We have two contractors we've hired to help get us get to market sooner with a .NET product. These guys are two of the most stubborn, heads-up-their-asses mules I've met professionally.
First off, they're constantly ignoring well-documented programming standards that we've set forth. Both of them refuse to give variable names meaningful names. One of them just told me "oh don't worry... I go back when I'm all done and rename everything."
WHAT?!
"Why not just do it right the first time around."
"Well, you have your way and I have my way, and this is how I like to do it."
"We're not paying you to do it your way. Fix what you've done and please follow the rules from this point forward."
That was literally the conversation, word for word. Just last week we had the exact same conversation regarding performance-tuning. He was writing incredibly sloppy, inefficient code. When asked why he was doing it that way, he said he likes to clean things up at the end.
The other guy keeps going out onto the Internet, grabbing third-party tools and throwing them into our applications without asking/telling anyone. I know this might be SOP at some places, but we've spent a lot of money on solid third-party components. Our software is used at all levels of government, so we're very cautious about what other companies we choose to be dependant upon. Our controls library has everything under the sun, but it's not what he's used to using... Anyway, we had a chat, too.
But the worst of it all is our source control. One uses Source Safe as a backup tool. As he's working, he'll check classes in (roughly every two hours or so). He does this regardless of the state his code is in. So anyone who pulls down a fresh copy from the database ends up with an app that doesn't even compile, let alone run. The other guy likes to unbind all of the files from Source Safe, work on them, and then rebind them and check them all in, thus overwriting work other people have done. He does this because he doesn't like the inconvenience of having to work on a file that's checked out by another developer.
Neither of these two have any concept for how source control works, what it's function is, and how to use it. One things it's his personal backup and the other thinks it's just one more thing to slow him down.
If you're a contractor and I bring you in, it's so you can crank out code. You're not here to show me a "better way of doing things" or to impose your own ways on the rest of the team. You're on our dime and you'll follow our rules. If you can't do that, you're gone.
Got it?
First off, they're constantly ignoring well-documented programming standards that we've set forth. Both of them refuse to give variable names meaningful names. One of them just told me "oh don't worry... I go back when I'm all done and rename everything."
WHAT?!
"Why not just do it right the first time around."
"Well, you have your way and I have my way, and this is how I like to do it."
"We're not paying you to do it your way. Fix what you've done and please follow the rules from this point forward."
That was literally the conversation, word for word. Just last week we had the exact same conversation regarding performance-tuning. He was writing incredibly sloppy, inefficient code. When asked why he was doing it that way, he said he likes to clean things up at the end.
The other guy keeps going out onto the Internet, grabbing third-party tools and throwing them into our applications without asking/telling anyone. I know this might be SOP at some places, but we've spent a lot of money on solid third-party components. Our software is used at all levels of government, so we're very cautious about what other companies we choose to be dependant upon. Our controls library has everything under the sun, but it's not what he's used to using... Anyway, we had a chat, too.
But the worst of it all is our source control. One uses Source Safe as a backup tool. As he's working, he'll check classes in (roughly every two hours or so). He does this regardless of the state his code is in. So anyone who pulls down a fresh copy from the database ends up with an app that doesn't even compile, let alone run. The other guy likes to unbind all of the files from Source Safe, work on them, and then rebind them and check them all in, thus overwriting work other people have done. He does this because he doesn't like the inconvenience of having to work on a file that's checked out by another developer.
Neither of these two have any concept for how source control works, what it's function is, and how to use it. One things it's his personal backup and the other thinks it's just one more thing to slow him down.
If you're a contractor and I bring you in, it's so you can crank out code. You're not here to show me a "better way of doing things" or to impose your own ways on the rest of the team. You're on our dime and you'll follow our rules. If you can't do that, you're gone.
Got it?
Facebook
Twitter