5 ms·

TSB boss Paul Pester to step down after IT fiasco

45 points by 0xbadf00d 8y ago

gaius 8y ago
With a golden parachute and his pension fully intact? That is conspicuously absent from the article but it is usually the way. And no bar in being a director of another firm. The executive class are a law unto themselves. What happens to the lowly engineers pressured into cutting corners to meet an arbitrary deadline and denied the resources they needed? No such lavish rewards for them.
- crunchlibrarian 8y ago
  Even the Wells Fargo execs responsible for actually breaking laws and stealing from customers got their compensation. If you can afford a top drawer law firm then why not steal everything that isn’t nailed down? There is no rule of law once you get to this level.
  - sarreph 8y ago
    > why not steal everything that isn’t nailed down? I like that phrase a lot, I think I might use it :)
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- heavenlyblue 8y ago
  >> What happens to the lowly engineers pressured into cutting corners to meet an arbitrary deadline and denied the resources they needed? No such lavish rewards for them. What makes you think they didn't get their overtime paid well enough?
  - meowface 8y ago
    Do you know of any developers who get paid overtime?
    - heavenlyblue 8y ago
      Nope, but I know quite a few who get paid enough not to care about overtime.
    - rimliu 8y ago
      I know. It was in Europe, and the employer in question is a bank. Overtime needs to be authorised, and if it is, it’s paid according to the law.
- philjohn 8y ago
  I mean, the IT platform switch was forced on him by the Spanish parent bank that owns TSB.
robbick 8y ago
All of the 'big' UK banks are still on similar out dated technologies as TSB was, they were the first to try to move and it hasn't paid off. I hope the other major banks a) do it better b) don't use it as an excuse never to do it
- raverbashing 8y ago
  Yes, the more they wait to migrate, the more painful it will be And of course expect the usual dissing by the 'frameheads on how these new systems are frail and how their old systems "are much better and foolproof" (they aren't)
- 88 8y ago
  This wasn't an attempt at IT modernization. TSB had to migrate to a different system following their split from Lloyds.
  - coldtea 8y ago
    The two cases are totally compatible. Obviously if they were force to move they'd go to a new fangled IT system, not adopt some old tried and true system (those are too tied to the banks that developed them).
  - philjohn 8y ago
    Well, they didn't "have" to, it's just the Spanish parent bank didn't want to pay a competitor £100m a year to use their software system and mandated TSB move to their amazing, all new, all singing, all dancing, software platform. Quite why that means the UK head needs to go ....
    - CaptainZapp 8y ago
      Because he was the happy face of the whole desaster. Claiming publicly how all was fine with very few account holders still having slight problems and repeating this lie ad-nauseum while 100'000s of customers couldn't access their accounts, couldn't make payment and didn't receive any help, whatsoever, from Mr. Pester. Except lies and bullshit on a massive scale for weeks. MEPs were also not impressed by his performance.[1] [1] https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/treasury-committee/news-parliament-2017/tsb-sabadell-ceo-confidence-lost-17-19/ https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z...
jackweirdy 8y ago
If nothing else, that saga gave us the perfect case study in what can go wrong with total cut-over migrations, rather than incremental releases, in complex systems
yani 8y ago
Fix the issue then resign. Take responsibility not compensation.
hguhghuff 8y ago
Banks treat IT systems as of no value, they outsource overseas, they seriously think any developer brain is the same as any other. Banks treat development as just like call centers... they know they have to pay for warm bodies, any warm body will do.
- PunchTornado 8y ago
  Yeah, I've worked in a bank like that. As long as you had a CS degree, no matter what uni, no matter the grades, your experience, and if you were breathing during the interview they would hire you.
  - EnderMB 8y ago
    A mate of mine worked for a large bank in the UK, and his experiences were different to this. One of the managers was Oxbridge educated, so they almost exclusively hired CS grads from Oxford and Cambridge. In their mind, they were the cream of the crop, and hiring the "best" graduates meant they'd have the best IT tools. I say "almost" because he managed one team, and he went into this persons team after his projects were wound down. He joined a team where managers ruled supreme, and while many of the developers were good, they were probably worse than devs on the other teams. Managers were given a budget, and ultimately they didn't care if software was delivered without any testing if the financial risk wasn't that great. This led to developers following orders and rushing to complete stuff with frightening bugs, deployed systems that didn't match source control, etc. It's a different process, but it seemed to be the same outcome. They hired top-tier graduates, but taught them nothing, and put them under enough constraints that it didn't matter who they hired. They were always going to deliver absolute shit.
- s_dev 8y ago
  Not all banks are the same. Which is why the likes of Revolut and N26 and all the new tech banks are disrupting the market. PDS2 (New EU legislation that mandates banks open their APIs) will likely dominate. Other banks are paying for their tech sins with technical debt -- paying Cobol devs ludicrious money because there is no one else. Can't see traditional banks with this attitude of placing bodies in seats surviving long term.
pjc50 8y ago
I was reading up on this in relation to Sabadell and found: https://www.ft.com/content/c5157c1e-20ab-11e5-aa5a-398b2169cf79 https://www.ft.com/content/c5157c1e-20ab-11e5-aa5a-398b2169c... - in 2015 newspapers were warning that this was "particularly risky".
mothsonasloth 8y ago
I've never worked in software for banking however I have worked in a large TelCo in the UK. The bosses up the top were so abstracted away from what developers were working on, even the MDs of tech departments were in the dark. This was due to a thick barrier of (project, delivery, platform) managers between devs and execs. I can remember one time a director of "innovation" came in for a surprise visit. Most of the managers had went out for a team lunch. So I was left with my other socially awkward colleagues babysitting this exec, along with the head of testing. After about 5 minutes of showing the exec what we were actually working on, his eyes lit up, as though we had just discovered fire. In the end he was really happy and amazed on what we were working on. All he had ever seen were some mockups and a video demo. We also got a chance to mention some of our grievances. About two weeks later, our team had magically had some "extra" budget to buy Macs and 24inch monitors.
kerrsclyde 8y ago
His first Treasury Committee appearance earlier in the year was very telling, in completely in denial about the extent of the problems, or issues/fears of their customers without even a hint of apology - I moved my banking elsewhere.

45 points by 0xbadf00d 8y ago

With a golden parachute and his pension fully intact? That is conspicuously absent from the article but it is usually the way. And no bar in being a director of another firm. The executive class are a law unto themselves. What happens to the lowly engineers pressured into cutting corners to meet an arbitrary deadline and denied the resources they needed? No such lavish rewards for them.

crunchlibrarian 8y ago
Even the Wells Fargo execs responsible for actually breaking laws and stealing from customers got their compensation. If you can afford a top drawer law firm then why not steal everything that isn’t nailed down? There is no rule of law once you get to this level.
- sarreph 8y ago
  > why not steal everything that isn’t nailed down? I like that phrase a lot, I think I might use it :)
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
heavenlyblue 8y ago
>> What happens to the lowly engineers pressured into cutting corners to meet an arbitrary deadline and denied the resources they needed? No such lavish rewards for them. What makes you think they didn't get their overtime paid well enough?
- meowface 8y ago
  Do you know of any developers who get paid overtime?
  - heavenlyblue 8y ago
    Nope, but I know quite a few who get paid enough not to care about overtime.
  - rimliu 8y ago
    I know. It was in Europe, and the employer in question is a bank. Overtime needs to be authorised, and if it is, it’s paid according to the law.
philjohn 8y ago
I mean, the IT platform switch was forced on him by the Spanish parent bank that owns TSB.

robbick 8y ago

All of the 'big' UK banks are still on similar out dated technologies as TSB was, they were the first to try to move and it hasn't paid off. I hope the other major banks a) do it better b) don't use it as an excuse never to do it

raverbashing 8y ago
Yes, the more they wait to migrate, the more painful it will be And of course expect the usual dissing by the 'frameheads on how these new systems are frail and how their old systems "are much better and foolproof" (they aren't)
88 8y ago
This wasn't an attempt at IT modernization. TSB had to migrate to a different system following their split from Lloyds.
- coldtea 8y ago
  The two cases are totally compatible. Obviously if they were force to move they'd go to a new fangled IT system, not adopt some old tried and true system (those are too tied to the banks that developed them).
- philjohn 8y ago
  Well, they didn't "have" to, it's just the Spanish parent bank didn't want to pay a competitor £100m a year to use their software system and mandated TSB move to their amazing, all new, all singing, all dancing, software platform. Quite why that means the UK head needs to go ....
  - CaptainZapp 8y ago
    Because he was the happy face of the whole desaster. Claiming publicly how all was fine with very few account holders still having slight problems and repeating this lie ad-nauseum while 100'000s of customers couldn't access their accounts, couldn't make payment and didn't receive any help, whatsoever, from Mr. Pester. Except lies and bullshit on a massive scale for weeks. MEPs were also not impressed by his performance.[1] [1] https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/treasury-committee/news-parliament-2017/tsb-sabadell-ceo-confidence-lost-17-19/ https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z...

jackweirdy 8y ago

If nothing else, that saga gave us the perfect case study in what can go wrong with total cut-over migrations, rather than incremental releases, in complex systems

yani 8y ago

Fix the issue then resign. Take responsibility not compensation.

hguhghuff 8y ago

Banks treat IT systems as of no value, they outsource overseas, they seriously think any developer brain is the same as any other. Banks treat development as just like call centers... they know they have to pay for warm bodies, any warm body will do.

PunchTornado 8y ago
Yeah, I've worked in a bank like that. As long as you had a CS degree, no matter what uni, no matter the grades, your experience, and if you were breathing during the interview they would hire you.
- EnderMB 8y ago
  A mate of mine worked for a large bank in the UK, and his experiences were different to this. One of the managers was Oxbridge educated, so they almost exclusively hired CS grads from Oxford and Cambridge. In their mind, they were the cream of the crop, and hiring the "best" graduates meant they'd have the best IT tools. I say "almost" because he managed one team, and he went into this persons team after his projects were wound down. He joined a team where managers ruled supreme, and while many of the developers were good, they were probably worse than devs on the other teams. Managers were given a budget, and ultimately they didn't care if software was delivered without any testing if the financial risk wasn't that great. This led to developers following orders and rushing to complete stuff with frightening bugs, deployed systems that didn't match source control, etc. It's a different process, but it seemed to be the same outcome. They hired top-tier graduates, but taught them nothing, and put them under enough constraints that it didn't matter who they hired. They were always going to deliver absolute shit.
s_dev 8y ago
Not all banks are the same. Which is why the likes of Revolut and N26 and all the new tech banks are disrupting the market. PDS2 (New EU legislation that mandates banks open their APIs) will likely dominate. Other banks are paying for their tech sins with technical debt -- paying Cobol devs ludicrious money because there is no one else. Can't see traditional banks with this attitude of placing bodies in seats surviving long term.

pjc50 8y ago

I was reading up on this in relation to Sabadell and found: https://www.ft.com/content/c5157c1e-20ab-11e5-aa5a-398b2169cf79 https://www.ft.com/content/c5157c1e-20ab-11e5-aa5a-398b2169c... - in 2015 newspapers were warning that this was "particularly risky".

mothsonasloth 8y ago

I've never worked in software for banking however I have worked in a large TelCo in the UK. The bosses up the top were so abstracted away from what developers were working on, even the MDs of tech departments were in the dark. This was due to a thick barrier of (project, delivery, platform) managers between devs and execs. I can remember one time a director of "innovation" came in for a surprise visit. Most of the managers had went out for a team lunch. So I was left with my other socially awkward colleagues babysitting this exec, along with the head of testing. After about 5 minutes of showing the exec what we were actually working on, his eyes lit up, as though we had just discovered fire. In the end he was really happy and amazed on what we were working on. All he had ever seen were some mockups and a video demo. We also got a chance to mention some of our grievances. About two weeks later, our team had magically had some "extra" budget to buy Macs and 24inch monitors.

kerrsclyde 8y ago

His first Treasury Committee appearance earlier in the year was very telling, in completely in denial about the extent of the problems, or issues/fears of their customers without even a hint of apology - I moved my banking elsewhere.