Managing programmers is not for the faint of heart. There is even a book that equates ‘programmers’ with ‘the unmanageables’. It’s a great book btw, and all of us who manages or wish to manage programmers should definitely read it.
Programmers are half engineer, half artist. They don’t like 9-to-5. They like challenges not stability, so startups are a more exciting place to work compared to your big enterprise. And the tech job market is super hot. Thus, attrition rate is very high, and keeping up with the turnover, making sure knowledge is successfully passed, is a difficult job for any company. You don’t want a new developer to come in and say, “Boss, we need to rewrite everything because the old code is a mess.”. Do you trust this new guy? And how do you ensure no such thing happen again in the future?
That is why most Enterprises outsource their software development. They prefer to pay a premium (which they can) and be able to hold someone else responsible of the quality, continuity, etc.
One of our customers, Nutrifood, has engaged our Extended-Team service for years. With an additional of only 3-4 people, they are able to turn around software products, internal systems, websites, and apps quickly. There is no need for opening a tender for each project. There is no need to engage expensive digital agencies to produce simple websites and apps, especially when they have great graphic designers in house.
See a sample of such websites below. The kind of websites digital agencies charge you thousands of $$$, are done in days by 1 programmer + your in-house graphic designers.
Managing programmers is an art that WGS masters. If your Enterprise had a problem recruiting, retaining, and managing programmers, you should give us a try.