Why I don't love dev shops
"Messy, messy, messy, messy!" - Professor Hinkle
I’ve been playing in the software sandbox (pun) for a few years now. With that comes the inescapable prospect of needing to outsource - you can read more about my point of view on outsourcing here.
Software development outsourcing has been a very tricky body of water to navigate and thankfully we’ve gotten mostly good results on this front.
However, this still leads me to not love dev shops despite the fact that I’ve found the exception to the rule (i.e. a great dev shop experience).
I hope to give at least one of you some insight on this front.
Details, details, details
It was just this morning that I was grilling my 4 year old on the importance of details. He was being quite a bit careless and kicked an entire stack of papers all over the floor.
It was the morning and my caffeine IV hadn’t yet been tapped so my lesson to him was harsh but I think needed.
We spoke extensively about the importance of noticing situational details and determining how to navigate the situation that is presented. Neglecting details can be disastrous and at times fatal - one of my examples was learning how to properly buckle your seatbelt.
The standard dev shop really misses the mark when it comes to details. A cursory glance at this reddit can really open your eyes to the horrors of missed details in an expensive software project.
The solopreneur going the dev shop route better make sure he or she is hyper focused on the details of their product. They also better love to QA each and every piece of the delivery.
Overall grade for dev shop attention to details: C-
Jack of all trades - master of none
Do you ever come across the person who boldly claims they are good at so many things? Yeah, me neither.
I think we all know the dude at the party who has done and knows everything. This guys is an “expert” on politics, economics, video games, air hockey, college football, married life, and being a chef.
As expected, this renaissance man rarely has anything substantial to stand on and would usually be everyone’s last resort to be hired to take on anything of importance.
I’ve come to find this is the same thing for the standard dev shop. They code in every language imaginable and can deliver a product that can contact aliens while proving the earth is flat.
For me, this creates quite a bit of hesitation and doubt in what top skills are actually present within the organization.
Avoid with urgency the organization that claims they have worked on every software project known to man. Maybe they have - but have they been able to deliver excellence.
Take the liberty (with confidence) in asking for specific deliverable examples.
Gain a solid understanding of the specific skillset that lies within their team.
Understand the market in which they operate and determine how flooded it is with sub-par developers.
Overall grade for skill mastery: B-
Minimal access or collaboration
Lack of collaboration is the bane of my existence. This topic alone actually motivated me to write this entire piece.
I feel so convicted on this simply due to the fact that my currently contracted dev shop excels at this.
I’ve unfortunately seen the massive communication void take a huge toll on a software deliverable and stretch the GOLIVE date into eternity.
The lack of communication led to a lack of urgency which led to an extreme lack of delivered quality. I was involved with the product team and found myself consistently QA’ing a product that had so many logical holes in its standard functionality.
Further more, the product had already been rolled out to customers so we had the wonderful luxury of fielding so much “constructive” criticism on the product.
Naturally this led to product being unable to properly prioritize any of the feedback in a logical manner considering that everything appeared to be “broken”.
The lesson here is quite clear: Collaboration with the builder is so incredibly critical. Failure to effectively communicate is insanely expensive and the results cannot be easily rectified.
Pro tip on the collaboration front: Document, document, and then document some more! Make sure EVERYTHING is in writing!
Overall grade for skill mastery: D+
Victim of their business model
Yes, it sounds like I’m being pretty hard on the dev shop industry.
Please understand, this is juts my PoV and like I mentioned I am currently engaged in a very constructive and highly beneficial relationship with a dev shop.
Seeing the issues in the industry is very concerning as I can empathize with the business owner who is looking for a cost-effective solution to get their software product built out.
Though the economics of a dev shop can certainly spike pricing for the customer simply due to the fact that these businesses are expensive to operate.
Developers aren’t cheap in comparison to whatever market they are operating in. Their price tag is mostly justified and dev shops employing tens or hundreds of assets can see profitability take major hits with idle workers.
As expected, you can see why some software projects seem to drag on forever and instead of making progress you find your product is doing nothing but regression testing for months at a time.
Pricing instability can also play a major factor.
Let’s say you have a decent experience on a project and want to re-engage with the dev shop on a new software build. Getting sticker shocked with a massive price increase is not uncommon and having this unexpected cost increase can greatly harm your own profitability if you had not accounted for it on the frontend.
Contracts and relationships can help you here but ultimately it’s up to the shop if they want to increase pricing on you.
Overall grade for pricing predictability: B
Consider working with… me!
The above variables don’t cover each and every aspect of working with a dev shop. I’m hopeful to provide some context to you, the business owner, if you are considering going this route.
Yes, there are highly skilled devs out there and fair play to you if you’re able to engage a reputable dev shop on your own project. This approach certainly comes with some risks.
The lion’s share of my private clients have web design projects with me. As you can imagine, dev shops also play in the web design world as well but I openly say this is quite a bit overkill.
On the contrary, I’ve tried to create a frictionless web design package that gives you confidence and predictability in both price and quality.
Feel free to check this out on my website.
You can also sign up today through this link!
If web design isn’t your need then I highly recommend doing your due diligence and evaluating your needs before stepping down the long road of software development.
As always, I’d be happy to share my own experience with you and possibly help guide you in a positive direction.
To close - below are some additional resources and the dreaded reddit thread I mentioned above - God’s wisdom to each of you!