Large insurance business paid a previous contractor to write up a simple web app to consolidate public rates.
So this business could go and answer questions like "how much is my competition charging for XYZ?"
This "simple web app" turned into the previous contractor writing his own insane web framework from scratch in Python, because I guess Django or something was not good enough...?
Anyway the result was something that was almost impossible to read, had who knows how many security vulnerabilities, and was an awful experience for the insurance company.
Lots of times implementing a new feature meant changing the web framework so you could actually implement it.
Company already spent who knows how much on the previous contractor, so after a small cost working with me to evaluate what else was needed to complete the project they decided to go another direction.
I planned out how we could migrate the app slowly over to Django (it was a SPA as well, but he did at least use React there not something crazy he wrote himself) but they didn't have the budget.
Unfortunate. Could have been a really cool tool for not a lot of money, and I would love for businesses to be more eager about developing such products. The concept was the perfect example of a business-specific use of software to give the corporation an edge.
This sounds like a great opportunity to just go build the thing they needed then offer it back to them as a service or for a licensing fee. Then you have the option to offer it to other companies as well.
You might not have access to the data sources, you might not have the context to interpret them in a meaningful, and then the company you are targeting is probably your only potential customer (or you have to cold sell to every competitor, so now you have a sales job, right?)
Also, after a project fails the business is always close to 0% likely to work with you on it, even if it isn't your fault (I was brought in as a clean-up man and my billing was insignificant).
Large insurance business paid a previous contractor to write up a simple web app to consolidate public rates.
So this business could go and answer questions like "how much is my competition charging for XYZ?"
This "simple web app" turned into the previous contractor writing his own insane web framework from scratch in Python, because I guess Django or something was not good enough...?
Anyway the result was something that was almost impossible to read, had who knows how many security vulnerabilities, and was an awful experience for the insurance company.
Lots of times implementing a new feature meant changing the web framework so you could actually implement it.
Company already spent who knows how much on the previous contractor, so after a small cost working with me to evaluate what else was needed to complete the project they decided to go another direction.
I planned out how we could migrate the app slowly over to Django (it was a SPA as well, but he did at least use React there not something crazy he wrote himself) but they didn't have the budget.
Unfortunate. Could have been a really cool tool for not a lot of money, and I would love for businesses to be more eager about developing such products. The concept was the perfect example of a business-specific use of software to give the corporation an edge.