Re: WebCup 2015

From: Mohammad Nadim <nadim.attari_at_gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 25 May 2015 14:06:54 +0400

Hello Dhiruj,


On 25 May 2015 at 13:19, Dhiruj Rambaran <dhiruj_at_shoponline.mu> wrote:

> I think the level and depth of (software) engineering required all
> depends on what the project is all about. Is it a website for a Tabagie?..
> or a Tabagie who hopes to be bigger than Intermart one day?, or are they
> Intermart themselves? Also how much is the guy willing to pay? Rs 2000?..
> Rs 10,000?.. or is the client willing to pay Rs 3000 but with view to pay
> more later when they're intermart?.. or will they not expect to pay
> anything even if they became an intermart one day?
>
> It can be a tricky business measuring all these variables.
>
> You are half right Nadim when you say a developer must think like a
> businessman. Vy-Shane is also right re: bad engineering will (can) cost
> more later. The fact is you need to balance BOTH and the ratio between one
> and the other is based mostly all the variables I mention at the beginning.
>


Agreed.



>
> A (pure) developer finds it very hard to sacrifice quality. They're geeks,
> purists and would rather hang themselves than spout out bad code. In fact
> it's because of this there are so many arguments between the
> client/business and developers/geeks. The business just wants "a program"
> that does the job, does it fast and they save money somewhere along the
> line.
>
> Academically we like to stick to standards etc.. .but in real world
> business, it's all about "who pays your salary"?
>

Again agree.

I tell you one thing. Our website has a form where surfers (or our leads)
had to enter their postal codes. We added a regex so that the JS validates
the correct postal code and hence we'll be getting leads that have value
with correct information (to be sold later). Unfortunately we realised that
some surfers enter O (oh) instead of 0 (zero). And you can see that you
lose these potential leads since they were frustrated (and do not complete
/ submit the form) - users are dumb. We removed the regex and allowed them
to enter anything, without strict validation, etc (hence the "fsck soft
engg" in previous mail).

We saw that we get around 50 more leads on average per month and selling
each leads at an average price of €10, we get €500 additional sales
(monthly). We hired a gurl, pay her Rs7.5K to go thr' each leads everyday
and "sanitise" the data, before they are sold. If I continued to think like
a developer, then no increase in €€€. Moreover I've created a job for that
gurl! And my boss is happy since the company is still getting additional
€€€ (be it small)!

You are a developer + a businessman Dhiruj. What type of developer you want
for ShopOnline now?

Best regards,
Nadim Attari
Received on Mon May 25 2015 - 10:07:08 PST