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Many developers are commenting in here trying to fix a problem. I am a developer but I now run a business. From a business point of view, there is no problem he

Many developers are commenting in here trying to fix a problem. I am a developer but I now run a business. From a business point of view, there is no problem here. Code has been delivered and it is running in production successfully. It might not have arrived at that point in the most efficient manner, but the point is that the business has executed successfully here. There is no issue. This is a lot further than most businesses get. If you see a problem to be fixed here then you are looking at a small picture of the business.

alecbenzer 8y ago
Are you discounting that technical debt is a thing/matters? What gets delivered isn't just a set of features, it's a piece of software, which implements those features, but might have a whole bunch of baggage attached which can make it really hard (or easy) to change those features or add new features in the future, or to allow the software to adapt to changing external conditions. I don't think this is specific to software. E.g., I'd imagine it'd be possible to build a building a lot faster if you didn't need to worry about it not collapsing in five years. --- Though to be fair, the mere presence of technical debt on its own is not a problem; there is some amount of technical debt that's appropriate, and it's hard to know exactly where that is. You certainly can't get by just ignoring it completely.
occams_chainsaw 8y ago
A rotting foundation eventually catches up with you. Things don't have to be perfect, or even particularly great... but when things are working by accident rather than by design...
draw_down 8y ago
Sure, the problem comes later. And it will be very expensive to fix.
tonyedgecombe 8y ago
To some extent that was just luck, they happened to hire a consultant who happened to be able to resolve the visible problems. Hiring junior developers because they are cheap and keeping your fingers crossed isn't going to work most of the time. Not shipping will sink any business if it goes on long enough.
pattrn 8y ago
This is an excellent point, and I agree wholeheartedly. They did extremely well given the constraints they had, and at the end of the day everyone made out: their company, their customers, and my company. I hope the article didn't paint the company's decisions in a negative light. They're a great company to work with, and I think they've done a fantastic job.
bestCauliflower 8y ago
What about this? >I’m almost certain the cost of fixing the code exceeded the margin on revenue due to writing it in the first place. Does bussiness really not care that you have to build the same thing twice?

alecbenzer 8y ago

Are you discounting that technical debt is a thing/matters? What gets delivered isn't just a set of features, it's a piece of software, which implements those features, but might have a whole bunch of baggage attached which can make it really hard (or easy) to change those features or add new features in the future, or to allow the software to adapt to changing external conditions. I don't think this is specific to software. E.g., I'd imagine it'd be possible to build a building a lot faster if you didn't need to worry about it not collapsing in five years. --- Though to be fair, the mere presence of technical debt on its own is not a problem; there is some amount of technical debt that's appropriate, and it's hard to know exactly where that is. You certainly can't get by just ignoring it completely.

occams_chainsaw 8y ago

A rotting foundation eventually catches up with you. Things don't have to be perfect, or even particularly great... but when things are working by accident rather than by design...

draw_down 8y ago

Sure, the problem comes later. And it will be very expensive to fix.

tonyedgecombe 8y ago

To some extent that was just luck, they happened to hire a consultant who happened to be able to resolve the visible problems. Hiring junior developers because they are cheap and keeping your fingers crossed isn't going to work most of the time. Not shipping will sink any business if it goes on long enough.

pattrn 8y ago

This is an excellent point, and I agree wholeheartedly. They did extremely well given the constraints they had, and at the end of the day everyone made out: their company, their customers, and my company. I hope the article didn't paint the company's decisions in a negative light. They're a great company to work with, and I think they've done a fantastic job.

bestCauliflower 8y ago

What about this? >I’m almost certain the cost of fixing the code exceeded the margin on revenue due to writing it in the first place. Does bussiness really not care that you have to build the same thing twice?