How Projects Really Work

I found this one this evening and thought it was hilarious. And I’ve been in this business long enough to know that this is pretty much EXACTLY how it usually works.

I think one of the biggest drawbacks to hiring a web developer is the lack of knowledge. Web developers can be a bit cocky to begin with. Couple that with the drive to make as much money as possible, and essentially they turn into a car salesman with a pocket protector. You need a simple form to take name and address and email it to you? Oh sure! We can do it for you! It will take us a week and it will cost you $1500. My ass!

And this is especially bad in big corporate circles. You gotta love these morans, too. Because none of the people in the corporation are playing with their own money, they insist on going with the most expensive and non-workable solutions around. They want ALL Microsoft stuff, for example, when freebie open source stuff will do the job ten times better, more securely, and cheaper by far. I served a brief stint over at CitiCorp back in college and recall how they were getting big into Cold Fusion work (back when it was still Allaire). Sure, they could do everything they needed with freely available languages, but they insisted on running Windows servers and buying corporate licenses to Cold Fusion, many of which sat on the shelf unused.

Not to toot my own horn (ok, maybe just a little), but when clients come to me for work, I always give them a fair estimate based on what is really involved. I will also explain to them how its going to be done and why. No mysteries. It just gives web developers a bad name, because at some point, some time, the client is going to know the true value of the work that was done. And as any service provider knows, a negative complaint that circles around can have up to 10 times the impact as a positive testimonial in the other direction.

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