How do I explain to my boss that his preferred software tool has serious bugs?

Question

I am using a 3rd party software tool at work that has some bugs that are not yet fixed. There is no work around for some of them. My boss insists that since the website of the tools says that it got the "Software Tool of the Year" award, it can't have those bugs.

I am the only user of this tool and have used it for 3 years. However, certain bugs in the program prevent me from using it normally and cause disruptions that require me to find workarounds all the time. My boss who does not use the tool insists that I am not using it properly since it is "Software Tool of the Year" according to its website.

What do I do to make the boss understand it is the tool that is the problem, it is the tool that is broken, not me the user?

The problem can be explained like this. The project becomes corrupt. It is intermittent. Creating the project again takes a very long time. But, this is not all; there are many other issues. The problem is that the workarounds are VERY tedious. If I have to keep doing this, I will resign. It is better to work somewhere else than die of stroke or anxiety.

Contacting customer support has not resolved most of the problems. They just say upgrade to the latest version, but the problem does not go away. What are they supposed to do when the problems I see are intermittent, i.e., no clear steps to reproduce the problem on their end?

The program is called Microsemi Libero SoC. I could just use the script based approach, but the script based approach does not offer all the steps that are created through the GUI. This will be patched up, but some years down the line.

Answer 1

I am the only user of this tool and have used it for 3 years.

The tool may very well be full of bugs and broken. But the fact that you have been able to use this tool for three years despite whatever issues it has, demonstrates to your boss that the tool is useful since you are still able to complete your work.

It is easy to complain about a tool having bugs or being difficult to use, but if you want to make progress to use a different tool you need to offer a viable alternative and clearly demonstrate to your boss why the alternative is better for the company.

Answer 2

Have a small video camera recording everything you do when using that program. The video must clearly show the problem, and it must clearly show how difficult it is to recover after the problem. After the problem happens, show the video to your boss.

You might be able to use a screen capturing software, in order to not use a physical camera. Read again your IT rules and regulations.

Answer 3

One approach that has worked well for me in similar situations (for example, where I think some software can't perform some function and someone else thinks it can) is to ask the other person to show you how it is done. You can do this in a way that is not challenging, passive-aggressive, or condescending.

In your case, I would suggest you contact tech support for the tool in question, and ask them to walk you through how to do the thing your boss says could be done but you believe impossible because of bugs. For example, let's say it is a customer contact management app and you don't think it is possible to search for all customers not in Columbus, Ohio. You don't think the app has that feature, or that it's buggy.

You: I want to search for all customers not in Columbus, Ohio. How do I do that?

Support: Go to the search screen, enter "Columbus" and click the "Not In" button.

You try this and either it will work (maybe you didn't know about the "Not In" button), or it won't. If it works, great! You've learned something new about the software and can do your job more easily. If it doesn't work, you can describe what's going on and the tech support person can file a bug report and maybe help with a work-around. Either way, you've established (hopefully to both you and your boss's satisfaction) what's happening and neither of you have to lose face.

By asking an expert (or the person with whom you're arguing) in a friendly way to show you how to do the thing, you've removed it from being an argument. One or both of you will learn something and you can move on.

Answer 4

Start by documenting the use of this third party tool as a step-list, so that you're able to demonstrate to your manager that you follow the exact same process every time you use this tool.

Document whatever arguments/inputs you use and what you do at each stage (if appropriate) what the expected outputs are.

This serves three purposes:

1. Shows your manager that you're not aimlessly picking around at the tool to make it do it's processing
2. Documents the process so that it helps you identify the bug that's surely there
3. Reinforces the process for you and others using the tool

Remember there's always scope for human error, so take into consideration that the problem might be your usage of the tool and not the tool's fault. Everyone falls into the "over-familiarity trap" every so often.

Answer 5

Windows comes with built-in file history that you can enable for your project. It will make a copy of your files every hour by default. Alternatively, you could use version control software like Git or Subversion to get better control of when the changes to the files are backed-up (committed).

This alleviates your immediate problem of having to recreate the project from scratch; now you only need to recreate the last hour or so.

Having both, the last good version and the corrupt one can also help you convince your boss that the bug is real and may even help you or the customer support to create a reproducible case.