Over the last 18 months I have managed the rewrite of several software tools my partners and I use in our investing businesses. When we embarked on this journey we had very high hopes. We were going to outsource. The outsourcing firms give really GREAT interview, by the way.
Our list of “benefits” was long. We were going to be able to get everything rewritten using current technology; we would get a long list of features added; save a ton of money; and productize them into something we could offer to others.
The projects started well, as just about all projects do. I have developed enough software and managed enough teams to know the start is easy, it’s the finish that’s hard.
As the months went by it became increasingly clear we were not dealing with developers in the sense I knew them. See, I am used to a developer who is a problem solver. If I have to virtually write the software for the developer to translate that into the programming language, I might as well take that last step.
Every penny we thought we were going to save was eaten up by resources needed to guide and essentially spoon feed the “developers” writing the code.
Finally, about four months ago I made the decision to freeze the code. The basic functionality had been written but it needed to be cleaned up and the performance improved. We concluded our business arrangement and parted company. The outsourcing firm has asked if we’d be willing to talk to potential clients about our experience.
The number of new features added after more than a year of development? Zero. Hmmm, would I be willing to talk to your potential clients? Are you sure you want me to do that?
For the last four months, I and one other developer have been cleaning up the code and improving the performance. I can’t say enough good things about Dave and I really do wish I could convince him to come to work for us permanently. But Dave has other plans that involve traveling around the world. He knows he has a spot waiting here with us should he ever decide to settle down somewhere.
Anyway, at this point, all but one tool has been migrated to the newer technologies. Unfortunately, it is the one tool I would’ve really liked to have migrated. However, it was apparent there was absolutely no way it would be successful if included in the outsourcing projects.
I will be looking to hire some great development talent over the next few months and I’ve always had a long list of things I look for in a software developer. That list grew significantly because of this outsourcing ordeal.
And that is about the only real positive that came out of it.
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- Software Tools Real Estate Investors and Wholesalers Need
- Software Development Calendar for Q1 of 2009
- QuickBooks for Real Estate Investors
- My First Complaint About My MacBook Pro
Tags: Consulting, CRM/SFA, FastDraft, Software
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