[X]My Assistant

[FrankRuperto]

I am curious to know out of all the Access work you have done, what percentage is the result of:

1. The developer who wrote the app is no longer available to support it.
2. The developer did not properly design and/or develop the app.
3. The user wanted to convert from an older Access version to a newer version.
4. The user wanted to convert from Excel to Access.
5. The user wanted a new app developed from scratch.
6. Other circumstances.

[RJD]

Well, that's a hard one, Frank. I'd combine 1 and 2 in my case, where the original developer did a very poor job and then disappeared with the system failing. I'd say maybe 2% or 3% of apps, but more than that in time spent (one was a large mission-essential CRM that was inefficient, hard to use and failing pretty much every day and needed a complete overhaul). 3 and 4 together perhaps another 2% or 3% by count. And probably 95% number 5. But that's just what I do. Of the new apps, several were replacements for non-Access canned software (not Excel) that proved too limited or did not work the way the user wanted to work (features, presentation or efficiency).

And number 5: Usually the user just has a problem (business decision making, operations) and wants to know how to solve it. "New app" is not really part of their vocabulary. And we usually start with "What business do you think you are in?" ... and go from there, and it encompasses more than just db development.

But, then, I don't really keep track of things that way over the last 25 years or so (well, since 2.0 came out) with Access (and other database tools for years before that). I don't even have a good count of developments, so this is just a wild guess.

Interesting. Are you just curious, or are you documenting this? Can you summarize any results you get and let us know.?

Joe

[dmhzx]

I've done all of those except one,

I've never known of a user who wants to convert from Excel to Access. I have done many such conversions, but never user triggered.

Usually users have to dragged kicking and screaming from Excel to Access, often because access imposes a new way of thinking and a level of discipline they are not used to.

Until I 'discovered' vb .net, I also created a number of utility functions using Access and/or Excel as a front end host for VBA.
This post has been edited by dmhzx: Oct 24 2019, 06:11 AM

[nvogel]

One way to look at software development is that the product is not "finished" until the day people stop using it. Perhaps point 2 could come under the more general heading of continuous improvement.

On point 1. I suppose anyone who has taken a new job or worked with different projects and teams could have been in that position. For many/most developers on most platforms the very idea of one person "owning" a system would seem like a strange and unhealthy situation to be in. But I suspect it's true that the Access community has more people who feel that they own a system.

This post has been edited by nvogel: Oct 24 2019, 08:00 AM

[kfield7]

I've done a couple each of 1, 2, 3 and 4, but the majority have been from scratch to solve a particular need.

[Daniel_Stokley]

Most of my 20+ years working with MS Access has been to create new apps from scratch. But not all. I converted a FORTRAN based app (running on a 286 based PC) to MS Access. That was back in 1998 and the app is still in use. I also created an app in college (senior project) to serve as a degree planner; tracked courses taken, informed user of prerequisites for classes not yet taken, informed user of when courses were available (fall, spring, summer), etc... That was fun

[FrankRuperto]

Yes, I am attempting to document and summarize statistics in order to identify trends. I preliminarily ranked the reasons I described in my OP according to what I think would be the most common responses, but realize each members experiences could be different.

I forgot to include reasons relating to users who decided to migrate from Access to a different tool, and why they made that decision, which I feel is an important metric to analyze. Am I missing any other significant reasons?

[GroverParkGeorge]

I've done most, if not all of those kinds of projects, some more than others. I don't really have a good count of each, though, even though that might be interesting.

Sometimes two or more of the characteristics applied: migrating a poorly designed older version to a newer version and cleaning it up in the process.

One category you didn't touch on was migrating data from Access (or even Excel) to SQL Server or another server-based database engine. A lot of the work I did over the last few years was along those lines.

Another category that might be of interest is development of an industry-specific product using Access as the development tool. There are not that many, but there are some and it might be interesting to know just how frequently they succeed.

[nvogel]

Frank, It seems like a quite strange and partial list of reasons. I guess you have some agenda here. But how do you propose to collect these statistics? Do you think that UA users are a representative sample?

[FrankRuperto]

Well, it would certainly help if UA provided an option to conduct surveys and tally up the answers, but guess I will have to do it manually.

I asked this question because I think it would be interesting and useful to see the results and opinions of Access developers and users who are UA members.

[FrankRuperto]

Another interesting reason to explore are users who decided to migrate from desktop access to web-based apps.

[GroverParkGeorge]

I guess you could use something like Survey Monkey to create a survey and ask people visit and participate. Maybe even post that to multiple Forums so you'd get a broader sample.