5 ms·
It reminds me of the quip: "I can deliver your project quickly, cheaply and of good quality - pick two". That said, in my experience, clients tend to see softwa
by bottled_poe 11y ago
It reminds me of the quip:
"I can deliver your project quickly, cheaply and of good quality - pick two".
That said, in my experience, clients tend to see software quality as the least important attribute of the three.
- noonespecial 11y agoI always tell them, "You can have what you want quickly or you can have what you want cheaply, if you insist on both, you won't be getting what you want."
- anon4 11y agoThe cheaply part puzzles me. If it takes X hours to build something, it doesn't matter if you work D hours per day for X/D days, or D/2 hours per day for 2X/D days -- it's the same amount of hours, therefore the same amount of money. The client will pay less per day, but the same amount overall. You could charge on a curve, i.e. 8hrs/day is X, but 10hrs/day is 2X, but we all know overtime doesn't work in the long run. It seems to me, that that saying works for only the small set of tasks that can be worked on in consistent overtime. Can someone clarify?
- zaphar 11y agoyou can cut corners by never refactoring and not thinking the design through thoroughly. In the long run this will actually cost you time but in the short run the customer gets something sooner. The problem is that the customer is usually unaware of the looming debt they are accumulating unless an engineer takes the time to explain it to them.
- Toenex 11y agoThe cost, time and scope trade-off - [http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bInnDDjGM24/SlVMRBtEOEI/AAAAAAAAFu4/jwyCF3ywab0/s400/scope.gif http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_bInnDDjGM24/SlVMRBtEOEI/AAAAAAAAFu...] I'm usually a little meaner and tell people to pick 1.7 of the above.
- crdoconnor 11y ago>clients tend to see software quality as the least important attribute of the three. It's the one attribute they can't see.
- zaphar 11y agoIt's the one attribute they can't see immediately. But they will see it eventually. When fixing critical bugs take months and their customers are breathing down their necks they will see software quality at work. It's our job to educate them about these risks since they have a delayed appearance.
- crdoconnor 11y agoI don't think "educating" clients about quality is worth the effort. Just deliver code to a quality you are happy with and tell them that it takes as long as it takes (giving them feedback as regularly as you are capable of, so they get a sense of progress). Good clients will understand and bad clients will filter themselves out quicker (which is a blessing in disguise even if they do sometimes give you money). I prefer to let cold, hard reality do the teaching.
- kybernetikos 11y agoYeah, I think it might be better to say "quickly, cheaply, or something that can be improved on in the future without starting again", because at least that way they're all at the same level.
- billmalarky 11y agoTo be fair, the business has no chance of success if nothing ships before the funds run out.
- walljm 11y agoThough there is truth to that quip, not all the pairs of that triangle are equal. Its much easier to deliver quick and cheap, easier to deliver cheap and quality, and really hard to deliver quick and quality.