To all the Beta Testers
 

In most Beta testing phases of online applications (games etc) people are asked to volunteer for the trial phase and they then get some kind of recompense for their time and effort in ensuring a final polished end result.

I wonder what will ours be, a hearty thank you from the Dark Blue & Green jobs. Or possibly just the opportunity to change the incorrect details at last when the program is out of the Beta Test phase.

To quote a famous jock 'We're doomed' it seems is the rallying call at the secret helicopter base in South Oxfordshire.

Almost Done
 

Shame on you! You should regard it as a singular honour to have been specially selected for the vital national task of proving this system to its limits so that the matelots and pongos won't be able to break it.

Baaaaaaaa

Regards

Ginseng

memorable question/answer
 

I'm off down town to change my mother's maiden name to one which has over 8 characters.

All LEAVE cancelled.

At a secret base in deepest Lincolnshire the brief is simply to log on and check pay details. At least that is one priority. The rest would appear to be a case of not rocking the boat.

Apparently the moving blue line is quite soporific.

At least MFMIS will come in on time and work straight out of the box.:}

Hi Gang;

Got into the system this afternoon after everyone else had gone home.

a). Submitted leave for Easter...been docked 2 days annual. Asked for it back on remarks!!
b). Submitted Home to Duty for March.. 31 Days..22 Journeys...NO!! Journey every day apparently and only as 1st or 2nd Passenger. No box for Driver. Submitted with Remarks about wrong status/rate/totals!!! Old form kept for proof and subsequent submission!!
c). Cannot make wifey primary contact. It won't let me. Primary contact is daughter from 1st marriage 450 miles away!!!
d). Bank details correct...well that's one thing!!!
e). Separated service totals = 71. Thought it was going to be at least 100???
f). Have to be born somewhere else..Town of Birth is less than 8 letters!!!

Entertaining 45 mins.:\ Slow but bearable when the rest of the Mob is on Grant!!!

More LAter;
'J' Bloke!!:cool:

PS..I almost forgot...it's all gone to my Workflow manager for approval. He's not that great with computers!!!

I find the use of the singular there more than a little worrying...

Fear not, there are at least 3 servers!!

J Bloke

You need to claim under the other option not 1st / 2nd passenger but the third option. (Can't remember the 3 letter abbv. as at home not on JPA!)

The LSA balance issue is being looked into...


Re eight letters simply repeat your town of birth..ie if it was Bath then your PW may be bathbath????? Its a minimum of 8 letters so be imaginative!!

Happy easter JPA'ers

Grim;

There were 3 options on the HTD thingy...just that the third (top) option was blank, then 1st Pax, 2nd Pax. It would not let me progress if I clicked on the blank. There was no option past 2nd Pax!!!:uhoh:

Got the Home town thing sorted. Bit of lateral thinking....:\

It will take a while to sort out the gremlins I suppose... I'm out soon anyway..(2015!!!)

'J' Bloke!!:rolleyes:

If the pay run is happening on the 18th it would have been good to get a password so I could at least have attempted to check that my details are correct. As I'm not back at work till the 20th I guess I will just have to trust that the system works OK. Hope my bank is understanding about large overdrafts.

Bank Holidays / Shift workers
 

Seems that its designed for a civilian environment where no one works weekends - they are all 'non-working' days. Bank holidays not recognised either so the wonderful new HR department will be giving every one (should be on now) 4 days additional ILA (Individual Leave Allowance or whatever) to cover Good Friday, Easter Monday and the 2 May bank holidays.

In addition absences cannot currently be put in retrospectively - no capability for having an 'emergency' day off for car / family / house etc problems and putting it in after you get back to work.

If you pay for food and go away for less than 3 days it appears that its still to be paid for ... anyone for ration packs? If I am paying for it I expect to be provided with it. :mad:

L1a1
Your first two days of food are not paid back, only the food beyond the 2nd day of absence.
The pay slips will be available to view after the 20th of the month.
The RAF have the best infrastructre in place to deal with the roll out of JPA, so yes, we may be seen as the Guinea Pigs, but with good reason.
Give it a few months and we will be wondering what all the fuss was about, I'm sure!
Remain positive and chin-up chaps. It's a great leap forward from the days of the trenches!!!:E

And I wonder how many people believe that, even Southside spouts less Boll*cks

As the days roll on since they flicked the switch I can't believe that even our 2-year in the post amateurs managed to overlook the fact that not everybody works Monday to Friday...but there's not much evidence they did.

So, shift workers aside they must have thought about bank holidays because even daisies get bank holidays...er, so why the aparent botch for easter, giving everyone extra days leave to fix it?

That's presuming you're not one of several people I know who has not even been given a log-in. There's only 40,000 or so of us now - can that be so difficult?

Server speed? hmmm, never tested it before we went live...

When I finally managed to log-in (because everyone else had gone home), it did a reasonable job, but with so many unanswered questions it just smacks of the amateurish, rushed, poorly thought out ideas that have become cancers to our daily operations. What the fcuk are we playing at?

Solidarity brothers (and sisters?).

I'm sure Southside will be along in a moment to tell us all how lucky we are.:p

Regards

Ginseng

Ginseng

Solidarity (Poland 1980) was organised.

The RAF has yet to accept it is not.

Dallas,

Come on now, none of this single-Service stuff; we are in the age of jointery, so we must all be equally disorganised!

J-Bloke,

The only answer I know to the tricky primary contact fiasco is this. Delete your current primary contact from the system in toto. Go and make a cup of tea. Come back half an hour later and enter your new primary contact. Watch the blue line for 20 minutes. Swear at the failure message, kick the computer, go and make another cup of tea. Re-enter new primary contact. Go and make a cup of tea. Re-enter old primary contact (if desired) as a normal (non-primary) contact. Watch the blue line for 20 minutes. Kick the computer. Go and make a cup of tea. Re-enter etc....... Finally, visit lavatory for 40 minutes to divest yourself of all those cups of tea. It worked for me (eventually) but my bladder is giving out under the strain and I've developed a nasty case of caffeine poisoning!

Regards

Ginseng

I'm just waiting for the advent of BOCS as well as JPA.

My life will be complete and I'll be able to work from home with these fine new systems. :yuk:

Grimwesel and Ginseng:
I am sure that you two believe in this new system. However after the fiasco of the last 10 days plaese will you accept these points:
Hardly anybody seems to be able to log on and do their business.
"Time out" has been blamed on the number of people logging on - yet apparentlty only 1 in 4 of all RAF personel have logged on. What will it be like when 40,000 RAF people log on ( and lets not talk about Army/Navy).
When you can log on, the data is incorrect and you seem to be unable to change anything. Time's out again.
When you cant change the data, you ring the help line, they cannot help you. This is because the majority of people have not been trained in JPA and in fact the 3 people that I have spoken to did not even know it was happening. (JPA launch to the RAF) - one girl i spoke to was in tears because she could not comprehend the number of phone calls she was getting about a subject she knew nothing about.
You cant put leave in. Nobody I know has successfully made a claim. If you do manange to claim an advance it is one day at a time. PIC numbers no longer exist, Last tour of duty no longer seems to exist, overseas posting lists no longer seem to exist. Any time in operational thertre before 2000 is discarded.
If we do get paid at the end of Apr it will be amazing, however how many will actually have the correct pay. I was screwed up last month because for some reason to allow JPA to work I was internally posted. Sadly this resulted in me paying for singlie food charges. I have no doubts that my pay at the end of Apr will be even more cocked up.
I, at my age can accomodate these cockups but imagine a young SAC and his wife with a young kid being messed up. Anybody tried speaking to a bank manager recently - I think it goes: " If you want help - press one", "If you want a credit card press two", "If you are in the RAF and have joined JPA - hang up - you have no hope".
Over the years I have been seriously involved with LITS. We thought that was bad, but this?..............

Ah BOCS another "off the shelf" piece of fabulosity :hmm:

Most amused by the email from the head BOCS needy who had a hissy fit because we weren't all "embracing change" (or "cuddling a turd" as is more apt in the RAF these days) and lovin the BOCS. Just genius.

I'm all for well thought IT that has real benefit to the smooth running of the military. Not quite so keen however on the poorly supported, ill thought out schemes that seem to repeatedly blight our lives these days.

:zzz: