Ethics... and the lack of it.

[Mark Schonewille]

Alejandro,

It is not clear to me whether someone created software for someone  
else, or whether someone else only asked someone and several others  
for a quote.

If someone asks me how much it will cost to do a project, I give an  
estimate of how much it will cost me plus a compensation for my time.  
This is in no way an indication of the actual value of the software,  
which is determined by how much someone can earn with the software.

If someone wants to know the value of software, s/he should try to  
find out how much more efficient his or her company runs with that  
software or how many licenses s/he can sell rather than how much it  
will cost to make the software.

People who ask me for a quote are always free to ask others for a  
quote too. Obviously, they are also free to switch to a different  
developer (or development platform) as long as they compensate me for  
the work that I have already done.

I think that you are worrying about a non-issue. Although I can  
understand that one would be disappointed in such a situation, I'd  
just feel sorry about the time wasted with making the quotation.

--
Best regards,

Mark Schonewille

Economy-x-Talk Consulting and Software Engineering
Homepage: http://economy-x-talk.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/xtalkprogrammer

Download Strõm Flow Chart Software
http://flowproject.economy-x-talk.com

Op 1 dec 2009, om 02:37 heeft Alejandro Tejada het volgende geschreven:

>
> Participants in this mail list are an outstanding example
> of ethical behavior and responsability. For this reason,
> i want to ask you about this "What-if scenario".
>
> Suppose that you created for some person, some kind
> of software for his small business. As time passed,
> you add more features and functionality to this software.
>
> Then this person, started to ask another developers
> (who use other software platforms) about their budgets
> to recreate what you have done for his business,
> with the purpose of declare the value of the software
> (that you create) as the highest budget proposal that
> this person receives...
>
> Is this another example of creative accounting:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_accounting
> or is just plain wrong deceipt?
>
> Did you, personally, have received the request to make
> budgets and later you learn that this person is just
> trying to get an estimated value for something that
> this person already have?
>
> I do not want to think that some of the stacks that
> i have published, could have been used in this way...
>
> Thanks in advance for your comments.
>
> Alejandro