At Bleeding Bulb, we hear stories that nearly break our hearts. Many stemming from malware, hacks, and being taken advantage of by development and consulting companies.
This story didn’t have a simple fix or minor losses. Let’s start.
We received a phone call from a guy by the name of Steve. At least that will be his name to you. Steve stated he had a project that was overdue by two months, and he was concerned. He heard about Bleeding Bulb and our thoroughness, so he wanted to know if we could check on his project for him.
We asked him how long the project had been in progress, and he said six months. It was supposed to be completed in four months. He then went on to say that he was paying a company monthly for three full-time developers. We took notes and asked for the server details and credentials. It was time to explore.
A frustrating moment for the team. This guy had been paying for three developers, but the code did not reflect that. We aren’t talking about being a little off. Our assessment was that the provided code was the equivalent of one mid-level developer working full-time for three months.
It’s devastating every time we have to deliver news like this, but it was time to get Steve on the phone.
The call started calmly, but it didn’t stay that way. He explained that this project was actually for a client, and they paid all the money. Steve said his clients paid close to $40k and were beyond irate, threatening legal action.
The thing is that we understand this business model because we have development shops that leverage us for our resources.
This conversation transitioned from frustration to desperation. He had no idea what to do. Both time and money were working against us. Even if we put ten developers on the project, we still couldn’t make up for the eight to nine months of development in the next two weeks.
His client was fed up, and Steve was stuck. We were stuck.
He asked us to work on it for a month so that he could show them as much as possible, but within two weeks, they filed for legal action, so the project was halted. We wish this had a happy ending.
There are serious dangers when outsourcing developers. Never trust that a team, whether onshore or offshore, is going to have something appear at the end. You have to ask questions, identify their process, and track actual progress. Avoid making a similar mistake for your personal or client’s project.
Already have a project that you’re concerned about? Request an online audit.
