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To lead programmers, you must be humble

dogcupsuperfantastic

I’m tired of talking about how great I am.  What about you, what do you think of me?

There may have been a point in time when someone understood all that there was to understand about computers.  Early on there may have been one person who could stand above his fellow scientists and claim to be the authority on everything in this young field.  Where wizards stay up late makes a good case for a few individuals who may have filled that natural desire we have for an overall authority on a subject.  Yet those men, great scientists and tremendous minds in an unproven field of study, were some of the most humble ambassadors of technology we will likely ever see.

Today we have no overall authorities.  No normal person can hope to represent enough deep expertise to be considered an expert in more than one specialty.  Exceptional people may be able to handle two or three fields before being overwhelmed by the fire hose of information needed to keep up.  Hollywood has it wrong, again, about smart people in technology because there are no generalists out there that know everything.  Computers is similar to any other complex system like medicine, law, scientific research and finance.  It demands that you specialize to do be considered an expert.  (This may also be why I like House as a show but have problems with a plot device that pretends there are doctors that can ever know everything.)  Anyone who either pretends to be an expert on the whole of technology or really has convinced themselves that they are will be doomed to huge management failures.

Pete Johnson Chief Architect at HP and a guy who clearly knows what he is doing around a computer wrote up good article on Dzone about why programmers hate working for Software Architects.  Pete’s experiences run parallel to my own as a manager of programmers and his first point sums up my advice to anyone who wants to lead a programmer.

  • Be humble
  • Ask your people for advice on subjects you don’t know.
  • Make it public knowledge that you are the least important person in the room.
  • Stand back and let them shine before your customers, but stand in front of them to take blame.
  • Programmers can sniff out BS.  Honestly admit when you’re unsure of a direction.
  • Keep them informed and let them know when you are giving fact and when its your opinion
  • Ask only what you would be willing to do yourself.  Prove it by doing it occasionally for them
  • Keep a diverse RSS list and forward on good information to experts in your group
  • Be humble

What’s on your list?

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Photo attributed to SuperFantastic on Flickr CC

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The Establishment thinks we are stupid

People are stupid. History has shown it repeats itself, and people make the same mistakes. ~Harry Debes, CEO of Lawson

tanakawhobuildingThat was a pullquote from an interview with ERP software company Lawson’s CEO Harry Debes.  He was answering the reporter’s question on whether software companies had learned anything from previous attempts at making Software as a Service models work.  Clearly, he is not a fan of Salesforce.com, a competitor and SaaS poster child.

Debes makes an enthusiastic case for the merits of traditional software sales over the distributed revenue model of SaaS, which he claims prevents companies from making big returns quickly.  He may be right.

My contention with his argument focuses on his well worn and rehearsed counter claim that customers of traditional software vendors are free to use a software package indefinitely once the upfront investment is paid off, saving them money over time.  Does anyone still believe this fable?  Are we no smarter than we were in the 90’s, or are CEOs simply that far out of touch.

When financial institutions start falling, the press tends to shed light on their spending habits.  If what Mr. Debes is putting forth were true, then surely the 138 year old Lehman Brothers investment bank would be one of the big benefactors to those savings over times.  And yet, they spent over a billion dollars last year in new software. Surely you would expect a financial institution to exemplify the ideals of conservative spending, find any way possible to save money while delivering on their customers needs.  Yet I know that most financial companies spend large percentages of their revenue keeping up technology.  For companies of lesser means, there are still forced upgrades, maintenance agreements, obsolescence, migratory requirements that all lends force to the gale that blows up the costs of keeping companies running.  Has any publically traded company reported in their SEC fillings a year after year decrease in the spending of technology?  Should we be so blind as to assume that hardware, network connectivity, desktops, communication equipment all required new, expensive versions but that the software remained untouched, free from budgetary expenditure?

We now all know the truth masking the lie.  Traditional software would all be free, if we never needed to upgrade. Software as a Service may not reap those immediate returns that you are so eagerly seeking, sir, but do not attempt to misdirect the truth that as long as innovation is a competitive advantage and progress proceeds in a forwardly direction, we will have to pay someone to keep us in the game.

It is unfortunate for the Harry Debes of the world that corporations are slowly but inevitably being inflitrated by open minded technologiest who are apt to question the status quo.  You see, Mr Debes, I believe that people are not stupid.  We do and will learn from our mistakes.  We have already learned some lessons the hard way.  Should you be sitting across from me in your next ERP sales call, I will be more than happy to fill you in on our progress so far.

(photo by tanakawho)

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Is Your Website SaaS(y)?

SaaS, which stands for Software as a Service, is software that is hosted, updated, and supported by a vendor and that software is usually accessed through the Internet (either through a website, or widget, etc.).  When you’re considering adding services to your business website, you will probably run across SAAS vendors and it is important to understand the advantages and disadvantages before you make a decision:

Advantages

  • No software and hardware to maintain – The SaaS vendor provides all the support.
  • Frees up internal support resources for other tasks.
  • Ongoing fees mean you can quit using the system at any time.
  • Usually get enterprise-level services for much lower costs.
  • Often SaaS vendors have a large customer base to provide feedback, which can be beneficial for quality assurance.
  • SaaS vendors are often able to roll out new features (and bug fixes) very quickly since the software is running on their systems.

Disadvantages

  • No control over updates – The software will automatically be updated by the vendor, giving you little control over whether you want those updates.
  • Harder to maintain change control – If you have other systems that interact with the SaaS product, updates and changes to it may cause problems when the changes are unexpected or unexplained.
  • Little control over new features – While SaaS customers certainly have some input, you will have much less than software developed in-house.  But about the same level of input over vendor software installed and running internally.
  • Ongoing fees may be difficult to budget compared to one-time fees.
  • No ownership of software – must continue investment with ongoing service fees.
  • Lack of flexibility – You are at the mercy of the vendor.  Jeremiah Owyang has a good article with more information and a good discussion – The Problem With SaaS – Lack of Flexibility.

If you use SaaS services, what has your experience been?  Any advantages or disadvantages I missed? Please share in the comments below.

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