Managers
take great pains to ensure that every system and software development
team is composed of the strongest contributors available in the
organization. This certainly makes sense for several
reasons. It has often been noted that the productivity
difference between the most productive people in any organization and
the least productive is greater than ten to one. It is also well
known that the quality of a system is directly related to the depth
and breadth of the experience of the development team. In
addition, many systems require special expertise due to requirements
for safety certification, real-time response, high availability,
etc.
Most
system and software development failures are caused by the lack of the
relevant experience on the development team. However, employees
with the world-class expertise that could have avoided these failures
are simply unavailable to most teams.
This
is where a consultant such as Dr. Locke can make all the
difference. For example, under a very affordable monthly retainer fee, a
development organization can engage him as a member of the team, get
several days each month of his time helping with activities such as
system planning and tracking, system and software architecture, high
level design, performance and functional reviews, evaluation of
problems, etc.
The
cost of obtaining this world-class level of expertise and experience
is almost always significantly less than the cost of hiring an average
technical employee! This is because the development organization
is able to get this capability for several days per month with no
additional overhead expenses such as taxes, payroll deductions,
technical vitality, education, benefits, etc. Dr. Locke takes
care of all these expenses with no client involvement.
