How do I convince my stingy enterprise to invest in tools for developers?

Question

I work for a mid-sized corporation that is actually doing quite well in this economic morass. Although we have newer workstations, there are several tools/concepts that I'm certain would increase productivity and job satisfaction among our developing workforce. I'm looking for strategies here. My immediate boss isn't willing to take up arms and has given me license to speak with his superiors about it. The problem is, I need to figure out how to make the case a) without sounding whiny and b) using the best approach to get people that generally see developers as overhead to listen. Some examples of what I think would help us:

• Dual monitors. (I found this question and have done a lot of reading on this, and the links are quite helpful)
• ReSharper
• User Groups/Trade Shows/Continuing Education
• Visio Pro (I can't do ERDs!)

I don't want to write an essay, because these people don't have time for that. I guess I could present them with statistics of some sort, but I would love some help as to where I could find them (dual monitors I already have plenty of links). If any management types that scan this site could chime in, that would be great.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Why do you care? Just quit and get a job where they already give you what you want. There are more jobs than there are skilled developers, so... don't waste your time dealing with penny-pinching middle managers.

Answer 2

For Visio Pro, do an estimate over how long it takes you to produce an ERD your current way, compared to Visio.
Also highlight that they'll look better in Visio, and more people will be able to view them easily, thus aiding communication.

In terms of User Groups/Trade Shows/Continuing Education, use the internet, or your own free time. I wouldn't even suggest that.
If you want the corporation to help subsidise courses, that's different though.
Depending on your country or contract, they may be required to offer you this.

Answer 3

We grouped together and asked our directors for dual monitors, with reasons why they'd make us more productive. Now every developer has them. Draw up advantages for each tool, both for yourself and the enterprise as a whole. The worst they can do is turn them all down.

Answer 4

Dual monitors.

Already discussed in detail, I think you have sufficient ammunition here

ReSharper

Tricky since the initial period of adjustment may actually lower productivity. I personally find these tools less than useful (compared to the crashes they trigger in Visual Studio) so I have trouble suggesting reasoned arguments in their favour. I would think that if you were using many *Format(string s, params object[] arg) methods things like the StringFormatMethodAttribute checking would be very beneficial, especially if those cases were exceptional ones where you might not trap it in testing. (I wish they had the much stronger f# printing in c#)

User Groups/Trade Shows/Continuing Education

I would try being active in an online user group for some product your company uses, use this to direct aspects of the product in your favour. This should make it clear to them that active involvement in the eco-system in which they participate or use is beneficial.

As to continuing education, point out that awareness of how the languages and platforms on which you run are changing allows you to intelligently target your current work efforts. For example why bother implementing this very complex part now when dynamic will make it much easier later, instead do a limited form for the current most urgent needs and expect to throw it away. Having up to date awareness of this is useful. I would say that this is not something you need budget for training though (most external courses I have ever seen were a gross waste of money). Instead they should be happy to supply books, resources for experimenting with betas and CTPs (a place you can install the 2010 preview VM's for example) and be happy that sometimes you will use work time to look at forward thinking technologies.

Visio Pro (I can't do ERDs!)

I hate this sort of thing sorry. If you need to design something in a tool that tool should do a much better job of linking this to/from the underlying storage system. The tools for this in the latest sql server management studio are acceptable and better still store the data in the database itself. Avoid making diagrams pretty, it sucks up time much better spent elsewhere. That said in the spirit of answering the question if your job requires the production of this sort of thing on a regular basis then using this is much better than trying to mess about with word/excel/powerpoint/whatever else they expect you to bodge one together with.

Answer 5

Start from Jeff's Programmer's Bill of Rights.

We're not talking about a lot of money here: all that you could wish for, for less than $1000. Compared to the cost of a programmer, it's nothing. (Or you're underpaid :-))

It's also small enough that if I was in your situation, I would consider spending my own money on my own tools. Having good tools makes my job easier and more enjoyable. It also increases my productivity, which is good for my career in the long run.

Answer 6

A good strategy I have used is by focusing on the the savings on training and reference books that is presented to the company by purchasing electronic books. Rather than purchase books, I recommend a Safari Books Online membership from O'Reilly. The fact that Google searches often return Safari books, this enhances the value of "Google programming."

Once the boss sees values in providing an online resource like this, then you have additional fuel for the multi-monitor argument, because multiple monitors allow you to run two instances of the IDE, or stretch your IDE across two screens, or it allows you to have an online book or PDF book open on one screen while you are coding. This saves so much time when you are learning new concepts.

I answered a question about programming books that reference Safari Books Online here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/440019/who-should-pay-for-programming-books/440077#440077

Answer 7

ReSharper and Visio Pro

If you want ReSharper and Visio Pro, tell them you cannot do your job without them. Explain to them that the new project or feature they want, cannot be done without those tools. People can understand this reasoning and you're more likely to get what you need.

Dual Monitors

This will be a harder sell. Dig through Jeff Atwood's blog. He's got some stats for how 2 monitors can increase your productivity. If you can, try and price them your self and find cheap monitors. Since they are footing the bill, you might as well do the leg work and find the best deal.

UserGroups/Trade Shows/Continuing Ed

User Groups are usually free to join (at least in my town). The biggest worries for trade shows in transportation cost. You might be able to cover this cost yourself.

As far as Continuing Ed, this is a tough one. If you say you can't do your job without the training, then they might consider you incompetent (and you won't get that raise). You'll have to explain to them that you could do your job better with the training and that the product/feature they want will work better.

Let management know that you have the companies best interest in mind. You want these things not for selfish reasons, but for selfless reasons. Let them know you can be more productive and thus make the company money.

Answer 8

Create a spreadsheet with the following columns:

• Tool Name
• Brief tool description in layman terms
• Hours lost per year without tool
• Total development cost per year without tool
• Cost of tool
• Ramp up cost (your time + courses + books)
• Total Cost of the tool
• The 1st year ROI percentage

You will need to prove / convince them the cost savings are real, so have your stats ready.

They will be skeptical, so ask them to only provide the tool with the fastest and/or highest ROI. When you get your first tool, gather stats they will understand, and proves your ROI . When the Return starts to become apparent, send them your stats with a request for another tool from the list.

Good luck.

PS-This action will probably make or break your career at this company; if you deliver, you'll gain tons of respect, if you don't, you will probably lose all credibility with these people forever.