Comments on: What’s Great About In-House Development

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:53:02 +0000

And now a quick response to “what’s great about in-house development” (hey, you didn’t really answer that):

- You know your customers - you are one too.
- You know their business.
- You going to be using what you develop.

A bit like 37-signals without the flip-flops (probably).

By: Karl

Karl — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:48:01 +0000

Aww, shucks! Jack’s written about a post of mine

You’re missing a couple of my quotes though:

I wanted to dedicate a full post to it as it resonates so well with my current situation.

Not directly quotable but the bit about how I used to work in an environment like yours with all the Prince2 / quality management in place. Those were the days. Even with the severe financial constraints the company was under.

@Gareth: agree with your conclusion I could explain further my situation but dirty laundry being what it is I’ll sign off now.

By: Gareth

Gareth — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 16:35:42 +0000

Have to agree. As you mention, problems are nearly always more to do with project management and communication. If you’re in an organisation with these problems - and think this isn’t your problem then go buy a decent project management tome.

I also think Joel has a business reason to paint a rosy picture of development in a software company (namely, his). Their are a whole host of other problems that only come up in that sort of organisation.

Main conclusion? Work for a good organisation with good people. Easier said than done though!