This is somewhat a rant.

I hate managers which cannot see the big picture and then go for the quick wins. I hate them!

I had a situation a few months ago where a manager told me that buggy software is not as bad if the client pays for the bugs. At that time (well more in that situation) I was caught of guard and couldn’t find precise arguments which are idiot proof and could explain why I felt it was such a bad way thinking about it.

Today I got once more in the situation where this bit me in the tale because another developer made this kind of application and my developer now is fixing it.

Let me explain.

A year ago a colleague made an application for the client which we knew at the time was built in a lets-be-politically-correct-term: not so good.

A new colleague came to our company and had to take over maintenence of that application because the former colleague moved on to other projects.

Result?

That colleague is fixing bugs (ok there were changes also) the complete past few months.

Consequence?

• Client is very unhappy and is thinking of leaving us so we are rushing solving bugs (but as the warranty period expired they are paying for them)
• The new colleague is not happy because he is knee deep in dog shit
• We as a department cannot move on because we are constantly waiting for this one colleague to be free so we can organize a department internal education or something (it doesn’t make sense to exclude the guy)
• New colleague as a developer cannot move on because he is in dog shit
• We cannot take on new projects and thus make better earning because we are one resource shorter then we would normally be
• ….

I could go on.

Point is… it is a BAD thing to deliver buggy software. Even if the client pays for the bugs! B A D!