Custom vs. Off the Shelf

My company is a custom web application shop and one of the great things about custom software application development is that you can build pretty much anything you can dream up. This is also one of the biggest drawbacks for some people. Many customers don't know what they want, or they think they know what they want, but have a hard time articulating it. We have a design process where we listen to our customers, and then work to wireframe out a solution. A difficult jump for some is the fact that the wireframe is the blueprint and that is what the project as quoted includes. Aligning those expectations early (before code is written) is the key to keeping projects on budget and on time. These "limits" require the project team to prioritize new requests and table other requests for future development. Each release really begins to become more of a product once the wireframes are approved. (This is what is does and all that it does right now - not saying it can't do more, it just has to happen later.)

Other companies focus on creating products. These products can only do what they can do. If you dream up something different, you either need to find a different product or hope that your feature is included in future releases. This can be a very lucrative path for software companies, because once they have a product they can easily support the single version and only make revisions as they find they need to. This is not such a great solution for customers that don't fit nicely into compartments.

I believe there is a place for both types of development and in the coming weeks you will hear more from SiteCrafting as we expand our offerings in both areas.

Worry, Worry, Worry No More

Taking a look at the news is a pretty daunting thing. Economy, terrorism, flooding, famine, etc. etc. It's bleak. Many folks feel one step from the edge and many are. Businesses are shutting down, entire downtowns have been decimated. What to do? I mean really, what can you do?

You can do the following:

1. Choose to control your destiny.
2. Control the way you respond to situations as they arise.
3. Create your own reality by pushing forward
4. Embrace the challenge

Whatever you do, don't just sit there and worry. Don't just resign to let life happen to you. Life rewards action.

Three-Legged Entrepreneur Stool

I had coffee one day last week with a friend who has been in the technology start up and education fields for several years. He has owned a company that was sold off and now spends his time creating technology leaders as a college professor. The question came up - what does it take to succeed as an entrepreneur?

Three things (not counting luck).

1. Communication

Entrepreneurs must be able to communicate their vision, their value proposition, and their opportunity to others. They must be persuasive and speak with clarity and confidence. Others must be inspired.

2. Competence

If all it is is an idea and you have no knowledge about how to execute it will fail. You must possess the background knowledge and associated problem solving skills in order to create a workable product or solution.

3. Motivation

You must be relentless in your pursuit. Motivated not only to do the big things necessary to succeed, but also motivated to mind the not-so-fun details. You must embrace the challenge and the opportunity every day and inspire you team the same way.

I'm sure there are twists on each of these, and success is not a guarantee, but if you are hitting all three of these consistently, your chances have improved dramatically.

What do you do here?

In the real world you really fall into one of four categories as an employee. You may change category from moment to moment, but you pretty much better fall into one of these if you are going to stay around.

1. Create billable hours or stuff your company can sell - you may be a programmer, a lawyer, or an assembly line worker, and thus you create stuff or service to sell.

2. The Rainmaker - you sell stuff. You get clients to say yes and you do this all by yourself or with minimal support. In addition you create partnerships that bring in revenue and growth.

3. You support the production or rainmaker folks with measurable outcomes.

4. You receive and track down money that is owed to your company.

If you don't fit into one of these four groups more than 7 hours a day - you're probably not going to be around long - or you should try owning the company. Even then - you get to do ALL FOUR ALL THE TIME.

Mobile Innovations

Thank goodness for iTunes, iPhone and iPad.

That's all I have to say...except for some questions.

1. Does anyone think we would have apps like the Chase remote deposit application or Instapaper, or Shazam without these devices?

2. How about Runkeeper or 100 pushups, or fitness tracking apps?

3. How about web checkin with paperless boarding passes from Alaska Airlines and others?

4. How about the comparison shopping applications and location based services?

5. Movies and music in your pocket, on an airplane? on your lunchbreak in a park?

These are game changing times - and the beginning is now. Time to stand on the shoulders of giants and be excellent.

Sure others have tried, but it took Apple to Think Different and show us what was possible - now the rest can copy - again.

Not in the Budget

So, I get a call from a design house that needs something done, for which they have no expertise. Additionally, they have already set a budget for the work (with no idea how much time it will take to complete) and they come to us.

Them: "Please code out this section of the site that connects to a third party vendor"

Me: "Based on reviewing your spec, the requirements, and your timeline, this is how much it will cost."

Them: "That's not in our budget, can you do it for less"

Me: "No, this is what it will take for us to build it and fully test it. If we do it in less time we will bill you for actual - If, however scope increases the cost will also increase".

So, why am I writing this? Because I have these questions...

1. How can you possibly offer a project budget for which you have a huge portion you have no idea how to complete?

2. Why are you asking me to bail you out?

3. How would you respond if I called you and said, "I need 5 web concepts, I told the customer you would do it as a donation, that's OK right?"

Apple = Disney, Droid=Universal

End the Holy War please.

There are many more things we should all be worrying about besides how much the latest iPhone or the latest Droid device rules or sucks.

My quick observation is Apple=Disney - the standard. An empire built on quality and control which is often emulated by others.

Droid is more like Universal - edgy, the anti-Disney, trying to establish itself not so much by what it is, but what it is not.

This is an age old "battle" and frankly tiring - neither are going away - let's just hope it motivates them both to create awesome products.