“Better, faster, cheaper: you must pick two, you can’t have all three.”
I remember hearing this in my early days in technology. I heard it from “authorities” in the industry and liked the way it sounded. Why did I like it? Because it gave me an excuse - it let me, and everyone else, off the hook.
If I didn’t have to compete in all three areas, then my job, by definition, was easier. Also by definition, my customers (internal and external) made compromises they didn’t need to make. In this week’s blog post, I will explore this false choice that so many in my industry still believe.
What brought this back to my attention again?
I recently read a blog post from one of my competitors that took a new approach on this old trope. This competitor dismisses two (2) of the competitive domains and claims that, because of parity in the global marketplace, only one matters. Essentially, their claim is that cost and speed are no longer important, with some minor exceptions, and, therefore, the only domain worth competing in is quality.
They dismiss cost with the claim that the savings attributed to a lower hourly rate is consumed by the cost of coordinating activities using off-shore resources. They dismiss speed by stating that every software development team codes at about the same rate - all things being equal.
I disagree with both of these assertions. Here’s why…
On cost…
Cost matters to all businesses that I work with or have ever worked for because profitability matters and, for any project, cost limits the ROI that is possible. It is important to distinguish, though, that cost is not just the price, but also all of the time, energy, and lost opportunities associated with any purchase. The economic principle at play here is: “the cost of something is what you give up to get it”. My competitor’s point is the reduced hourly rate is not worth the time, energy and lost opportunities associated with coordinating the work. Fair enough. Those all need to be included in the total cost calculation.
My issue is that the cost of coordinating the development work doesn’t increase the hourly rate to a point that it isn’t worth the savings. In fact, when working with a high quality development partner (like 8 Penny Labs) the coordination costs are the same or lower than when working with on shore development teams. So, the rate really does have a material effect.
To be fair, this specific competitor probably just doesn’t have the skills to be competitive using off-shore resources…but that doesn’t discount the savings, it is more of an indictment of their practices and resource networks.
An executive at one of our customers said it this way:
“With 8 Penny Labs we get a huge increase in our capabilities at a very competitive cost structure. I don't know that we could expect better from anyone else.” - CFO, Construction Industry
In fact, when done well, it can accelerate your overall timeline too.
This brings us to speed…
While I agree with the premise that the rate of speed a developer can develop code is dependent on their skill level and the complexity of the problem being solved. I can also agree that, while the average speed of developers across the industry is not a distinguishing competitive lever, speed does matter.
Being first to market has always produced a host of benefits - first to market doesn’t always win, but it does produce a competitive advantage. As such, all businesses that I work with are competing to bring innovations to their customers, employees, vendors and partners ahead of their competition. Why? Because speed forces your competition to respond - while you innovate something new and extend your lead in the market. Being first puts your competition behind you - freeing you and your team to dictate the state of play in the marketplace. This is the definition of a competitive advantage.
The appropriate measure of speed isn’t about how fast a developer can code, but how quickly you can bring an innovation to market - this is a larger team issue. In this sense, the developer is only a piece of the calculation. And, since their specific time to write the code averages out across all developers, we compete with our overall process and physics…yes, physics.
Because we have the skill to lead and manage off-shore development teams, we accomplish more in 24 hours than an on-shore team can. How? We use more of the 24-hour clock.
Our development teams work producing code while our customers sleep - handing off new code or questions and requests every morning…which makes more of the 24 hour clock “working hours”. This practice reduces “wait states” in our development practices, ensures our development team isn’t mis-interpreting the product owner’s intentions, and reduces the amount of re-work produced by misaligned development teams. In short, we can go twice as fast as a typical on-shore development team, and we do it all the time.
Another one of our customers had this to say:
“I have been shocked by the development team’s openness…and they’re wicked fast.” - Product Owner, Manufacturing Company
Finally, we arrive at quality.
The argument here is that off-shore developers don’t write quality code and their lack of skill in this area produces poorly performing code and necessitates re-work. While I agree that poorly written code is a drag on productivity, we’ve seen some pretty bad code written by US-based developers. Bad code has no national home…it can come from anywhere - even North America.
What creates poorly written code are the following: lack of skill, a mismatch between the technology available and the problem to solve, lack of coding standards, and poorly managed development teams. Bad code is not a function of where the developers were born or where they currently live.
At 8 Penny Labs we are routinely praised for our development practices, the applications we create and the code-base we write. We work with our customers to bring their vision into existence and we have the skills to compete on cost, quality and speed and our customers notice the 8 Penny Labs difference.
But don’t believe me, take it from yet another satisfied customer:
“8 Penny Labs blew us away. Less money. Less time. Better outcome.” - Project Manager, Construction Industry
So, the next time someone tells you to pick two, call us. You truly can have all three when you work with 8 Penny Labs.
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