As a software engineer, it’s easy to get work engineering software. Well, maybe not easy, but relatively so: that is the kind of work that comes along most. The kind of work that people are confident I can do. That they can’t do, so would like me to do for money.
It’s also usually the worst work available.
I don’t want to take your shopping list of features, give you a date and a cost, then make those features. Neither of us will be very happy, even if it goes well.
I want to get an understanding of your problem, and demonstrate how software can help in solving it. Maybe what we need to understand isn’t the problem you presented, but the worse problem that wasn’t on your mind. Or the opportunity that’s worth more than a solution to either problem.
Perhaps we ask a question, in solving your problem, to which the answer is that we don’t know, and now we have another problem.
You might not need me to build all of the features you thought of, just one of them. Perhaps that one works better if we don’t build it, but configure something that already exists. Or make it out of paper.
You understand your problem and its domain very well. I understand software very well. Let’s work together on combining that expertise, and both be happier in the process.
