I’m on Holiday at the moment and loving every minute of it! During the Weekend, I’ve decided to add a little something to my blog and installed a new feature which somewhat gives back to those who comment on my blog. I’ve added the Top Commentators feature which lists the top 10 people who have commented on posts within my blog throughout it’s existance. At the moment, I’ve got laserlight with 11 comments.
Last week I received a phone call of distress from one of our clients. The were asking for some advice regarding issues they were having with a Web Application that was developed for them by another company and was released into production the week before. Now I’m not going to name names, or even mention what Web Technology was used – this is not what this rant is about.
The plea for help was pre-empted with a light-hearted exchange between the Client and I where the client jokingly blamed me for the predicament that they were currently in.
“You said late last year that you had a full schedule and that you were not taking on any new projects until February (resulting in them hiring these guys) [...] so it’s your fault!”
I know the Client very well and they are very reliant upon the technical consultants that they hire to provide direction and complete the project as they have no technical expertise themselves or technical staff internally. This Client needs to be taken good care of (of course, as do all clients) since they put total trust into the technical consultants that they hire and have no real input into the direction of the development aside from the business rules.
The problem is, with the exception of the Web Development company I work for, it seems as though they keep picking the wrong Web Development companies when they are not with us.
From what I hear, the web development companies they hire are full of hype and seem to be stepping into the projects without covering the usual bases. Now, for a company whose average project consists of Mission Critical Web Applications as opposed to your run of the mill Joomla CMS, Sugar CRMs or E-Commerce websites, this is very dangerous.
» Read more: Client Gets Screwed by Under skilled and disorganised Developers
Well, it’s the seventh post in my fast 15 category… but during the day, I was thinking about something: Did the concept of the new “fast 15″ section only forced me to do what most bloggers actually do and make time to make a post regularly? I mean, it’s been fun so far – but really do we need this “fast 15″ category?
Maybe it’s just a routine. So from this point forward, I guess I’m going to retire the “fast 15″ concept and actually just post one post per day and try to fit it inside 15 minutes – I think this is makes sense. It makes the blog’s structure a little less complicated and less gimmicky.
» Read more: Fast 15 Gone, Serves as an usher for a regular schedule.
An interesting highlight of my day today was that I was approached by one of the other directors at DevProducts and he reminded me that I have to meet with a Design Junior who is interested in showing me her design skills to see if we can make use of, or mould, her skillset so that she could be added to our team. I always love meeting new talent. I know what I’m looking for, but am realistic enough to know that a design junior is… well, a design junior. That pretty much says it all.
I’m ready to be pleasantly surprised, but not listening to the hype of the others who says she’s got some “mad dezign skillzzzzz”. If she has an iota of the design skills that I have been told, that’s part of the way there. » Read more: Find Skill or Potential, Attitude and Interest in Juniors
Ben Rowe (8)
Bill Karwin (6)
Kevin (6)
James Horne (5)
Martin (4)
Walter (4)
David Penner (3)
Loïc Frering (3)
Mic (3)
San (3)