Business-focused custom software

“How fast are you?”, a prospective client asked me this week.

The question is interesting, because I think it articulates something that is often implied by customers, but rarely mentioned directly: Getting things done quickly is valuable.

Software is typically not built just for its own sake. Instead, the objective is to either save money/time or make money. How quickly the software can be provided is an important consideration. The longer it takes to implement, the slower it is to realize the benefits. (And if the development costs are based on an hourly rate, then it can take even longer to realize the gains!)

Of course, just because someone is fast doesn’t mean their code is particularly good. As the prospective client pointed out to me, some developers can complete tasks quickly but the quality suffers. Other developers can seem to take forever but will provide rock solid code. (Let’s not even discuss the ones who take forever AND produce poor quality software.)

I like to think that I strike a good balance – quickly and efficiently building code that is relatively clean.

It did make me wonder, though: has anyone ever asked him that question?