Dealing with marketing types...

[Thomas Bartkus]

"flyingfred0" <flyingfred0 at gmail.com> wrote in message
news:8B6qe.1742$pa3.909 at newsread2.news.atl.earthlink.net...
> A small software team (developers, leads and even the manager when he's
> had time) has been using (wx)Python/PostgreSQL for over 2 years and
> developed a successful 1.0 release of a client/server product.
>
> A marketing/product manager has brought in additional management and
> "architecture" experts to propose moving the entire thing to a Java
> (application server) platform for the next release.  They want a
> "scalable, enterprise solution" (though they don't really know what that
> means) and are going crazy throwing around the Java buzzwords (not to
> mention XML).
>
> The developers (including myself) are growing uneasy; the management is
> continuing to push their requirements and ignore the engineers.  I think
> there's still hope, but I'm at a loss for ideas beyond pointing out the
> success stories of Python and Zope and language comparisons between
> Python and Java.
>
> What experiences have those in the Python community had in these kinds
> of situations?

Sigh!

    > The developers (including myself) are growing uneasy; the management
is
    > continuing to push their requirements and ignore the engineers.

No - they are not pushing "requirements" here.
They are trying to specify the tools that must be used in order to achieve
those requirements.  Sort of like me specifying the brand name and type of
tools the repair shop must use when they replace my alternator. Well - not
*quite* like that since I don't enjoy the power of a true employer/employee
relationship with my repair shop. But you get the picture.

It's a given that management has no way to reasonably evaluate on the
technical merits.  However, there is one legitimate reason they might want
to do this. It is a non-technical yet nevertheless reasonable consideration.
Management needs to know they have a reliable labor pool to draw upon for
replacements. If that "small software team" decides to jump ship (or asks
for more $, or already makes enough $ to be attractive targets for
replacement)  - would they be able hire the replacement expertise to carry
on?  Management is *always* looking to lose the high priced creative
geniuses who brought them to the party.  I know this from years as an
independent consultant talking to those managers.  I can't tell you how many
times they were simply looking to replace the now highly paid guru(s) with
younger/lower cost and more recently - offshored labor.

That, my friend, is the real reason behind the "Java" buzzword. If that's
what your up against, I'm sorry to say that there are simply hoards of Java
underemployeds out there ready to flood human resources with resumes.
Worse - there are hoards of underbidding (lying? scumsucking?) contractors
with dozens of "Java" experts on the bench and no one with Python
experience. I gaurantee that the likes of these are tripping over one
another to get your employers attention.

If this is the case, then management throws up blather like "scalable" and
"enterprise solution" when they really mean they would like to reduce the
cost and increase the reliability of the labor force available to develop
and maintain the system.

If *thats* what's bothering you bunky - I'm sorry to tell you that I am
short on solutions.

BUT understanding the problem is the first step on the path to a solution
:-)
Thomas Bartkus