Forum Moderators: LifeinAsia
We all learn something from it (I did) - so I thought I'd share it (with the permission of him himself - he doesn't care anyway because now he does something totally different):
A software company (which is quite popular now) wanted to hire him for developing their website. In this project, he had to do lots of stuff, from programming to designing.
He took it.
He then signed a contract, made by the software company which had some big $$$ printed in bold letters. He said it would take exactly 15 working days (3 weeks) to finish the website, and he would display a presentation to the company the following Monday (start of the 4th week).
The first week (first five days), he did nothing but trying to make a design (he was actually supposed to make multiple designs - to expand options for the company to choose from).
When he came up with a decent design (with his small knowledge of Dreamweaver), he started on some programming - which he knew nothing about. He spent almost 3 days researching stuff on ASP (that was the programming language he user) and all he could do was "Hello World!".
The next 2 days passed by, with him still being stuck on the researching bit. On the following Monday, he called me up and asked if I could help him, I asked "What's the thing about?", and he told me the whole story. I went to his house and saw what it was all about, and as I was still a newbie - or even less than one - at that time - and knew basically nothing about ASP (I still don't), I said "Sorry, I can't help you".
About almost a day went in this. He had to do a presentation to his client next Monday, and had only four days to finish off some massive work.
The next day, he tried doing it him self and said if he couldn't, he would ring a professional.
As predicted, he couldn't, so he rang a professional up the following Wednesday. The professional said it would cost approximately the 100% the amount of money he would get for the project itself, plus 10% in extra.
He had to say "Yes" as he had signed a contract - or else it would lead to a law suite with the company's lawyers (they had some big ones).
On Monday, the presentation went well but at the end of the day, he had lost his:
He decided to close his business down and actually do something.
Now he's a General Manager of a Restaurant earning lots.
Has anyone ever been, had experienced or witnessed this kind of a situation? If so what was the conclusion? How was it dealt with?
Sid
[edited by: stuntdubl at 6:37 am (utc) on May 9, 2004]
Has anyone ever been, had experienced or witnessed this kind of a situation? If so what was the conclusion? How was it dealt with?
No, thank goodness. But this is the problem with the easy availability of pro-level software -- it makes people think they can go buy Dreamweaver and start a web development shop. The challenge for real professionals, then, is to self-market in such a way that we distinguish ourselves from people like the one you describe because a great many business owners also believe "anyone can do it."
the above example is a bad one since the guy didn't know anything.
I come across a lot of people who say they can do something, have never done it before and manage to pull it off successfully (myself included)
As developers we should be willing to push the boundaries as time goes by, and expand into new fields, but learning something in a short period of time does not make you experienced enough to produce production level work. Experience is not something you can just aquire, it takes time.
Mack.
His mistake was not tripling the time he thought he would need to get the job done.
He probably did triple it!
Not only did he not have any idea how long the various tasks would take, he probably never accounted for the learning tasks that he was going to face.
You can only fake so much. When it comes to doing a work estimate, you need to have some basis in real-world experience that can be related to the project. The point of up front analysis or discovery is to identify, and hopefully eliminate unknowns about the project. If you have nothing to compare against, then you are in for trouble. I am glad that this guy realized/realised his mistake and was smart enough to get out.
But this is the problem with the easy availability of pro-level software -- it makes people think they can go buy Dreamweaver and start a web development shop.
Said she was beginning to reach the limitations of what Front Page could do, and wanted to know what other area professionals were using.
I notice she doesn't seem to have an ad in the phone book anymore.
..... Shane
He is lucky he only lost 10% in dollar terms.
Yeah. I think the moral of the story is that there are a lot of really nice folks out there. The first pro that he asked agreed to bail him out on such short notice for only an extra 10% *and* pulled it off. That can only happen if your friend was extremely lucky or if the chances of finding a nice person are fairly high.
I'm going to assume the latter and treat this as an inspirational story!
Tom
He got off light and lucky!
He must be pretty dumb to think that he could invent himself as a web designer.
Yeah, he had just bought a copy of DreamWeaver (you know..the 'old' version) and PhotoShop 4 or 5. He thought by having the right tools, you could do anything.
Sid
Yeah, he had just bought a copy of DreamWeaver (you know..the 'old' version) and PhotoShop 4 or 5. He thought by having the right tools, you could do anything.
Does he have a hammer and nails in the garage? Maybe he'll build himself a house this weekend. :)
Maynard.
Yeah, I'd have to agree. It was partly everybody's fault in that situation (except for me - I wasn't too involved :)):
> Does he have a hammer and nails in the garage? Maybe > he'll build himself a house this weekend.
lol pleeker, What do you say we give him some gun-power and watch him make Weapons of Mass Distruction, eh? ;)
Sid
