Communicating with higher management always require tactics and tricks. Today, after making my own mistake, my manager-Ms. Judy reminded me a very good principle. Which is ..

‘Less is more’

Reporting to higher management doesn’t require us to explain all the details, we must be able to tailor the content of our report so it won’t go too much into details. Always only provide summary of the information unless they explicitely require you to go into details.

Another positive thing for giving less information is that you will cover yourself from unnecessary questioning. Sometime the details are too distracting, our boss will forget the general picture of the problem. Thus, he/she will only comments about the details without ever address the main issue.

But this doesn’t mean we dont prepare the details, we do prepare them, but only will shown them if its required.

Thanks Ms. Judy Koh =)

Today i did some programming to help Budi catering JSML’s requests. At one point, I needed to have an aggregate function for varchar data type. I immediately remember ‘GROUP_CONCAT’, but hey … thats MySQL. Skimming through the MS SQL Book Online, I couldn’t find any function that could do what MySQL’s GROUP_CONCAT does.

Like any mere mortals would do, I asked Google. After Googling for 5 minutes, i think I found what i need …

These are the snippets:

create table table1([id] int identity,
names varchar (50),
groupname varchar (50))

insert into table1(Names, GroupName)

select 'name1', 'group1'union
select 'name2', 'group2'union
select 'name3', 'group1'

create function concatname(@GroupName varchar(50))
Returns varchar(250)
as
BEGIN
Declare @String varchar(250)

Select @String = Coalesce(@String,'') + Names + ','
from table1
where groupName = @GroupName

set @String = left(@String, len(@String) -1)
Return @String
END

After trial and error for a couple times, i come up with my
own solution to the problem:

create function SCROverallStatus(@thelog_uid int)
returns varchar(50)
as
begin
 if (select count(*) from LMB_SML_PROC_SCR_APPROVAL where approval_level=1 and status='Approved' and log_uid=@thelog_uid)>=2
 begin
  return 'Approved'
 end
 
 if (select count(*) from LMB_SML_PROC_SCR_APPROVAL where approval_level=1 and status='Rejected' and log_uid=@thelog_uid)>=1
 begin
  return 'Rejected'
 end
 
 return 'Pending'
end

Hmm.. with cloud number 9 is hovering above my mind .. this song somehow makes me a little calmer ….

Save My Soul (C) Padi

Now I’m sitting here in the corner of my room
Staring through the window watching the sun goes down
And the shadows starts to creep across the floor
In this loneliness I’m crying in my bed

And the rain begins to fall down on me
As the sadness grows deep in inside of me
And I feel a little insecure right now
I am crawling looking for a place to hide

So where have all my lights gone?
For I need to find a way out of here
In my every breath I am chanting your name
Give me strength so I can save my soul…

My mind keeps telling me to hold on
And it says I have to be a real man
I’m still wondering if I’ll ever find my way
That leads me to your light, into your grace

So where have all my lights gone?
For I need to find a way out of here
In my every breath I am chanting your name
With my every breath I’m hoping
I can find the way to save my soul….

PS: Sometimes i let myself drowned in a melancholic situation … LOL … what a cry baby … hehe … well I always think that expressing your emotion is much better than let them entrapped inside. It is like you want to puke but you hold up because you don’t want to make a mess. Well dude, occasional puke should be bearable by other people. Just do not do it too often. 🙂