[AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

EXCUSE ME??  *I'm* a doofus programmer who only charges $75 per hour ...
Mainly because I do all my contracting on the side.  I'm fully employed
as a programmer building commercial applications, so everything else is
sort of a mad money.

Charlotte Foust

-----Original Message-----
From: Lawhon, Alan C Contractor/Morgan Research
[mailto:alan.lawhon at us.army.mil] 
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2004 10:33 AM
To: Access Developers discussion and problem solving
Subject: RE: [AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various


On Friday, May 21, 2004 at 11:16 AM, Of Arthur Fuller said (in part),

<snip>

Yes, it's money in my pocket -- about which I never complain. (Fuller's
Second Law: money never arrives at an inopportune moment.) But part of
me wishes that the client shouldn't have to re-pay for such low-level
and obvious design decisions. The client got hosed, pure and simple, and
it angers me that I'm in the same business as the previous developer.

<snip>

Arthur:

Hello from Alan C. Lawhon.  (It's been a while since we last conversed.)

Part of the problem here, (if there IS a problem), is in the eternal
desire of a certain type of management automaton to minimize cost.  This
attitude is best conveyed as: "Writing software is labor.  Labor is just
like any other raw material component in the manufacturing process.  You
find the cheapest 'labor cost' (per hour) and award the 'work' to that
supplier."

There is little appreciation for the fact that highly skilled software
developers, (like you, William, Jim Lawrence, Charlotte Foust, Rocky
Smolin, and John Colby), are qualitatively worth ten (or even twenty)
times the cost of your "average Joe" unskilled programmer.  The typical
"cost conscious" manager will look at your rate, (say $150.00/hour), and
compare it to some doofus "developer" who only charges $75.00/hour.  (Of
course, we all know which "doofus" gets the job.)  You get called in
only after the "cost conscious" manager discovers that his "cheap"
programmer has actually turned out to be more expensive.  Of course, the
truth of the matter is that if this cost cutting manager had hired you
to start with, (and payed your "exorbitant rate"), he would have wound
up paying less - and getting more - for his money.  However, some
managers don't see it that way.  They understand the cost of everything
and the value of nothing.  When such managers (and companies) get
"hosed", you shouldn't feel bad about it.  They deserve getting hosed -
because they were so cheap - and stupid!

I sense that this "cheaper cost" mindset is driving the movement of
software development jobs to places like India.  I have nothing against
folks in India.  They have as much right to work hard and try to improve
themselves as you or I.  However, the belief of some "shareholder value"
obsessed CEOs that they're "cutting costs" [by moving jobs to India] may
be shortsighted.  When I hear CEOs of companies like Intel proclaiming,
"We have to go overseas because there aren't enough skilled software
developers here in the United States," I suspect that what they really
mean is that there aren't enough "cheap" software developers here in the
United States.

To be totally objective about this, I don't think outsourcing software
jobs [to India] is a threat to guys like you.  For some reason, work
always seems to find its way to highly skilled (and talented)
developers.

Alan C. Lawhon - (Semi-skilled developer)



  

       

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