I want a very simple software

"I want a very simple software" this is how it always starts.

Clients are always in a dream that their 10 min. briefing or a 5 min. factory walk will make me smart(?) enough to give a "perfect" solution (which even they don't know). If you ask their employee (who has spend 15 years in that company) a simple question about how they handle sales return, they are speechless. Spending years making customize software's for accounts, inventory, crm etc. what I have learned is that there are is no way we can get complete information from client in a shot. Have even tried with flow chart and other fancy stuff.

But the dilemma is client always want to know how much time I will take and what will be the cost. Now, this is the problem. What is left is to make a guess how much changes (read trouble) the client is going to give us when we start the development or after that.

Here are some common dialogs client says
"oh this is so easy to do, why do you want 5 days for it"
"its a simple addition we are asking"
"my prev. developers is not supporting me any more"
"I am not happy with what they have done (and they use this software for almost 5 years)"
"just keep on doing changes as I say"
"take your time but make it soon" (this one is classic hahahaha!!)
"I want every thing" (another one hahahaha)

Now when a client say they have burned their fingers with 2-3 software companies then its very easy for me to judge that they were not capable to provide correct and on time information to their developers.

Its not that its only lack of information from client, many a times software developers cant deliver some thing and then makes up a story.

Here is what I think we can do to such situations.

1. Inform clients that it will take time to understand their system It cant be done by 1 or 2 meetings
2. Ask for their existing software or system to learn more about their requirement.
3. Keep on asking question until you get the correct answer.
4. Show them input screens and reports. This will make them understand how software works.
5. Get approval from the each one who is going to use the software.
6. Never talk in a group. Its better to communicate with only 1 person and let him get information from all the desks.
7. Do not start development until developer and client agree on each point.
8. Put more efforts on analysis, this will eventually reduce the development time.

Thats it for this post. Comments are most welcome. Will update it if some thing comes to my mind.

This picture below will explain every thing.

whoisvipul? yes who am i?

who am i. what am i doing.

self scanning ni aaddat always worried me of what exactly is happening.

motorcycle diaries joi ne thay ke duniya ma thi capitalism ukhadi pheku and sometimes I feel like to control the world by the power of money like gorgen geko.

kyarek rahman to nusrat makes me feel like the world is only a symphony

techincal vato kari kari ne relations pan logically and algorithmically develop thai jay che.

or am I being an extremist.

daily alag alag characters play kari ne may be I dont know the real me.

kadach etlej loko adhyatmik banta hashe. but i hate that escape. they cant give logical answer. that the reason i stopped visiting ISCON in college. may be I am too self centered or not ready to bow down. even to god.

may be its a journey and people are like billboards.

or its a endless hunger of knowledge, to prove, to achieve, to gain.

dont know what crap I am typing. (again self scanning :))

what the hell, blogspot cant give gujarati typing too bad.

bye

Coming into Software Field

Hi,

I started my career into software field by doing job for 3 years where I learned software development, analysis, marketing, implementation, researching new things. I was doing all the work in my company and hence got a very good knowledge about those subjects.

Then I start getting small freelance projects at home and was doing well in that. My brother Hardik was also into Flash Programming. Hence we thought to stop doing job and planned to start our own company. It was a very tough decision for my family but I got good support from my wife and other family members. The day we started Virtual Splat, we have one thing in mind very clear, We have to perform at any cost and have to grow. Hardik being very technical, he handles the technical problems in the company. I mostly handle marketing and sales. We started from a single pc from my bedroom and now we have a full furnished office with 12 people working.

I feel software development field is very interesting as you need to update yourself daily. You never become old here as its constantly changing.

I will write about technologies, clients, development process in some other post.

Regards,
Vipul Parekh

Hobbies I have

As I have just started writing blog, I will be talking about myself more until I get some subject to write.

I have three hobbies Reading, Movies and Music.

Among 100 people, 99 will have these hobbies. So what's new in that, just read here...

Reading: When I read this word in any ones biodata I might think how much he likes to read. Does he read 4 hours a day? Yes I read more then that. I like to read anything, anywhere, anytime. You can find me reading newspapers, magazines, books, even leaflets while traveling, ticket que, bus que, breakfast, in bedroom, loo, even while eating. If you find me with out reading then just think that its a dry day for me. I can’t stop reading for a second. I read every advertisement, hoardings, shop names, directories etc. etc. Whatever comes to my eyes I just read it. Everyone in my family and friends are fad up with this hobby, but I cant stop it.

Movies: It’s a passion for me. I like to see good movies and that can be in any language. I see movies on any genre like drama, art, action, violence, sci-fi, comedy, adventure etc.. I feel my self lucky when work for movies and see them on big screen. I mostly prefer movie which have something new in them like violence in John Woo movies are always fantastic, Steven Spielberg's movie are the best always, Roland Emmerich can stop your hear beats and Peter Jackson can make you mad.

Music: Music is as important as oxygen for me. I can't imagine world without music. My fav. Artists are A. R. Rehman, Nusrat Fateh Ali Kham, Bhemsen Joshi, Eagles, Dido, Anup Jalota, Eminem, Indian Ocean, and Yeshu Das.

My Dream: I have a dream to have my own library with all the books printed till date in any language. I wanted to learn every thing in the world from cooking to rocket science. I also wanted to see all the movies that were made till date and wanted to sing all the song which are composed. For me knowledge is every thing. Hence I always try to learn some thing new by reading or watching movies. When I left college I made a rule of learning at least 1 thing daily and that can be any thing.

You will see these subjects often in my blogs as I can’t stop talking about them.

Regards,
Vipul Parekh

Hi All,

This is my first post and I dont wanted to make it complicated.

Here I will talk about my views on Software Development, Marketing, SEO, Politics, Current News, about my hobby (reading, music and movies) and other such things.

I dont know if I can also write in regional languages here, hence you will find some posts in Gujarati or hindi.

I will try to post daily and if missed will post 2. (I hope I can do that, please also bare with my spellings)

I request all of you to put your comments good/bad to all my posts as it may be helpfull to all of us.

Last I have got this idea of starting the blog by reading http://www.whoisdeep.com and would like to thank Deep for that.

Regards,

Vipul Parekh