he convinced the client to let him carve it out. Once we got the green light, I was at the forefront of the internal resistance to the change. Since the owners of the problem were reluctant to do it, we had to drive it. I kept documenting all that was needed to be done, and circulated the proposed design for discussion. Most of the time, I was greeted with silence. I pushed on anyway. In the end, we got the owners to endorse the solution and implement it. We pushed it all the way to the UAT cycle where our client took their sweet time to test. They had already missed two so-called unmovable dates to sign-off, so when the third date came, it was firm.
On the day I arrived in Brunei, even the items that could have been done weeks before were not completed. What's the point of me coming out with a detailed checklist if you don't plan and act accordingly? I was flabbergasted. At least each affected system sent support staff. Thankful for that. I knew it was going to be a long night, so the team went out for a nice dinner at Restoran Fuchow. Funny thing was, the Fuchow guy who was with us commented that the menu looked like any ol' menu in a Chinese restaurant in KL. Maximum 10% Fuchow delicacies.
So on that Monday night (and who does a major migration on a Monday night anyway?!), the migration activities dragged on till 4:30 AM. Best of all, the team had to come in to support at 7:30 AM. I woke up zombified after two hours of sleep, shoveled food into my mouth, and upon reaching the office, I couldn't even check on the system health because none of my client's staff were there. Lol. What?! And I even dropped my room key card somewhere. Couldn't find it although I retraced my steps. Perhaps some hunk found it and would return it to me that night.
Thankfully, only two minor problems surfaced during the business hours due to some missing configurations. It went better than I anticipated. But I heard another shocking thing during the day-- they were going to swing to their disaster recovery site on Wednesday, just one day after such a major migration. What!? Their IT risk people do have a huge risk appetite. Think they need a crash course in kiasi-ness. Anyway, I was going home on Wednesday afternoon anyway. Couldn't be bothered. My colleague in Brunei bought some famous buns from Chop Jing Chew to celebrate. Their Roti Kacang Kahwin is really heavenly, but oh so sinful. By 9:30 PM, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, sleep like a baby till the next morning ...
P.S.: Because I had a bad flu before my flight, and I forgot to refill my medication, I decided to buy it at the airport. A generic antihistamine that costs MYR1-2 outside was sold at MYR5, and they forced me to take two strips! And I also found out that those blister packs can actually cause the metal detector to go off. So put them in your bag. Haha.
On the day I arrived in Brunei, even the items that could have been done weeks before were not completed. What's the point of me coming out with a detailed checklist if you don't plan and act accordingly? I was flabbergasted. At least each affected system sent support staff. Thankful for that. I knew it was going to be a long night, so the team went out for a nice dinner at Restoran Fuchow. Funny thing was, the Fuchow guy who was with us commented that the menu looked like any ol' menu in a Chinese restaurant in KL. Maximum 10% Fuchow delicacies.
So on that Monday night (and who does a major migration on a Monday night anyway?!), the migration activities dragged on till 4:30 AM. Best of all, the team had to come in to support at 7:30 AM. I woke up zombified after two hours of sleep, shoveled food into my mouth, and upon reaching the office, I couldn't even check on the system health because none of my client's staff were there. Lol. What?! And I even dropped my room key card somewhere. Couldn't find it although I retraced my steps. Perhaps some hunk found it and would return it to me that night.
Thankfully, only two minor problems surfaced during the business hours due to some missing configurations. It went better than I anticipated. But I heard another shocking thing during the day-- they were going to swing to their disaster recovery site on Wednesday, just one day after such a major migration. What!? Their IT risk people do have a huge risk appetite. Think they need a crash course in kiasi-ness. Anyway, I was going home on Wednesday afternoon anyway. Couldn't be bothered. My colleague in Brunei bought some famous buns from Chop Jing Chew to celebrate. Their Roti Kacang Kahwin is really heavenly, but oh so sinful. By 9:30 PM, I couldn't keep my eyes open anymore, sleep like a baby till the next morning ...
P.S.: Because I had a bad flu before my flight, and I forgot to refill my medication, I decided to buy it at the airport. A generic antihistamine that costs MYR1-2 outside was sold at MYR5, and they forced me to take two strips! And I also found out that those blister packs can actually cause the metal detector to go off. So put them in your bag. Haha.
Comments
That Roti Kachang Kahwin looks delicious.
What to do... my CEO eyeing their money.
The bun is quite sinful really.