I've got this mate right, you've heard of him, fella who's gig in Jersey just went bandy.
Well he's got more than one string to his bow, and turned his attentions to one of his smaller projects, for a small local firm. Had a big meeting recently and he tells me it was rather infuriating.
His ClientCo wanted things done on the cheap, so wasn't interested in doing requirements workshops, or documenting things or generally doing things properly. After all it was just a port of a spreadsheet to a web app.
Well things have now taken a slightly bumpy turn. His ClientCo started asking why the web site doesn't do X/Y/Z. Well because that's an excel feature. If you want that, it's extra, as he's only porting the functionality of the sheet and the macros.
So it came to a head when the running totals were announced. So far it's 100% over budget. The reason? Change requests. There are change requests asking to back out change requests. It's a merry dance. The implications of each change request were explained. The cost implications were explained.
So they had a look ahead to the upcoming functionality that was planned for phase 2. His ClientCo pressed him for quotes on each bit. My mate pushed back and said until things are properly analysed it's not possible to give an accurate forecast. I quote "It's just a simple grid, same as the others, that just queries the database, it can't be that hard, how much".
What is it that my friend lacks, as do I, that gets people to tow the line and do things properly?
The risk of the corner cutting was explained. The reasons behind software development best practices were explained. Chucking the baby out with the bathwater was explained.
He offered to close the project at no charge, this was not accepted.
Why won't people listen?
Well he's got more than one string to his bow, and turned his attentions to one of his smaller projects, for a small local firm. Had a big meeting recently and he tells me it was rather infuriating.
His ClientCo wanted things done on the cheap, so wasn't interested in doing requirements workshops, or documenting things or generally doing things properly. After all it was just a port of a spreadsheet to a web app.
Well things have now taken a slightly bumpy turn. His ClientCo started asking why the web site doesn't do X/Y/Z. Well because that's an excel feature. If you want that, it's extra, as he's only porting the functionality of the sheet and the macros.
So it came to a head when the running totals were announced. So far it's 100% over budget. The reason? Change requests. There are change requests asking to back out change requests. It's a merry dance. The implications of each change request were explained. The cost implications were explained.
So they had a look ahead to the upcoming functionality that was planned for phase 2. His ClientCo pressed him for quotes on each bit. My mate pushed back and said until things are properly analysed it's not possible to give an accurate forecast. I quote "It's just a simple grid, same as the others, that just queries the database, it can't be that hard, how much".
What is it that my friend lacks, as do I, that gets people to tow the line and do things properly?
The risk of the corner cutting was explained. The reasons behind software development best practices were explained. Chucking the baby out with the bathwater was explained.
He offered to close the project at no charge, this was not accepted.
Why won't people listen?
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