Canada moves to 2% GDP end of FY25/26 - PMMC

[daftandbarmy]

One of my biggest concerns honestly is that with all this money flooding in, we don't have the expertise to spend it. Like we have infantry officers trying to understand how to plan area defence against Fractional Orbital Bombardment when talking missile defence. I was joking with my boss the other day that I should go do orbital mechanics lunch and learn for the land staff.

Hey, we're good at some stuff

 

[Colin Parkinson]

Nerds are awesome at building interfaces for non-nerds. What nerds can't do is read the minds of people responsible for articulating the design of whatever is to be modeled.

My experience is different, nerds get to much into the program having a lot of features and bits that the average user won't use and won't separate the two. This is more for boutique programs used by companies or governments, than mainstream programs meant for the general public.

 

[ytz]

Nerds generally suck at building interfaces for non-nerds.

Is a Human Factors Engineer a "nerd"? Cause we literally have Captains with HFE post grads in the RCAF who certify cockpit design changes.

 

[Furniture]

Is a Human Factors Engineer a "nerd"? Cause we literally have Captains with HFE post grads in the RCAF who certify cockpit design changes.

So in one instance the CAF has managed to realize human factors/user interface is important, and that means the rest of the CAF/GoC have no issues...

There are myriad examples of poor UI in software commonly used in DND and other government departments. MM, RDIMS, DRIMS, etc..

 

[dapaterson]

So in one instance the CAF has managed to realize human factors/user interface is important, and that means the rest of the CAF/GoC have no issues...

There are myriad examples of poor UI in software commonly used in DND and other government departments. MM, RDIMS, DRIMS, etc..

MM is every bad design choice layered on top of every bad security choice, every bad business process choice, all wrapped up in a bloated , horrible package.

 

[ytz]

So in one instance the CAF has managed to realize human factors/user interface is important, and that means the rest of the CAF/GoC have no issues...

I didn't say that?

I am responding to the idea that "nerds" don't understand proper UI. I would argue that the bigger problem is that the rest of the CAF and GoC don't consider user interfaces much at all. There's nothing stopping any project from hiring a UI designer. For example, right now the Space Wing does a lot of their software in-house. They contracted a UI designer who isn't even in Ottawa, and reviews all the software for best practices usability and based on operator intentions. Nothing stopping any other operational unit from doing the same.

 

[ytz]

MM is every bad design choice layered on top of every bad security choice, every bad business process choice, all wrapped up in a bloated , horrible package.

It's a culmination of a series of bad choices. I don't think people understand that you can't have good software with shit business practices. Fix the business first.

 

[Furniture]

I didn't say that?

I am responding to the idea that "nerds" don't understand proper UI. I would argue that the bigger problem is that the rest of the CAF and GoC don't consider user interfaces much at all. There's nothing stopping any project from hiring a UI designer. For example, right now the Space Wing does a lot of their software in-house. They contracted a UI designer who isn't even in Ottawa, and reviews all the software for best practices usability and based on operator intentions. Nothing stopping any other operational unit from doing the same.

To be more precise; my point was that highlighting specific examples of one type of nerd not acting in the typical manner does not disprove the point that nerds are generally bad at making things for other users. If it wasn't the case, we would not need UI specialists to exist.

The fact we need UI specialists kind of prooves the point that most developers don't have the ability to step back and view their software from a user's perspective. They view things from an expert perspective, and in my experience, tend to get quite touchy when users point out the difficulty/lack of user friendliness in their software.

The CAF, being cheap, often fails to hire the correct specialists, which results in most of our software being terrible to use.

 

[Kirkhill]

It's a culmination of a series of bad choices. I don't think people understand that you can't have good software with shit business practices. Fix the business first.

How often do you receive a Microsoft update?

It is futile to debate which needs to be done first. The exercise of improvement is continuous and iterative. There is no end state. There is no straight line from "here" to "perfection" that can be tracked efficiently for the accountants.

This is what the Ukrainian experience is drumming into us. In peacetime we have the luxury of stasis. In wartime the standard is continuous and rapid change.