MLH wrote:
In the corporate environment, its called self-preservation.
If you are writing entirely for paying customers, the con-
cept may be foreign to you. Its second nature to lots of
others.
Please ignore any ranting that follows. It sounds foreign to me also.
Please explain the logic behind how what you're doing helps them want
to keep you. It almost sounds like the shameful tactic of writing
labyrinthine and obfuscated code so that if they get rid of you the
next programmer will have a mess on her hands. Of course, I'm not
entirely innocent. Although I write code so that another programmer
can maintain it easily it is still complicated enough without trying
that it will take her quite a while to get up to speed. Plus, because
the code is working so well my clients would rather have me work on new
features than document old ones. I'm a bit incredulous that none of my
clients have asked for any documentation about how the program is
designed, ever! One has five years of continuous software development
by me without a shred of documentation. It's their nickel.
Usually it's the larger companies that lock themselves into situations
that will cost them choices. I did an Access database for the largest
hospital in my state. It had every feature they requested plus source
code. A large software company convinced them that a compiled VB
version would be much more professional. They supply a nice executable
without source code so that they are locked in to that software company
(very professional). Nevermind that I could have done it in VB also.
It's almost the same way with Crystal Reports. Because a lot of VB
programmers use Crystal Reports and because the name was well chosen,
people thought that Crystal Reports was more professional than having
VB call up an Access report.
The e-commerce application I did in 2000 was my first ASP project. I
had not even had a class in ASP. I just got on the internet and
Googled nearly everything I needed to learn. Two huge software
companies tried it and were not able to do it. They charged (and got)
about $17,000 each. I got about $4,000 and stock reputedly worth
$11,000 (because they were broke after paying the huge companies). I'm
pretty sure they're going to try to stiff me for the $11,000. Plus,
they're using the site as advertising for the kind of work they can do.
I just don't think they can deliver on any major design changes to the
backend. Worse yet, they'll be trying to pull the same stock stunt on
the next programmer. But I was able to show that large software
companies are not always better than a small developer. I have
personal reasons for not suing that company.
I did a database for a professional sports team to track every pill
taken by every player. When they were audited by the NFL they received
a 100% compliance for the first time ever. The program worked
perfectly and has been working perfectly AFAIK for several years. When
they needed some new features the first thing they did was start
dialing large software companies! I guess I need to hire a bunch of
programmers, rent an expensive office and start "Fortune Custom
Business Software" as soon as the economy allows ;-). In the meantime
I have thought of offering to buy insurance in the client's name so
that if I am the only one developing software for them and something
happens to me they can hire a RBSC (really big software company) to
finish it. But in spite of all that happened I have plenty of work
(i.e., I'm not in self-preservation mode) so I would be intrigued by
the techniques used by corporate programmers who are in
self-preservation mode.
James A. Fortune
