Worst software I have used

This is something I have been planning for months, maybe a year now. As part of my work as a Software consultant, I have had to use some really terribly designed and poor performing software. Here is the top 3 , (or worst 3) so far:

1. IBM Lotus Notes (I used version 8.5):  In a world where simplicity ,ease of use, and minimalism is gaining appeal, Lotus notes dares to go miserably against the tide. It is slow, hogs memory and resources, and follows and out-dated layout style. It would be easier for a newbie to master a flavor of  Linux system than to get used to Lotus notes. Also, it does not merge into Window’s theme system, further showing its age. It even lacks functionalities you have come to expect from an e-mail system; like forwarding meeting requests, and recalling sent mails.
2. BMC Remedy:  I was on a support project for over a year, and the part of my job I hated worst was where I had to use and update the ticket details on the Remedy system. Its ironic that they thought of such a name when it does not remedy anything ! Again, the aged look and feel and cumbersome navigation itself put me off. But it was also terribly slow; so slow that on many occasions I missed SLAs because the system did not respond on time. And if you are planning to run long queries to prepare your reports on this dinosaur, be prepared to lose hours with the hourglass spinning. I used to start a query and go get a cup of coffee before the results came out. We used to joke that we need to bill 1 hour to Remedy ticket updation separately over and above our usual bill hours, because our productivity during that time was absolutely zero !
3. HP Quality Center:  I used to like using the earlier version of this software, when it was still called Mercury Quality Center. But after the last upgrade, when it moved to the latest HP QC version, I found I was spending more time updating QC records. The fact that it uses ActiveX and runs  only on IE was further complicated because it hogged up memory, and frequently crashed.

 

There ! I said it. That takes some weight off my chest :-)

Update: When it comes to professional/company e-mail, Microsoft’s Outlook is the best. And after years of using various bug tracking software, I have to come to believe that the best software is one which does it’s job, without interfering in your other work, or having you learn all the basics all over again. Take a look at Atlassian’s JIRA bug tracking system. It has a lightweight user interface which runs in every browser, has notifications, and generates graphs for reports. Its probably the best bug-tracking system I have used.