Weird Contractor

I’ve been a software developer for about 12 years now, and a software contractor for the last 6 years or so. I’ve seen a lot of strange behavior in that time.

I’ve seen cube farms full of contractors billing it up while they are really browsing Dice. I’ve heard the typical “yes, absolutely, we can do it” when the thought behind it is you’re crazy, this project is a dumb idea, doomed to failure, but we’re happy to fail at whatever you like as long as you pay your bill.

And I’ve come to the realization that many real engineers view all software contractors in this way. Hired guns that don’t really care whether their customers succeed or fail as long as they can extract some cash in the process.

One of my friends made the comment that “John is a weird contractor.” I think he was summarizing past observations of strange behaviors when interacting with customers like

• Telling customers “no, that’s a dumb idea, but what about this…”
• Writing myself out of the equation by fully documenting, internally and externally, the code I write, to the extent that the customer should never have to call me again once I’m done
• Making applications that are easy for the customer to configure, too
• Walking away from great revenue opportunities on unchallenging, uninteresting projects, or where the customer isn’t quite ready to fully utilize me as a resource
• Pushing open source code over closed source proprietary code

In short, I exhibit the strange behaviors of brutal honesty, avoiding boring work and keeping customers from being locked in to my services in any way. Typical programmer behaviors, I suppose, but weird for a contractor.

But is it not a rational approach? Don’t customers want a solution that doesn’t lock them in? Won’t it benefit a manager for me to say “sorry, I am reducing my presence on this job since it appears with just a little better management you could get by without me.” Brutal, but that manager is more likely to keep his job than if he keeps throwing cash down the development money hole.

Perhaps these behaviors are just side effects of character “features” I have anyway, but in the long run I think they pay off more than short-term profit maximization.

I think these strategies set my services apart, and my goal with the new DevWrights venture is to build a scalable contract software development and support business around the principles of Zero Lock-In, Brutal Honesty, Win-Win or Walk Away, Always Learning, and Building Long Term Value for the Customer. Win-lose or win-I-don’t-care seems to be a widespread perception of contract software developers.

Hopefully DevWrights can change that, help build value for our customers while winning in the marketplace ourselves.

Root for us, come work for us, or let us add value to your business. We’re going to build an army of weird contractors at DevWrights. We’re out to change this industry for the better.