I saw this blog post on simple business at 37 Signals, and it made me stop for a minute. I had a similar experience, spending 45 minutes at Home Depot ordering a garage door, getting the contract signed, etc., and then cancelling it a few days later. I sent a service request out on the Internet, got called in 5 minutes, and the guy showed up the next day. He gave me an estimate, I agreed, and he left. He showed up twice to install things on the dates promised, and left me with a bill when he was done. It was simple, quick, and I'd trust him to do it again. Mike from Pro Garage Solutions in Denver.
Could we be this simple in the IT world? Could you get a software project going with a client, even inside your company, with a handshake? I'm sure it happens all the time, but it seems less and less are people willing to just "trust" someone to get the job done. A lot of that in software is the horrible record of most software projects.
However I think this says something about the state of trust that many people have earned as software developers. All too often we have people that cannot, and do not, deliver on their promises. Or they deliver promises that are so slow or expensive that we wouldn't consider the project.
As a DBA, I was a bit of a control nut, limited access by developers, reviewing code, etc. However I also backed up all my rules by delivering code, feedback, and results in a timely manner. If I want complete control on deployments to my server, then I have to be able to deploy in a timely manner. If I review all stored procedures, I have to get that done quickly enough so I am not impacting development timelines.
That's easier to do at smaller companies, but I had some success as large companies as well. They key was to promise what you can deliver, and deliver (at least) what you promised.
I don't know if we will ever have lots of business, or just software, being done in a simple manner, but I hope that we can find ways to build more trust and success with each other.
Steve Jones
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