Wise words from Joel Spolsky: “We do have a large competitor in our market that appears to be growing a lot faster than we are. The company is closing big deals with big, enterprise customers. And the wheels are falling off the donkey cart over there as the company stretches to fulfill its obligations. Meanwhile, our product is miles better, and we’re a well-run company, but it doesn’t seem to matter. Why?” — Be sure to read the full article (via @wolfr).
I must admit that I’ve worked at such a company in the past: they promised everything but eventually under-delivered or delivered code which was held together with duct tape. Worst part of it all: the customer just dealt with it — or in some cases: didn’t know about it (!!) — and moved along as the company jumped on another client to do the very same thing.