Jeff,
Okay, here`s what I`m seeing so far. It sounds as if you`re experienced
in business, in the sense of having been involved with whatever number
of careers, events, and projects. You`re not, for example, a minimum
wage factory worker who`s decided to start a company. Right?
It also appears as if you have experience starting up various
businesses, taking them into some level of success, and that you`re
looking at yet another startup. Furthermore, it looks as if you`ve
previously started companies based on skills you already possess to
some level of sophistication. As such, you`ve been a sort of "hands-on"
manager/owner.
If` I`m understanding this right, you`ve chosen to take your past
experience and once again embark on the path toward a new business,
only this time you`re including a necessary skill-set that you`re not
personally familiar with. That would this programming we`re discussing, which means hiring or contracting a programmer.
From what I`m reading, you`ve encountered a major glitch with the
programming end. I believe you said the phase-1 process has been
completed, and that you`re now into a phase-2 process, which seems to
involve regular programming maintenance and further development.
In this phase-2, you`re finding that your programmer won`t meet
deadlines, falls behind on change requests, and generally isn`t keeping
up with the business needs. I`m not sure if you said, but I seem to
think that you`re using 1 programmer who`s been involved from the very
beginning?
Your condition, if I`ve read it right so far, is very similar to other
companies, all the way up to large-scale enterprises. You`ve got a
conflict between the IT group and the Business group. (IT is
technology, and Business is just that, running the business).
You only have a finite number of options, assuming you want to stay in
business. I`ll list what I have, and perhaps others can modify or add:
- Close out the business and walk away totally (or sell the business)
- Fire the IT people completely and start over with a new group
- Bring to bear pressures of a "bad consquence" type on the IT people (e.g., lawsuits and threats of public floggings)
- Incentivize the IT people with a reward system
- Hire a "gunslinger" to take over the IT department and clean house
If you agree so far, then my whole "list" is essentially describing a
management problem. You`re the boss---the manager. Things aren`t
working right. You know this because the company isn`t moving forward
according to a timeline (which we`re not yet sure is realistic, but
we`ll assume it is). The company also is having trouble generating
business because of a holdup in the IT section.
Many wealthy companies with unlimited budgets would simply "throw money
at" the problem. You don`t have that option, and most other companies
are in the same boat. So what do you do?
Successful management means knowing how to get the job done. If you
don`t know, and you`re not getting enough help in this topic
discussion, then the next option is to bring in an outside consultant.
I`m suggesting it would be a management consultant. Others have
suggested a business coach, but I don`t know what exactly that would
accomplish.
CraigL2007-11-30 19:1:59
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