Roland - I couldn't agree more. STARS was an utter crock when it came in - and it was forced on us by the truckies who didn't undertsand our needs..... It wasn't even possible to move trips vetically to another FI, for example.
It used to waste hours of my time waiting for every small change to rattle over to the server and back and it could never optimise - and it was also visible to everybody during the creation phase. Thye had no idea which plans were definite and which were still under construction. It was merely electric paper and I loathed it with a vengeance.
In days of yore, providing the sqn planners with a list of assets and training tasks for the following week and allowing them to optimise a plan based on the overall sqn needs worked far better. Let the experts do their jobs! Although the one good point about STARS was that it wasn't as easy for the Boss to steal trips.
Planning a UAS programme was more fun though. How many ac, how many QFIs (don't forget to allow longer for one miserable old git's excessive briefs and demand for an hour off at lunchtime), how many students. Sit at the desk at 1600 whilst one of the girls wrote out the next day's magnetic plaques, then get another to move them to the right part of the board. You could visualise the day's overall plan very easily - amongst other things....
