Faraday's Operating Procedures: Skramsoft Project

This page was published on the 13th of January, 2007.

Faraday Pty Ltd previously performed custom Macintosh software development using the PowerPlant application framework.

The business practice that Faraday has evolved is as follows: the new client is interviewed and questioned closely about the software they wish to have made and whether they have any special requirements. This could include a preferred development environment, technology, development process etc..

In particular it is carefully established whether or not the client has properly investigated all alternative avenues for obtaining software to accomplish the required task. This is to minimise the risk to Faraday that the client will discover half way through the project that suitable software already exists. If this happens the likely outcome is that the client will begin to "discover" bogus faults in the software that can be used to justify non-payment.

In addition Faraday questions the client very closely about their financial arrangements. Custom software development is very expensive and small clients in particular are inclined to change their mind about paying once the invoices start to arrive. The attitude typically is that their software idea is so wonderful that Faraday should be grateful for being allowed to work on it. The idea that the proprietor of Faraday has to make a living is often beyond their imaginative scope.

If a business partnership is involved Faraday takes particular care to inquire about the business arrangements of both partners. It is not uncommon to be trapped by the political manouvering and responsibility evasions of the two partners.

Once the project begins the client is typically emailed a fully self-contained archive of all the project files every few days. A short report on progress is also provided. The archive contains the compiled software application in working but incomplete form. This allows the client to check that the software satisfies their requirements, that the quality is satisfactory and that progress is being made.

The archive also contains the project document file, the source code files and any other resources so that if something goes wrong the client can hire another competent professional programmer to continue the work. This also prevents the client from plausibly trying the standard "if its not complete its worth nothing" excuse for non-payment. In any case this excuse is illegal and whenever I hear this philosophy my fraud warning alert goes off.

The archive also contains a top-level folder, named "third party software", which contains software not written by Faraday. This software would typically be public domain or copyright software with a free to use license, with or without an attribution condition on the license. The software is included in its intact form with the original copyright notices, licenses and author contact information. The client of course is also informed verbally and by email of the use of this software. The contract sets out the responsibilities of the two parties with respect to assessing the suitability of this software with respect to intellectual property.

These measures taken together make it very difficult for a client to plausibly claim: "that they were not kept informed", "that no progress was being made", "that they were shocked to discover on the last day that the software was of inferior quality" and "that their moral, ethical and law-abiding ideals had been betrayed by the sneaky inclusion of third party intellectual property of unknown origin."

An additional deterrent to making these kinds of claims is the embarassment of the implied admission that they were too lazy to check the software as it was delivered.

A tendency to embarassment is not one of Skramsoft's weaknesses. Skramsoft recieved 83 emails from Faraday over a 90 day period, about one per day, and these included either a full software archive as previously described, or some progress report.

Skramsoft deregistration