How can Software Programming Boost your Management Capabilities?
Choukri Karabach
Master Degree in Civil Engineering - Product Line Leader Sales at Afinitas
Hey guys; it is time to communicate; Social Networks represent a great plateforme for experience sharing; that's why I wanted to tell you my story with Computers and Software Programming.
Looking to software programming today, is not like looking to it in the years 1990. When i started having interest in computer scicence, i was in the medium school about 12 years old. Not many computers were around at that time; and the only way to get access to a computer was to be a member at the town's Cultural Club.
I wasn't yet at the age to decide for my future professional orientation, but for sure I had a natural attraction to Mathematics; Physics and Art. And because of that i was mainly fascinated by two problems that a computer could help me with:
Wahoo! this was what i considered as an amazing capatbility that i needed more than anything else...
The Cultural Center of Ténès included some computers; mainly 3 or 4 Sakhr MSX machines like the one in the picture here down:
These computers were in fact only the Central unit and the Keyboard that we could connect to a normal TV screen; and that was offering the following possibilities:
1 - Calendar
2 - Painter
3 - Arabic Typing
4 - English Typing
5 - MSX1-Sakhr BASIC Programing Language
So, we could basically Show a Calendar, Draw and Make Paintings, Type texts in different characters, and the most important Make Programs using the famous Basic Language.
It was for me amazing to realize that in fact; when I learn how to talk to the computer, (by learning a programming language); I would be able to give him orders (instructions), and he will be doing what i want: Making full use of the Saving and Quick Calculating capabilities! This was fascinating.
Later on, the Cultural Center in Ténès aquired a HERMES PC H140 running one of the old versions of MS-DOS and by using Floppy-Disks 5"1/4 and later 3"1/2 we could install Basic.
Firstly it was just BASIC and then we started to get some versions like GW-BASIC, Q-BASIC and the fantastic TURBO BASIC that has the phenomenal capacity to not only Compile and Execute Basic Programs; but even to generate an EXE file! It was a real fun!
In 1994 i won my first recognition for the best software in BASIC language, and they wrote in it additional congratulations for my success at the Baccalaureate exam allowing me to get admitted to the Polytechnical University in Algiers.
We had a Computer Science course at the University in Pascal and Fortran Language, that i was finding boring...and the reason for that i that at an Engineers University they made the course adapted to the target of preparing the students to make Computer Calculations in order to use them for the purpose of the Final Graduation Memoires. This was boring for me because i simply was more advanced in programming and more attracted by creative programming. At leat i got the best marks at it.
At the fifth university class of Civil Engineering; i discovered for the first time this possibility to Combine the Computer Capabilities with my other Operational Needs.
For the study of the behaviour of an isolated Foundation put on the Soil; i used a simulation with Finite Elements Methods. By using 8-node quadrilateral elements, and making all the intermediate calculations of Jacobians and Stiffness Matrices, it was possible to simulate the behaviour of materials which by their complexity escape the linear facility of mechanics, so we were talking about the geometric non-linearity of soil-foundation contact problems. Here, UNIX super-computers had to run all night long, to retrieve the results of the calculation the next day. We, who were young and impatient, did not understand why we had to wait so long to receive the results of mathematical calculations which theoretically should not take so much time. Professor Zeghlèche answered me with a smile in the calculation centre: "If you are impatient, don't hesitate to do it by hand (lol)" That's when I firmly fixed in my mind the principle: Whatever I was going to do next in my life, the computer was going to be my faithful companion to solve the problems of information processing time and data backup.
So I wanted to do better; I wanted to combine the results of the FORTAN calculation of the FEM with a program that i made with BASIC and who was able to collect the results in a Sequential Access File; there were afterwards interpreted in a Graphical Shape. I could give a Shape to the Numbers; it was a real fun. And for it I obtained the Engineer Graduation with Excellency Degree.
One additional notion started to get in: The use and power of Mathematics in the whole process. Because while programming we need a lot to make use of calculations, so solving functions, change of geometric references, playing with Matrixes, all that had to be mastered with ease.
So, at this step it was already the combination between the Computer Capabilities and The Mathematics or Analytics to solve the different problems.
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By changing from the Studies world to the employment world, I started to get confronted to many of these problems and situations where I could combine Computer Programming with my principle job tasks. The results were fantastic, as I was every time able to resolve quicker and in a more organized way the different tasks that I have been given:
In 2001 while working at the company GENI-SIDER (GESI-TP), I was kind of chocked...because the company had a complete BRANCH called GESI-INFO; that had only one function; use a battery of old HP computers running still with punched cards processed in COBOL language, and monochrom screens to issue Salary Sheets; Analytic Accounting and invoiced these services to the company Group at crazy prices; while i had already upgraded my programming capabilities from DOS oriented Software programming languages to Object Visual Languages for the Windows environment. So, for me what the company was doing was kind of primitive.
That is why i developed for the company GESI-TP a software in DELPHI Language that was capable to manage the whole Formworks Stock (mixed of many brands and types).
2003 I was working at the BATIMETAL GROUP as Technical Manager, I learned VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and used it frequently to extend with Macros the Microsoft Office possibilities under Excel for instance. as well as Extending Autocad possibilites with Auto-LISP language.
2004 inspired by the TIPOS formwork planning from DOKA the formwork world leader, I made my TIPOS called CALEPIN 2D and 3D to plan a Swiss Formwork system called COFFOR.
and like this I was developping and more softwares:
And one of my proudest achievements around 2015-2018 is a complete Solution to the Concrete Precast Business through the SCT software.
SCT was a crazy full an with unlimited possibilities software capable to treat within seconds Concrete Precast needs including WET and DRY, Electrical and Equipments; Offers Calculations; Simulations; Return on Investment Studies...etc. A dream for a calculation and estimation engineers group that needed almost a month to do the whole loop until they were able to submit an offer. Alternatively a 95% realistic simulation was made in 15 minutes with SCT.
All these presented examples may have brought you to the idea that I am a Computer Software Developer, but I am not! I was only, during the exercise of my daily functions in the jobs I got; trying to build up Softwares to improve my work performance.
When I worked especially at management position; I was always annoyed by two things:
1- To have to do mechanical repetitive tasks: I gave all the time priority to conceptual thinking, and as soon as a repetetive task was discovered, i wanted to delegate it to my best friend: The PC.
2- The waste of time: in doing manually, tasks that could be done in a much shorter time when given to my best friend: The PC.
As you know; when you belong to the Staff of a company, even if you realize that some repetitive and time consuming tasks can be optimized by the use of a software, very hardly you can convince the Management to invest in it, or to allocate it as a mission for the IT department. So, making the softwares by myself; has always been the fastest and the most direct way of optimizing my daily activities.
Until today I continue to do that; as soon as I realize repetitive and time consuming tasks; I start a new project in my spare time to build up for it the Repetitiveness and Time Consuming Killing Solution!
In fact, today; in the same way that I would advise a good Manager to be a good Lawyer as rarely a management function is escaping to juridical work, such contracts and disputes; I would as well include Software programming in any Business Administration Academic Course.
Completely at the start I have explained?my fascination for the possibility to influence the computer; to tell him what to do and what to not do; and get its reaction in a logical and structured way, but after many years of programming, an opposite effect will happen; as computer programming will have tendency to shape you somehow; and to try to make out of you a structured and logical analytic machine who cannot accept wrong statements and treat nearely everything in an INPUT to OUTPUT correlation.
However and as a matter of conclusion; even if at the end, you have to find the real balance between the human to human relation, admitting all the range of emotional mistakes and dealing with nonlogical operations: giving input data and getting nothing in return, treating repetetivness in a non performant way, spending tons of time for operations that could be done much faster: learning Software Programing can still boost considerably your management capabilities.
Choukri Karabach
December 2021