I have a whole new appreciation for those who develop software professionally.

My little utility program began its life as such a simple idea. Then I started working on it (even before I launched this blog), and a little later shared it with a few fellow users who provided some good input. They saw a somewhat bigger vision for it than I did initially. And that was good, as the program is better for it, I think.

Then I gave a live demonstration with a somewhat built up skeleton, and realized that I needed to revamp the whole interface because what existed wasn’t as intuitive as I believed it to be.

When the functionality was pretty good, and the whole thing looked and felt pretty good, I tried making it as accessible as possible for users of different operating systems and different versions of the application software.

In the end I have made some compromises in the interest of “getting it done”. This is version 1, after all, and if one day it merits further development or progression, then I’ll look at what’s needed and see what I can do about it. So I decided to force myself to simplify what was becoming (at my own hand) far too complex.

I’m nearing the end now. It’s almost in a position where I can share it with you.

Monstrous Scope Creep

It’s funny how this really does resemble working with both Excel and Monarch.

You often start out with a vision in your mind of what it is that you want to accomplish. Then you do whatever it takes to get the basics done. Later, requirements for additional functionality are conceived, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes it’s a “wouldn’t it be nice if” type of thing.

With Monarch, the basics are to get the existing data out of where it currently resides and into another format. That’s easy enough, most of the time. Then you look for ways to add value to your data; ways that your organization can benefit even more from what you can acquire and gather. This might include adding calculations or integrating external data, or even exploring different ways to summarize the data so as to gain new insight into the story your data is trying to tell you.

With Excel, your basic worksheet often takes on a life of its own, as various users of your information add more and more levels of complexity, either within the single sheet or integrated with other sheets in the same file or other files. You might even find that you need to introduce macro programs into the file, or enhance macros that already exist. This can be a real challenge if you didn’t create the code originally.

Finally, you’ve got the optimal model (for today anyway) with an Excel file that uses the data you’ve generated with Monarch. The end result gives you a tool that Monarch cannot achieve on its own.

One of the last steps in building your efficient system might be to automate your Monarch work, but many feel that automation is a complicated step that is out of their reach or ability.

Not necessarily. Stay tuned. If I’ve done what I wanted to do properly, I can help you tame the monster somewhat and simplify the complex, and you’ll soon have another way to excel with Monarch.