Each year, MSDN needs acknowledgement of life to keep sending me a free copy of MSDN Magazine. It's a great magazine and you should race out and buy one at your local bookseller today.
I always have to smile and laugh at the inevitable marketing survey that is embedded in the web form. I have a small side business that supports the EDR, but it is not of any greatly significant magnitude. Here is how I answered their survey (and I'm trying to be serious here). The asterisks indicate mandatory items. Basically, the entire survey was mandatory.
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*A. What is your current job title? (Select the one that most clearly matches your current title):
- Director of Systems Programming
- Manager of Applications Development
- Supervisor of Software Engineering
- Chief/Head of Applications Development
- Team Leader
- Senior Developer
- Application Specialist
- Manager of Web/Internet/Intranet Development
- Software Project Manager
- Manager of Quality Assurance/Testing
- Software Developer
- Corporate Consultant
- Applications Architect
- Software Engineer
- Manager of E-Commerce Development
- Technical Vice President
- Chief Technical Officer/Chief Information Officer
- President/Owner
- Other
Since “Kahuna“ was omitted, I went with 18. Of course, almost all of them could apply to me since I am the business. My wife's job as Vice President of Shipping and Receiving was unfortunately omitted.
*B. What is your organization's primary business activity?
- Aerospace
- Government, Military
- Agriculture, Mining, Construction, Oil
- Transportation, Utilities
- Media, Marketing, Advertising, Entertainment
- Finance, Banking, Accounting, Insurance, Real Estate
- Engineering
- Manufacturing other than computer hardware and software
- Manufacturing computer hardware and software
- VAR/Systems Integrators
- Communication Services, Systems House, Data Processing, Internet, E-commerce
- Computer related retailer, distributor, wholesaler
- Non-computer retailer, distributor
- Applications Software Development
- Education, Multimedia
- Health, Medical Services, Legal
- Consulting
- Other
I write software, so I went with 14. This was an easy one. Of couse, I write engineering (7) software and work for the military (2) and am technically a consultant (17) and have a degree in Aerospace (1) Engineering, but this should not be allowed to cloud the issue.
*C. Does your job include any Internet/intranet/web-related responsiblities?
- Yes
- No
I maintain our family website, our new intranet site (SBS 2003) and regularly cruise the web. 1!
*D. Which one of the following best describes your level of involvement in your organization's decision to purchase application development tools?
- Decide or help to decide budget
- Purchase or authorize purchase
- Specify/select brand or vendor
- Specify/select products or services
- Evaluate specifications/technical requirements
- Determine needs
- All of the above
- None of the above
Easy: 7. I make the money and I spend it.
*E. Approximately what is the size of your organization's software budget?
- $1 million or more
- $500,000 - $999,999
- $100,000 - $499,999
- $25,000 - $99,999
- $10,000 - $24,999
- $2,500 - $9,999
- $1,000 - $2,499
- Less than $1,000
Since the MSDN Universal subscription costs around $2000, that puts me at 7, but with additional miscellaneous software I went with 6.
*F. How many individuals under your supervision or management are involved in software development?
- 20 or more
- 15 - 19
- 10 - 14
- 4 - 9
- 3
- 2
- 1
- None
Um 7, no 1, uhhhhh ... nuts.
I'm one of those people who help to skew the results.