[consulting] Estimation-Blowout case-studies wanted

Sun Mar 29 13:44:37 UTC 2009

If something concrete comes out from this, that would be awesome.

Last week, I was  reviewing few (actually three) "Drupal" consultants'
resumes from a SEI CMM 3 level company that were forwarded to me by a
potential client who has a large Drupal project. This client asked my help
to review the CVs and validate the experience of the company.

When I went through the resumes, I noticed that The URL's mentioned in their
CVs were not of Drupal sites. One of the resumes had a project mentioned
therein where the developer worked on  Drupal 6 in year 2004.

In reality, when a developer does work on similar tasks over and over again,
he gets bored doing repetitive things. For the first or second site any
drupal developer makes, he is likely to take more time and also are likely
to have bugs and even architecture may be wrong. When the same developer
does 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th site, the quality and timelines both will improve.
But when he does the  7th, 8th,...etc sites - there is boredom creeping in,
sloppiness in work, etc not because developer does not enjoy but because
Drupal is known not to deliver "Precise" product in first pass and after few
sites under his belt, he realizes that no matter how hard he tries, Drupal
projects always gives surprises.  I get a sense of this speak with my team
compared to my other team that works on Ruby on Rails and this problem does
not seem to be there with the RoR team. RoR is new and there are not that
many plug-ins that are available compared to the amount of contributed
modules you have in Drupal. And also this comparision is not fully relevant
as both are different frameworks with their own merits and demerits.

Another reason why there is huge variance between estimated and actual
effort is due to the fact that attention span of  developer is very limited.
This is not just Drupal developer, its for any tech worker.  In developed
countries where there is lot of freedom in workplace there is too much
distraction because of office time spent in browsing non work/project
related sites, unnecessary gossips in cubicles, cafeteria, tweeting updates,
checking emails every 5 mins, meetings that run too long, cell phone
conversations, etc.   You are often distracted at least once in 15 mins and
it takes nearly 3 minutes on average to get your attention back to work.

For some this is ideal workplace but honestly, you just can't get work done.
I have a 40 person team in India and we have more disciplined approach in
our workplace and are "strict" compared to American standards on how time
should be spent in office. But we also have events on every Saturday
afternoons i.e music, games, etc where everyone participates. Even
interviews for new hires are scheduled only on Saturdays.  Timely delivery
to us is very key and if required we also come to office on Sundays.

Our approach has worked so far. While some complained, many incidents over
last 3 years made everyone realize why things have to be  tight.  You see
many many posts where developers dupe client projects and disappear
overnight. This is simply not acceptable in our company.  Any employee is
bound to give a proper notice period before he moves on to a new job.  This
allows us to have a proper knowledge transfer. Compared to other companies
like TCS, Wipro, etc who ask employee to sign a "financial bond" if they
leave in first 12 months, we don't have any bonds.

Many companies in India that were bit relaxed in their approach have
struggled to make quick changes in this recession period to improve
productivity and while big companies have started laying off people,  a
handful of the smaller companies in the same town where our India team is
based out off closed down in last few months.

We have not laid off a single employee in our India team and on the contrary
are hiring at this moment.

I am all very supportive of the idea of having an organization that
evaluates organizations not sheer on their size or whether they have got VC
backing, but more on delivery parameters.

1) Accurate estimation
2) Timely delivery
3) Round the clock availability
4) Supporting the client with free bug fixing for 30 days post delivery
5) Validating the experience by speaking with references
6) Honesty (not submitting fake resumes)
7) Uphelding contract terms
8) Sharing good/bad lessons learned on a particular project

Whether its $30/hr or $150/hr that is secondary. If an SEI CMM Level 3
company can fake resume and few companies which are listed in partner
program of a leading Drupal shop don't even have credible history as a
entity servicing Drupal customers, lets hope the body we are talking about
sets a new standard in the industry.

Roshan
http://www.gloscon.com

2009/3/29 Victor Kane <victorkane at gmail.com>

> Yes, that's one aspect of the problem.
>
> So we could form Guilds, Professional Associations, American Medical
> Association type of thing, or, like CMMI itself, or ISO etc. etc.
>
> You are right in that these are industry standards.
>
> But if companies control those standards they are corrupted. No-one would
> or should trust ISO if a single company managed it, or CMMI, or the Food and
> Drug Administration (what am I saying?)...
>
> Their is an objective need for industry wide standards developed and
> monitored by entities with the obligaton to transparently inform on their
> doings, transparently inform on their independence.
>
> No-one is better qualified than those working in the industry to organize,
> set up, maintain and keep healthy those entities.
>
> But there is another aspect to the problem, and that is why I call them
> unions: we need to defend ourselves against the current tendency to make
> working people pay for the current economic, social and political crisis.
>
> In Drupal terms, this means a heavy influx of new work, but a heavy influx
> of pressures to work for less money (the "independent" Drupal
> "certification" site some people have mentioned here shows an average rate
> of USD $30 / hour) and above all, under worsening working conditions.
>
> Individually we cannot defend ourselves. That can only come through
> organization.
>
> Of course, every time working people start defending themselves, they are
> accused of trying to set up a dictatorship.
>
> So it's a great discussion, I just wish something concrete could come out
> of it.
>
> For my part, my working conditions are somewhat ameliorated by strictly
> imposing an agile approach which "horizontalizes" my virtual workplace.
> Tasks and due dates don't come down vertically, they are decided with full
> client participation (and accountability) in the process.
>
> That's all I can do individually, but an association of Drupal website
> application developers (either individual contractors or employees of shops)
> could do a lot of things.
>
> Victor Kane
> http://awebfactory.com.ar
> http://projectflowandtracker.com
>
> 2009/3/28 John Fletcher <net at saltwebsites.com>
>
>   I agree, fascinating discussion. Victor, I think you should solve this
>> problem at the same time as the recently discussed “cleaning up after bad
>> developers” problem. The solution should not be named a union but an
>> industry group... like a group of professionals. Individuals/companies can
>> sign up, for which they pay a yearly fee. You review some of their work and
>> “certify” it, sort of, to allow them to join. Once they’ve joined, all work
>> produced by a member must be reviewed by another unrelated member, giving
>> clients a certain level of peer-review quality. This won’t force an hourly
>> rate but you could recommend one for your members... at least they would
>> have something to stand on when they charge more.
>>
>>
>>
>> Or something like that. No examples of something like this that worked
>> come to mind so it could be completely stupid; it’s just some ideas floating
>> around my head.
>>
>>
>>
>> But I did want to mention that the problem discussed in the “cleaning up
>> after bad developers” thread has nothing to do with Drupal. It has to do
>> with IT workers and exists in all facets of IT. Truthfully, it exists in
>> basically all kinds of work – that’s why you get recommendations on a
>> builder instead of just opening the yellow pages, isn’t it? I think
>> independent review would be the best way to solve it but I don’t know of
>> that practice really existing at all in IT. I guess no-one wants to pay for
>> that.
>>
>>
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> John
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* consulting-bounces at drupal.org [mailto:
>> consulting-bounces at drupal.org] *On Behalf Of *Victor Kane
>> *Sent:* Thursday, 26 March 2009 12:00 PM
>> *To:* A list for Drupal consultants and Drupal service/hosting providers
>> *Subject:* Re: [consulting] Estimation-Blowout case-studies wanted
>>
>>
>>
>> Fascinating discussion.
>>
>> But to all you Adam Smith people, I have to say:
>>
>> There is no such thing as the individual small producer: there are
>> factories and workers, monopolies, and wannabe monopolies, and you may think
>> you are free and individual, but we are all workers in a factory, and the
>> bosses are driving down wages and salaries as we speak.
>>
>> Our real problem is to band together and demand a minimum wage for each
>> category.
>>
>> We need a union.
>>
>> Of course we have a right to publish our minimum wage! Of course we have a
>> right to declare rates beneath which no-one should be accepting work.
>>
>> So:
>>
>> * All certification under control of the website application developers
>> union (we can affiliate with writers, with communications, etc...)
>> * No to monopoly certification programs and other attempts to create
>> monopolies with the aim of driving down rates.
>> * Minimum wage for each category.
>> * Drupal free always as in beer and speech. Drupal development open to
>> all.
>>
>> Only a uniion can do that.
>>
>> Otherwise we'll all be washing dishes in Soho, because it's a better paid
>> job than developing websites.
>>
>> Consultants, unite! You have nothing to lose except your WSOD.
>>
>> Victor Kane
>> http://awebfactory.com.ar
>> http://projectflowandtracker.com
>>
>> On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 10:28 PM, Michael Prasuhn <mike at mikeyp.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I see the logical fallacy that you present here, but I think that misses
>> the most poignant part of the message you are replying to and that is:
>>
>> Publishing your rates != Agreeing to set minimum prices.
>>
>> Anyway.
>>
>> -Mike
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mar 25, 2009, at 5:12 PM, Cary Gordon wrote:
>>
>> There is a logical fallacy in there. What you are really claiming is
>> that rate disclosure does not directly lead to a monopoly, therefor it
>> is either legal or somehow not as illegal as other collusive behavior.
>> We could have a long discussion of what type of fallacy it is. I go
>> for begging the question.
>>
>> Feel free to disclose your rates. On advice of counsel, I won't.
>>
>> Cary
>>
>> On Mon, Mar 2, 2009 at 1:25 PM, Mehboob Alam <malam at thinkx.com> wrote:
>>
>> But I'm far from convinced that its illegal to share your rates with your
>> competitors,one to one or on a mailing list.
>>
>>
>> If GM, Ford, Chrysler and Toyota agree to set prices, that's "collusion"
>>
>> If JetBlue, SouthWest, Alaska and others decide to set minimum prices
>> for certain routes, that's "collusion"
>>
>> If several LCD manufacturers agree to fix their prices, and that ended
>> up costing Apple a lot of money due to the lack of competitive
>> bidding, that's "collusion".
>>
>> Publishing your rates here.. not so much. The clients have a choice of
>> thousands of possible vendors for these kinds of projects, and it
>> would be difficult to set minimum prices.
>>
>> And then, anyone who desperately needs the work can easily low-ball
>> their rates to get the project.
>>
>> So, fire away.. :)
>>
>> just my opinion..
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>>
>>
>> --
>> Cary Gordon
>> The Cherry Hill Company
>> http://chillco.com
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> __________________
>> Michael Prasuhn
>> 503.488.5433 office
>> 714.356.0168 cell
>> 503.661.7574 home
>> mike at mikeyp.net
>> http://mikeyp.net
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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