The hardest part of the design process

[Rob Oldfield]

(My apologies for the slightly off-topic nature of this)

I'm almost ready to release a new windows form app to my company. It's an
absence reporting system: allowing people to book holiday; review what
holidays other people in their dept have booked; record sicknesses and other
absences while ensuring people are within their allowed limits... and
various other related functions.

It's all working nicely, but I've come up against a brick wall. What the
hell do I call it? My boss likes HOBSON (Holiday Online Booking and
Sickness Notification, and I forget what his suggestion for the second O
was) but he's always crazy for acronyms and I hate the suggestion. The HR
manager came up with Absence Recording System but the acronym makes that a
non-starter. Frankly, we're getting nowhere.

So I was wondering if any of the good people who frequent this newsgroup
might be able to come up with something. I would offer major prizes for the
best one but I couldn't get the boss to agree to that idea.

So c'mon people. Help me out here!

[Michael Jackson]

I developed something years ago for a large medical clinic. They tracked
nurses/aids/physicians in this manner.

We called it HuRTS, for Human Resource Tracking System. Other possibilities
were:

NuPerM for Nursing Personnel Manager, RMS for Resource Management System, a
resource being either personel, such as nursing/aids/physicians and exam
rooms.

I also developed a time tracking system years ago called: TiTS, Time
Tracking System. That was for my own family business, so I could call it
anything I wanted.

I've got lots more, but little time.

And you are right, that is the hardest part of a project, next to Icon
design.

Michael

"Rob Oldfield" <bl**@blah.com> wrote in message
news:uW**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

(My apologies for the slightly off-topic nature of this)

I'm almost ready to release a new windows form app to my company. It's an
absence reporting system: allowing people to book holiday; review what
holidays other people in their dept have booked; record sicknesses and
other
absences while ensuring people are within their allowed limits... and
various other related functions.

It's all working nicely, but I've come up against a brick wall. What the
hell do I call it? My boss likes HOBSON (Holiday Online Booking and
Sickness Notification, and I forget what his suggestion for the second O
was) but he's always crazy for acronyms and I hate the suggestion. The HR
manager came up with Absence Recording System but the acronym makes that a
non-starter. Frankly, we're getting nowhere.

So I was wondering if any of the good people who frequent this newsgroup
might be able to come up with something. I would offer major prizes for
the
best one but I couldn't get the boss to agree to that idea.

So c'mon people. Help me out here!

[clintonG]

Always defer to 'the boss.' They are paid to conduct themselvs as the
village idiot.
I mean do you want to be whispered about as the moron who thought this
stupid sh!t up? :-)
See what I mean?
<%= Clinton Gallagher
METROmilwaukee (sm) "A Regional Information Service"
NET csgallagher AT metromilwaukee.com
URL http://metromilwaukee.com/
URL http://clintongallagher.metromilwaukee.com/
"Rob Oldfield" <bl**@blah.com> wrote in message
news:uW**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

(My apologies for the slightly off-topic nature of this)

I'm almost ready to release a new windows form app to my company. It's an
absence reporting system: allowing people to book holiday; review what
holidays other people in their dept have booked; record sicknesses and
other
absences while ensuring people are within their allowed limits... and
various other related functions.

It's all working nicely, but I've come up against a brick wall. What the
hell do I call it? My boss likes HOBSON (Holiday Online Booking and
Sickness Notification, and I forget what his suggestion for the second O
was) but he's always crazy for acronyms and I hate the suggestion. The HR
manager came up with Absence Recording System but the acronym makes that a
non-starter. Frankly, we're getting nowhere.

So I was wondering if any of the good people who frequent this newsgroup
might be able to come up with something. I would offer major prizes for
the
best one but I couldn't get the boss to agree to that idea.

So c'mon people. Help me out here!

[Nick Malik [Microsoft]]

You are the programmer, not the marketing person. It doesn't matter if you
don't like the name.

If you really want to get folks to get to know the app, but you can't stand
the name your boss picked, put out the app with a generic name like
"Vacation Track" and then have a little contest in your company for what to
name the thing. That will get people to take a look at it, try to figure
out what it does. It's a leg up on training, and you'll get some early
feedback on features and bugs that you might not have heard about until much
later.

--
--- Nick Malik [Microsoft]
MCSD, CFPS, Certified Scrummaster
http://blogs.msdn.com/nickmalik

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed in this forum are my own, and not
representative of my employer.
I do not answer questions on behalf of my employer. I'm just a
programmer helping programmers.
--
"Rob Oldfield" <bl**@blah.com> wrote in message
news:uW**************@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...

(My apologies for the slightly off-topic nature of this)

I'm almost ready to release a new windows form app to my company. It's an
absence reporting system: allowing people to book holiday; review what
holidays other people in their dept have booked; record sicknesses and
other
absences while ensuring people are within their allowed limits... and
various other related functions.

It's all working nicely, but I've come up against a brick wall. What the
hell do I call it? My boss likes HOBSON (Holiday Online Booking and
Sickness Notification, and I forget what his suggestion for the second O
was) but he's always crazy for acronyms and I hate the suggestion. The HR
manager came up with Absence Recording System but the acronym makes that a
non-starter. Frankly, we're getting nowhere.

So I was wondering if any of the good people who frequent this newsgroup
might be able to come up with something. I would offer major prizes for
the
best one but I couldn't get the boss to agree to that idea.

So c'mon people. Help me out here!

[Cor Ligthert [MVP]]

Rob,

English is not my native language, however I find HOBSON a great *choice* of
your boss.

(I am myself forever searching for such names, this is real a good one)

You surely should in my opinion appreciate such a boss.

The O is of course twice the word "Online".

Just my opinion.

Cor