When all was said and done I believe the CIO's exact words were that this project has been "time well spent" even though it's taken me roughly a year to get things developed to this point. He also seemed to feel that the price of our contract renewal was "trivial if these are the benefits we see from it." He asked a few questions about what will be the criteria for considering the project "completed," he asked me what my feelings were about taking this to the campus level and inquired if we can use this software when our secondary data center goes live. I showed him the various features, wowed him with the automation capabilities and even did a demonstration with a live system to show him that everything's working just as I expected it to. At the end I left it open for questions and comments, and he said that I had answered almost all of his questions along the line.
I am left with the feeling that this went over pretty well and I think I just won a major advocate to my side. I mean, let's face it... if the CIO (A senior vice president in the company) likes what I'm working on, who is going to tell him otherwise or dare to challenge me when I have his blessings? This positive outcome leaves me feeling smug as heck, and I know when I tell AC about today's presentation when I report in for tomorrow's staff meeting I'm going to get a big slack-jawed stare. AC saw me this morning around 8:00 AM when he came in, and I know he's wondering why I'm here early on a swing shift day. Well, he won't have to wonder for long, because tomorrow he's going to find out...
I wish that I could talk to you