Quality Versus ROI

So I am in the software business. Again. This time putting the software in the light bulbs. And all kinds of devices that have not been "connected". And they are now. Well, everything requires software these days. Almost everything.

Apart from the embedded and server parts we do in house, I also needed a front end application for iOS and Android. It has been very precisely defined. Basically a three - screen client based on five REST Web services. A great candidate to be outsourced. And probably the last one I will be outsourcing. Ever.

The entire idea of outsourcing the process of building applications "to the specs" is flawed. It will never deliver a real winner application. Only mediocre piece of s..t meeting the specs. Why? Because the contractors first lower the price to win the tender and then they cut the corners to make ends meet. Real quality requires a lot of polishing work. And I do mean a lot. A good piece of software is like a painting. Or a sculpture. It takes an artist, with heart and soul, devoted to his work of art. Not a businessman focused on ROI (hint: to maximize the return on fixed price, you have to lower the costs).

I have been in the software business for almost thirty years (I have written my first applications in 1983). And honestly, I have never seen so much poorly written software as I do nowadays. May be it is too easy to become a programmer. Or the financial greed is too common, killing the results. Or the custom software contractors model does not work.

I have just decided to trash the application I hired the contractor for. It meets the specs. But I do not like it. We will be building the same one from scratch. Generally speaking, we, as consumers, should never agree to accept poor quality of goods or services. Especially because of time or budget constraints. In the long run, quality always pays off.