>Kevin
>
>I've noticed this thread over the last couple of days.
>
>I know this is a battle thats been fought several times in Cornwall I hope you can win it this time.
>
>Would it be worth talking to the people down there who have fought this previously.
>
>I believe one important factor before was the ability to deliver a front end which was exactly what the users want rather than Oracles front end tools which couldn't give that. (This may have changed)

Hi Nick (how's tricks?)

I'm still in the same team developing the same system when you were here.

The biggest problem we're facing is that the customer seems to think that the reasons the development of CCMS/CMS is taking so long is because of the tools we are using - the fact of the matter is that it is a very complicated system, the customers "still" don't really know what they want and there isn't really a full-time member of staff from the department to aid us.

This brought up an investigation and immediately people were questioning FoxPro, why? I don't know, since when has the tool you use had any impact on the end result - they will all look/behave the same, the problem is convincing certain managers that the problem does not lie with the developers/tools/languages but the way the project is being run as a whole and the complexity of the system(s).

CCMS now has it's own framework (on top of VFX) with everything subclassed, everything object based, this makes developing new modules practically a doddle - and it works and it's stable. I will never be able to get that across to our managers because they won't understand how that makes development easier, I can't see how Oracle is going to make any difference to the development timescales, + it will costs thousands to implement.

On the development side, everything is fine - they should be looking at the customers, not us.

Kev