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- From: davidh@ursus.com (David Hamilton)
- Newsgroups: alt.computer.consultants,comp.edu,comp.lang.basic.misc,comp.lang.c++,comp.lang.misc,comp.lang.pascal.borland,comp.lang.pascal.delphi.misc,comp.misc,comp.os.msdos.programmer,comp.os.os2.programmer.misc,comp.programming
- Subject: Re: Can we do programming without seeing the end user?
- Date: Fri, 19 Apr 1996 16:31:40 GMT
- Organization: Ursus Information Technology, Inc.
- Message-ID: <3177ba2d.974365@nntp.best.com>
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-
- bollerud@oslonett.no (Svein Olav Mytting) told us:
-
-
- >I started it, and it is crossposted through several groups.
- >I intended to start a discussion on possibilities of telework and virtual
- >organization in the software business, specifically when it comes to
- >non-shrinkwrapped programs and physical relationship programmer/end user.
- >The original question was rather unclear, I am afraid, but a whole
- >lot of nice pieces of wisdom have been shared.
-
- Telework and virtual organization are not a detriment to the
- development process -- in fact they work quite well for us. The
- caveat is that _someone_ must define the software project adequately,
- before coding begins.
-
- In an ideal world, or with an ideal client, the client's requirements
- are thoroughly defined and have been thought through and discussed
- adequately, such that a project can be planned, quoted, and completed
- remotely. There actually are such clients (don't even bother
- asking...). But this is the exception, and a very rare exception. It
- is far more common that extensive dialog must take place between the
- client and a knowlegable software designer, before an adequate degree
- of specificity and definition is achieved, and both parties feel warm
- 'n' fuzzy. It is not usually feasible for this dialog to take place
- without face-to-face meetings.
-
- There is no reason why the software designer participating in these
- dialogs must be the one handling the coding phase, however. There is
- ample opportunity for a "telework broker", in this regard. Those
- virtual organizations that have been using telwork sucessfully for
- consulting and contract software development are already using this
- approach.
-
- There are also an interesting set of ambiguities when it comes to
- using teleworkers who reside in different countries. The issues of
- taxes, licenses, permits, tariffs, etc., are enough to overheat the
- brain. Most of these regulations were composed for traditional
- on-site business and employment relationships and do not translate
- well to a telework scenario.
-
- --dh
-
- ____________________________________________________________________
- David Hamilton Ursus Information Technology, Inc.
-