Hi Nadim,
Re: "What type of developer you want for ShopOnline now?".
I don't think Shoponline is a really good example in this case. I
develop all back end and gave shoponline front end to a Bulgarian who
was trying to settle in Mauritius and needed some money. It was meant to
be mobile responsive (at the time). However, as luck would have it, he
(and his whole family) got deported, then tried to settle somewhere
else. During that time he let go of the project and, being
'half-finished', we just stuck in what we had... leaving it to another
day to redo this front end (which is being done right now).
I don't tend to focus on one particular developer. Being an all-rounder,
I tend to look for the "right person for the right job". It amuses me a
lot when I see a job spec advertised like "Must know SQL Server, NoSQL,
MongoDB, C++, C#, etc, write software specifications and know some
photoshop". Experienced developers will look at this and know one person
cannot know everything about everything. Thus, in my case, I would
choose several people, each very good in their main areas, then
coordinate the lot to come up with a system. A good software engineer is
not really a good programmer and vice versa.
So, with Shoponline.mu, being the CTO, I feel relatively safe in
recruiting any developer.
However because next week I'm forming a new software company, taking on
local contracts etc (I had already created one (Sysintel) but INTEL
lawyers from South Africa threatened to sue me.. so I had to take that
down) I think, at this point, I will really be involved with developers
from now on, to know "what kind of developer I want"?
Peace
Dhiruj
On 25/05/2015 14:06, Mohammad Nadim wrote:
> Hello Dhiruj,
>
>
> On 25 May 2015 at 13:19, Dhiruj Rambaran <dhiruj_at_shoponline.mu
> <mailto: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 - 13:07:55 PST
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: Mon May 25 2015 - 13:09:05 PST