[thelist] What would you like to see in a resource site?

[Luther, Ron]

Faye Tarzwell asked about ideas for a secret internal 'resource' site
for banking programmers.


Hi Faye!

Interesting project.

I agree with the folks who noted that you don't need to source in 'C'
manuals and 
language reference materials that anyone could easily google for.  {I
also agree 
that 'secrecy' is goofy ... but I understand that's out of your control
at the 
moment. <shrug! />}

So what kinds of things could you do?  Remember, this is an *internal*
resource, 
so maybe stuff like:

* A Glossary. A banking programmer may know what FDIC is, but if they
don't work 
in the mortgage section they may not be familiar with 'Ginny Mae',
'Fanny Mae', 
or 'Freddy Mac'.

* A News section: "Joe C. will be replicating the launch of the enhanced
version 
of SavingsPro7 to all US branches next Thursday."  [Maybe a calendar
showing 
month-end and quarter-end 'freeze' dates and stuff like that?]

* A Contacts section showing key 'IT' and 'Biz' contacts and phone
numbers to call 
with questions for every IT system you have; Checkzit, SavingsPro7,
LendMaster, 
HR(Puf-n-Stuf), etc.  [Maybe even some org charts so you can find
someone who 
works in one of these systems if you have a question.]

* A Library section containing documentation for each of the major IT
systems, 
(ErWin diagrams, systems description, process flows, white papers, EDI
specs, etc.)

* A Forum section for asking for help ... "I'm trying to upgrade from
SavingsPro6 
to SavingsPro7 on a Unix box in Nantucket, but I'm getting an 'error7'
message. 
How do I get around that?"

* Links to all available in-house developed training courses. Generic as
well 
as system specific.

* Maybe a 'Kewl Tips' section where locals can show off neat ideas?



* A 'Data Quality' or 'Known Gotchas' section would be really nifty -
probably not 
'do-able' - but pretty nifty:
	- Remember that the offshore location in the Dominican Republic
is a sub-branch 
of the Miami location so it rolls up through NORTH America and not Latin
America.
	- Remember that 'transaction date' is in GMT for all locations,
except Singapore, 
where it is in local time and must be converted.
	- Remember that all data brought in from [that 'other' bank we
recently acquired] 
has the 'to' and 'from' transfer locations reversed.



Hopefully those might help you get some ideas going!

RonL.