The Java Rocker

Many people in enterprise application development think consultants have got it made. Consultants have access to latest tools, practices, and technologies. While that is true, and a good consultant takes advantage of this access, he is often not quite using the latest at his client site.

I am at a client where the latest Java release is 1.4.2. Given at the time of this writing that Java 6 update 7 is released, and the early access of Java 7 is out, using Java 1.4.2 is quite a shock. Java 1.4.2 was first released in 2003! Five years may not sound like a lot of time, but in the IT world, that is ancient. There was a major language enhancement in Java 5, so the upgrade to the next version is actually very important. Sun has EOLed (End of Life) 1.4.2 for October of this year.  (IBM’s JDK is still valid until 2010 though). As a consultant I can suggest the benefits of upgrading, but I cannot make that change. Like my like many large enterprises, it is difficult to be flexible or cutting edge. A good consultant knows this, and works with his client to help fight the political battles as well as the technical ones. Sometimes, you just have to leave well enough alone. For some reason, my client doesn’t like FireFox. Well, I think the reason is that the key decision maker is fan of Microsoft, and any viable competitor should not be introduced. The reason I bring this up is not to extol the virtues of FireFox, but to highlight the fact that decisions are made by people, not merit. I need tabbed technologies in my research of issues, it would not be my choice, but if I could use IE 7, that would be fine too. IE 7 is not approved either, so we use what we can, when we can.

My workaround for this is to use my laptop, but the lockdown is very severe at my client, I am very lucky to even be allowed to bring my laptop to the site. Even though I have guest access to their network, which means Internet only, I am not permitted to have Internet access on my machine. This is becoming more standard in security conscious enterprise clients. I do use my laptop for some tools that the client won’t accept, but are vital to the project’s success. The employees are feeling this lockdown too; they recently had to remove all personal pictures and music files from their company computers.

So why am I bringing this up? A good consultant not only needs to know the latest and greatest, he needs to know several older versions of the software too. The consultant must possess the soft skills necessary to make a convincing case to upgrade a particular technology, and the diplomatic skills to know when to make that fight, or to just leave it alone. Sometimes, knowing the usefulness of the bleeding edge is not an advantage.