‘Twas the night before Christmas

‘Twas the night before Christmas
and all through the house,
Not a computer was stirring,
not even a mouse.

Only an email from the customer,
as I read in despair,
with dashed hopes that a miracle
would be found there.

The business users, god bless them, all snug in their beds,
whilst dreams of new processes danced in their heads.
They wanted to go-live at the end of the year,
with the new BPM system and give it an all clear.

I thought the system was finished, the tests were concluded,
the users’ last change requests were even included.
We had tested each whistle, we tested each bell,
We were so quite sure, that everything had gone well.

But the process analyst should have updated, the deletions to be deleted,
the inquiries inquired, the requirement document completed.
And so the customer had exclaimed with snarl and a taunt,
“That’s just what I asked for, but not what I want!”

More rapid than eagles, my coding then came,
and I cursed and I muttered and called them by name.
On Update! On Edit! On Insert! On Delete!
On SQL Server! On Functions Complete!

We won’t get it finished in time – it was all plain to see.
Too bad the process analyst forgot about me.
Maybe a few hours more, till midnight at most,
and I’ll get the system completed and over the post.

My eyes were glassed over, fingers nimble and lean,
from weekends and nights in front of a screen.
So I faced my old laptop and I said with a shrug,
“Happy Christmas to all,” and I pulled out the plug.