Saturday, July 9, 2016

Yet another MCPS software blunder

MCPS Chief Technology Officer Sherwin Collette, a gentleman with a degree in English and no credentials whatsoever in information systems management, has committed yet another amateur software configuration blunder.

Due to misconfiguration, MCPS employees and retires are not able to access any information stored on the PenPoint system.  The system is currently 100% down.

Many users get the following error screen immediately after entering their userid and password.   Even the most rudimentary testing would have prevented this situation from occurring.


9 comments:

  1. English communication
    Conveys information
    Software configuration
    Impedes dissemination.

    ReplyDelete
  2. What is the Pen point system? What does it do for employees and retirees?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It's the system that gives a snapshot of an employee's current retirement status and does projections on payments at the time of retirement.

      Delete
  3. Site is still down as of Monday afternoon. Employee benefits department says they don't know when it will be fixed. Total incompetency on the part of Sherwin.

    ReplyDelete
  4. “Well, I never heard it before, but it sounds uncommon nonsense.”
    ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

    ReplyDelete
  5. Is this the same Sherwin Collette who also had...or has...a job at Montgomery College?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://cms.montgomerycollege.edu/edu/directorydetail.aspx?index=255

      Delete
  6. I am also getting this error. I even went to the Employee Retirement Service Center (ERSC) to get help. MCPS Director of Benefits Richard Johnstone came out of his office, looked at the error, and told me that this is an entirely normal message when a retiree tries to log on to the systems. He even told me that retirees are not supposed to be able to log on to the retiree benefit system. Huh? This is normal? Richard Johnstone is entirely clueless. Anyway, I called the MCPS technical support help desk and they have confirmed that it's a server problem and they are working on fixing it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. “I'm afraid I can't explain myself, sir. Because I am not myself, you see?”
      ― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland


      Delete

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