Anna Filina

A montreal-based newspaper recently released a new mobile product to read news. It’s very nice, but it cost them 40 million and took 3 years to ship, with some 100 people on the team. My company has enough experience with news corporations and other industries to know that there was a lot of waste. My associate stated on social media that he could save them millions on their next project. It’s what we specialize in: generating millions in ROI for our clients.

Without hesitation, developers of that product reacted. They were outraged, saying that the budget was entirely justified due to the complexity of the project. The fact that they felt targeted at all is a bad sign, because we certainly didn’t set out to lay blame. To deny that anything at all could have been done better is a lie to oneself and to the client. Have you ever finished a project thinking how things could have gone better? Hopefully you always do. I have been in the field since 1997 and I still improve.

So why would a developer fervently defend a ridiculous budget and what does it mean to the company?

Such a reaction is mostly due to an inflated ego. Everyone likes to think that their project is ultra-complex, the hardest thing ever built. But complexity is relative to one’s experience. An information system built on PHP with a mobile app on top is hardly worth 40 million unless a lot of the money was spent unwisely, in one way or another.

Regardless of what caused the project to blow out of proportion, the fact that people would defend such a big budget should alarm the company. What it means is that these developers would gladly use up all of the company’s resources if they could justify it. It means that they’re too good to have done anything better. It means that they would turn down expert advice even if it meant saving a lot of money for their client.

Why not save money? After a quick research into the names of the developers who replied, it turns out that they are all contractors, not employees. Indeed, longer projects gives them job security. Should an expert come in and find ways to cut production time in half, they would be looking for a new “job” sooner. Not all contractors act this way, but these clearly don’t have their client’s best interests at heart.

That does not mean that companies should not hire contractors. It means that it’s always better to have an expert on board who can see problems before they happen and who can save the company some 20 million or more. Don’t ignore your ROI. Don’t be the John Carter of IT.