Re: OT: hiring contractors

If only ...

... managers were that wise
... organizations had documentation standards a contractor could follow
... organizations were ... well ... organized enough to store documentation in a sane manner
... requirements were clearly documented
... requirements didn't do a 180 in the 3 days before production
... contracts actually went the length agreed upon (I'm being smacked by this one ...)
... a lot of things

It's all well and good to say that, neilwatson. Even if I wanted to provide documentation of the code I'm producing right now, I can't! I never received specs, support, or even time to do it right. I have to lie to my management in order to write tests. In fact, the group that pays my contract isn't even the group I'm writing the code for. And, I don't have a person in the group who's going to own the code to hand over ownership. And, my manager doesn't care! (Well, maybe he cares, but he doesn't see the priority.)

My situation is normal. It's even somewhat expected.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6

Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.

Comment on Re: OT: hiring contractors

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Re: Re: OT: hiring contractors by neilwatson (Priest) on Sep 23, 2003 at 17:18 UTC
Some think I am to idealistic. If everyone just sighs and accepts things the way they are, things will never change. If you're not willing to make the effort to stand up and say "No, that's not the way to it." then I don't think you have the right to complain. I can think of nothing more damaging than apathy. Neil Watson watson-wilson.ca	[reply]
Re3: OT: hiring contractors by dragonchild (Archbishop) on Sep 23, 2003 at 17:27 UTC
I cannot force my client to do things "The Right Way"(tm). I can only do the things they pay me to do. I bring up thoughts, in the hopes of educating them. If those thoughts go nowhere, that's not my problem. If their codebase is unmaintainable and unmaintained, they lose money. In this way, market forces will take care of the problem (albeit, very slowly). Companies with well-maintained code will have less bugs and be more responsive to customer needs than those without. Customers will naturally flock to those products that are more stable and for whom adding features is less risky. In other words, we see that Linux is slowly eroding at Windows's dominance of the personal and office desktops. As Linux becomes more user-friendly (which was Windows's forte), its benefits (stability, security, price, and a better underlying feature-set) will start becoming more relevant. That is the market at work. It takes time, but does do "The Right Thing"(tm). ------ We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age. The idea is a little like C++ templates, except not quite so brain-meltingly complicated. -- TheDamian, Exegesis 6 Please remember that I'm crufty and crochety. All opinions are purely mine and all code is untested, unless otherwise specified.	[reply]