>Dragan:
>
>I just can't contain myself from continuing this dialogue because of the images you raise in my mind.
>
>But I had a job with the Government of Canada (my Country) and I am sure they were following procedures written by people who had died years ago. I noticed that rewards for them were based solely for following the procedures. And punishments were applied for not following procedures. The only thing worse than not following the procedures was questionning the procedures which were absolutely useless in most cases.

Do you know why Austro-Hungarian empire fell in the end? Because they never changed anything. And why didn't they? Well, each time someone came up with a suggestion for a change, they had three solid reasons to refuse it:

1) we have always done things this way
2) we have never done things that way
3) if we accepted this change, then tomorrow someone else may come up with another suggestion for a change

So the American virus ("it's all in the procedures, if you have everyone follow the procedures, they don't have to think, so you can hire cheap illiterate guys, just as long as they can follow the procedures") has spread more than I thought. Or maybe it's not just American, it's only more obvious here. In a case of disaster, you can behave as foolishly as you want, as long as you can prove you've followed the procedures, your back is safe. Or you can save the day, and still be punished for not following the procedure.

Which is a great incentive for creative thinking :).

But then, we are programmers - we should be introducing procedures by mere installation of our software. And then some of these procedures will clash against those already in place. Makes our lives interesting, doesn't it?