Sometimes I think IT companies make things byzantine on purpose, so they can justify having dedicated chatterboxes whose job is to upsell clients into bigger promises.
Instead of ranting about this, I will try and put things into a comprehensive list for your reading (dis)pleasure.
Here’s some stuff they do that makes the least sense to me:
- Focusing on hourly rates and being proud of how cheap their workforce is.
- Closing high-skill positions with junior devs and believing the customer will never notice.
- Writing the same in-house code over and over instead of using ready solutions.
- Asking for payment before delivering any value.
- Employing an entire department of people whose job is to go and offer huge projects to customers who don’t have a clue about IT.
- Presenting routine, basic projects like they are rocket science.
- Relying on a single client for their entire operation.
- Distancing project managers and engineers from the sales process.
- Expecting sales guys to find their own leads, write their own proposals and do project paperwork.
- Using words like “web” and “digital” in marketing as if we’re back in the year 2000.
I could do more of these, but should avoid descending too deep into madness with things that make no sense. If you want to read something that does, check out my book “7 Deadly Business Sins”.
Let me know if you have your own pet peeves to share.