IT- Infinitely Troublesome

It's a common criticism that programmers have little idea of user needs.  Here's another one from work recently.  We've now been subjected to automated submission and approval of time reports.  That in itself seems like a good idea, except that no one can figure out how to report their time, there are no instructions on how to do so, and no way to check if it is accurate.  

Training sessions for most computer learning tend to be adult versions of Simon Says, where the trainer clicks things and the trainees try to keep up with clicking the same things to produce the same images, not really having time to process this seen-for-the-first-time information but presenting the appearance of learning since the same screens show. Should anything actually be learned, it will certainly be forgotten by the time the software actually has to be used.  Of course, you might get a 20 page handout of instructions and screen shots, and it's possible that the answer you seek a month after the training session might actually be in there somewhere.  Equally likely, though, is that the system will have changed by then.  

My particular favorite aspect of this "intuitive" time reporting system is that instead of coding for time worked, it codes for time missed.  However, days you are expected to miss, such as holidays, are not coded as time missed, though holidays are not labeled on the time sheet, which of course arrives electronically a couple of weeks afterward so who remembers.  Other time missed must be coded using Druidian symbols, or so they appear.  But if no missable time is missed, then a zero is placed in the Saturday column (no instructions for that- it can only be known through a revelation from God).  Still, we get through it, and when on the approving side, typically approve whatever is submitted since there is no way to check anyway, as everything is self-reported so the accountability system has no accountability in the first place.

Also, the programmers have a new time reporting time saver now.  To request time off, there is a new software module, but to make things more interesting it is not placed in the time reporting section and requires a lottery ticket to find.  After jumping through all the hoops the request is submitted, which then generates an email to the approver.  This system takes the place of the requester sending an email to the approver.  It's kind of like using the calculator function on a computer.  It's progress.