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Transcription by PWOP Productions, http://www.pwop.com
Page 13 of 18
Pat Hynds on why projects fail
April 16, 2009
developer to work on this new feature, this new
capability but you don't want to -- so there's always
someone out there who is willing to bid less to do a
bad job.
Richard Campbell:
Yes.
Pat Hynds:
Cheap.
Carl Franklin:
Isn't that awesome?
Pat Hynds:
Yeah. You know, it just seems
to be the truth and I can't tell you how many times I've
said, oh, that project is going to cost you $80,000 for
that first phase, and they say ridiculous, they go off,
they spend $30,000 twice.
Carl Franklin:
For nothing.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
And they get nothing out of it.
Carl Franklin:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
And then they have an axe to
grind with someone overseas and they've got a local
buddy who they don't speak to anymore and they're
godchild is their kid. You know, the road to hell is
paid with good intentions.
Carl Franklin:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
And unfortunately, the road to
heaven for developers is paid with specifications.
Richard Campbell:
Yes.
Carl Franklin:
And Bob can do it in Access.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah, this weekend.
Pat Hynds:
Well, go for it.
Richard Campbell:
You let me know how that
works for you.
Pat Hynds:
Yeah. Unfortunately, all
widgets are not created exactly alike. What suited
well for one technology isn't suitable for another and
we definitely have a hammer and nail mentality. If I'm
a Rich Internet Application developer, I tend to see
Rich Internet Applications everywhere.
Richard Campbell:
Right.
Carl Franklin:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
If I'm a web developer, I tend to
see ASP.NET applications everywhere. So that's the
problem. I think as a client, you need to first identify
which technologies actually make sense and bring
value, and then go the experts in those technologies.
Richard Campbell:
Absolutely. Hey, you do a lot
of offshore work. I know you do development here in
the U.S. but...
Pat Hynds:
As part of CriticalSites, I run a
team of about 30 people over in Egypt running out in
Cairo mostly. Actually we have somebody up in
Alexandria but they were down back in Cairo now.
Richard Campbell:
With 30 people, you're not
dabbling in offshore development.
Pat Hynds:
I'm not.
Richard Campbell:
That's a lot of work.
Pat Hynds:
I'm actually willing to give away
some of the hard one secret here if you guys want me
to.
Richard Campbell:
Absolutely.
Pat Hynds:
I've also got experience with
Indian offshoring but not through a team that we own
or a team that we hired, so not employees of ours.
The people in Cairo are actually employees.
Richard Campbell:
Okay.
Pat Hynds:
And I've also got very good
experience in dealing with the consultancy over in
Egypt named DashSoft. So you got to pick your
battles well. You have to pick the right people which
is true everywhere, but the secret to offshoring are all
the rules I just gave you. So it's the same secrets as
here but a bit more so. So status, you have to set up
a status system with people regularly and status is
very specific to not only the task but to the person
doing it. So I'll give you an example. You’ve had kids
work in your yard probably. There are some kids you
tell them what to do, you'll leave them at 8:00 in the
morning and by 5:00 they're done, they've done
everything, they figured out problems, they pulled
stumps you didn't know needed to be pulled, and
they're just a machine.
Richard Campbell:
Right.
Pat Hynds:
And there are other kids where
if you don't sit there and tell them which leaf to rake,
they will get it wrong.
Richard Campbell:
Yeah.
Pat Hynds:
So developers, they fall in the
same kind of granularity.
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