<insert slur here> lazy-ass web designers / their bosses

[mikeymikec]

The two organisations responsible for the following atrocities are banks which I guess shouldn't surprise me, but here goes:

Lloyds bank in the UK have a business banking site that requires Internet Explorer and an ActiveX control, and due to the recent changes to Windows 10 (IE redirection to Edge), the bank finally thought that it might be time to start pulling their finger out and doing something about it.

I'm going to see another customer today because Barclays (UK) are insisting that they need to be using an older ESR version of Firefox rather than the current release. Thinking about it and a past issue this customer had with the banking site, I bet it has something to do with Adobe Flash content on the site.

wtf.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much because it means more work/pay for me, but I guess I prefer to fix issues that aren't related to supreme incompetence.

 

[purbeast0]

As a software developer for 17 years now, this sounds like the typical "save money now, we'll worry about the future in the future" thing that happens way too often, where the people in charge aren't thinking long term and would rather save money in the short term. Had there been more time/money spent earlier on to address these issues, in the long run there would be more money saved.

 

[sdifox]

As a software developer for 17 years now, this sounds like the typical "save money now, we'll worry about the future in the future" thing that happens way too often, where the people in charge aren't thinking long term and would rather save money in the short term. Had there been more time/money spent earlier on to address these issues, in the long run there would be more money saved.

Long term thinking is no good for quaterly results.

 

[brianmanahan]

i used to work on a huge B2B web app that only worked in IE

managers asked us to estimate how long it would take to modernize it, and we came up with 2000 hours development/testing

they decided that new features were more important

it was discussed every year for 5 years, but we never got approval to do it

 

[purbeast0]

Long term thinking is no good for quaterly results.

This isn't even just for commercial software. This happens all he time in the public sector as well. I'm glad my more recent projects have had people in charge of the direction of the software who will either listen to us or have a software developer background so they understand.

 

[sdifox]

This isn't even just for commercial software. This happens all he time in the public sector as well. I'm glad my more recent projects have had people in charge of the direction of the software who will either listen to us or have a software developer background so they understand.

Middle management in public sector are no different than private sector...they have to justify their existence.

 

[pauldun170]

The two organisations responsible for the following atrocities are banks which I guess shouldn't surprise me, but here goes:

Lloyds bank in the UK have a business banking site that requires Internet Explorer and an ActiveX control, and due to the recent changes to Windows 10 (IE redirection to Edge), the bank finally thought that it might be time to start pulling their finger out and doing something about it.

I'm going to see another customer today because Barclays (UK) are insisting that they need to be using an older ESR version of Firefox rather than the current release. Thinking about it and a past issue this customer had with the banking site, I bet it has something to do with Adobe Flash content on the site.

wtf.

I guess I shouldn't complain too much because it means more work/pay for me, but I guess I prefer to fix issues that aren't related to supreme incompetence.

Most banks have very capable and talented software teams. Larger banks can have folks that have high level experience across industries, from Google to Amazon to Microsoft.
PH'd and shit.

At this point, those teams are likely severely understaffed and continuously battle for $$$$ to pay for their department just to keep the lights on. If you come across some shitty Bank website, there is good chance that every developer and boss in charge of that website hates the ever living shit out of it but cannot get funding approved to redo it.

The rule is this
You help your employer make money. You help your employer save money. You keep your employer out of jail.

The reality is this
Banks are financial institutions, not software development institutions.
Any change in a grown up institution is driven by funding. For a bank, those changes are always going to abide by the rule mentioned.
Remember that understaffed team barely keeping the lights on? Any new $$$ for resources is likely going to be diverted towards specific work.

IT\Software is quick to get shortchanged on funding unless their are requirements that clear abide by the rule that will have significant tangible value. Having someone continuously keep track of every browsers up coming changes that could potentially break a website? Good luck justifying that in a funding request.

What you see is website.
What drives that website could be an entire architecture that's going to require 2 years and 5 million dollars in people and resources to redo. If a bank has 50 applications developed a ages ago back during the good old days of funding during the same time period, do the math.

- Shareholder's cat

Edit - From the people holding the $$$$
"Clients only care about saving money or making money. We could host the fucking website on an adobe filled geocities site with floating cats and the user might bitch about it but they will stay with us if our interest rate is .000000000002% better than that institution with "elegant responsive design" you nerds keep annoying me with. "

 

[nakedfrog]

Imagine still having a website that requires IE in 2021.

 

[mikeymikec]

Things got weirder with the Barclays customer today. When I arrived, the desktop icon I set up for her reminded me that while she normally uses Firefox, the banking site doesn't work in Firefox because it requires a card reader connected to a USB port to do part of the authentication (in the UK requiring a USB connection for the card reader isn't common), and in turn requires Internet Explorer. I ended up doing the same fix as I did for the first customer, because while there's a finite lifespan for IE, it's a longer lifespan than Firefox 79 ESR.

Their site requirements don't even list IE (or Chrome!). Weird.

 

[Dr. Detroit]

Am I doing this right?
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