Re: Legacy code. Was:Dates -- MIDRANGE-L

Dave,

In a message dated 97-09-14 04:31:58 EDT, you write:

<<snip>>
> >>  2. Who pays for your learning curve as you come up to speed
>  >>      with new techniques?
>  >
>  >YOUR COMPANY!!!  Doggone it, can you not see that a Synon-Certified 
>  >employee
>  >can bring in $10-50/hour more than a traditional RPG programmer?
 Education
>  >pays for itself!
>  
>  What do we really mean by "pays for itself"? I think it's an illusion to
>  think that anyone else but the client ultimately pays. You may not be
>  able to bill the client directly (although I have known contractors to
>  make this arrangement), but you or your company must more than recoup
>  the costs from your clients through future billings which will be
>  greater than they would have been without the education (they might even
>  have fallen to zero without it). If you don't recoup the costs, then
>  that particular course was a bad business decision.

Not necessarily.  "Employee goodwill", while not an itemizable deduction in
most countries, is often worth more in our industry than "customer goodwill"
which often is.  It is IMPOSSIBLE to keep good employees if you do not
provide them with education on current languages and methodologies.

I disagree with your statement that "the client pays" for education.  The NEW
client demanding the skills pays, while the established client base reaps the
benefits of consultants not wanting to lose those skills.  While, on the
purely "bottom line" basis that you present, I can see that education could
outweigh its costs -- however, keeping good personnel and having available
skill sets for new development are costs that cannot be measured by sheer
numbers.

"Bad business decisions" reflect on the aforementioned 7 consulting companies
that are now out of business.  They couldn't keep good people, and their
clients eventually left them for companies more "in tune" with current
technology.  Five failed shortly after my own departure (oh no, YOU don't
need a raise).

While a few folks like myself can pick up a manual and learn all there is to
learn from it, most require a formal education environment (there are NO
"questions for discussion" at the end of each chapter in a technical manual).
 Consulting companies, in large part, maintain their poor reputations due in
large part to their concentration on "billable hours" and their lack of same
regarding employee education.  Sorry to be so vehement on the subject, but
I've seen so many clients burned and so many employees left without a job
when the company ultimately failed that this really IRKS me!

Consultants OWE it to their clients to be more knowledgeable than the people
on the client's staff.  I've said it before, and I'll say it until somebody
LISTENS -- a consultant's primary purpose is to effect a knowledge transfer
to client personnel such that his/her job is no longer necessary -- a
contractor's job is the opposite, trying to perpetuate the need for their
continued employ.  Education is the keystone to acheiving the consultant's
goal.

>  Rent, heat, light, food, clothes: all paid for by clients.

And the same is true of full-time employees, replacing the word client with
employer.  I am just FED UP with people in my profession, especially those
purporting to be "experts" @ high $ from big names, coming in and either
being incompetent or knowing just enough to lead the in-house staff down the
wrong road.  I WISH there were some sort of governing body that could
determine the expertise of consultants and contractors on midrange hardware.
 THEN, education would show its cost-benefit ratio...

JMHO,

Dean Asmussen
Enterprise Systems Consulting, Inc.
Fuquay-Varina, NC  USA
E-Mail:  DAsmussen@AOL.COM

"Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity." -- Oprah Winfrey
+---
| This is the Midrange System Mailing List!
| To submit a new message, send your mail to "MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com".
| To unsubscribe from this list send email to MAJORDOMO@midrange.com
|    and specify 'unsubscribe MIDRANGE-L' in the body of your message.
| Questions should be directed to the list owner/operator: david@midrange.com
+---