I had the opportunity to meet up with someone I use to work with at the Bureau of Meterology this morning.

I left the Bureau about five years ago, and although I didn’t work with this person on a daily basis, our two teams were reasonably close. One advantage of working in the team that manages the message switching service (MSS) is that you tend to have dealings with many other teams that need to shuffle data around. This person belong to one such team. He dealt with with software related to severe weather, and the alerts produced by them had to be ferried around by out team.

We talked a little about the Bureau. There have been people that have retired or moved on but the team I use to work with is still largely intact. We talked a little about the project that was meant to have replaced the home grown MSS that our team was responsible for. The goal was to replace it with a commercial, off the shelf package sold by a firm that specialises in software for met services. This was meant to have happened roughly a year or two after I left, way back in 2017. But it turns out that this MSS system will not go quietly. Given how tailored it is to the general operations of the Bureau, replacing it proved way too difficult, and it seemed like those that were trying to do so have given up in defeat, at least for the moment. And I get it, nothing lasts for ever, and eventually this MSS system will have to be replaced by something. But even so, it’s good to hear that it’s still around.

And yes, I asked about the admin tool I built. It’s still being used, and indications seem to be that people still like using it.

I was pleased to hear that. Talking about it this morning bought me back to that particular project. I had fond memories working on it. It was fun, and I was proud of what I was able to build. And yet, despite how difficult it was to step away from it, I can’t help think that doing so was the right decision. Staying on that project would not have help me grow professionally. I’ve learnt so much since then, and feel like a much better developer, thanks to moving on and trying different things. Well, it’s good to have the memories.