TO FIND AN IT NECROMANCER
Our client works at the market of customs and logistics. The company develops software for enterprises that are engaged in cargo transportation and foreign economic activity.
One of the projects is the app for the customs clearance of goods. Over 500 companies’ business is tied up to this app.
The problem was that the app was 19 years old and is written in Visual Basic. There was only one developer to support this dinosaur, and he suddenly quit the job. The company needed a replacement, and that’s a tough call: not many people know Visual Basic or are ready to support a project like this.
The task seems to be hard but clear. However, what if we dig deeper?
FINDING THE TRUE GOAL
19 years is a respectful age for any software. So we asked our client about the strategy for this app and future development plans.
It turned out that in the future the company wanted to rewrite the app on .Net. It wasn’t a priority before but since the guy who was responsible for the support left, now could be just as good as any other time.
We talked to the company’s representatives and realized: it’s time to find not only a Visual Basic pro but a person who’s going to be ready to rebuild the whole app on the new platform.
And that’s who we found. A developer well aware of Basic, even though he was mostly working with other languages at that moment. He was able and most importantly — willing to rebuild the app, put together a team, and become a team lead. He joined the project right away since such a complex support infrastructure was the challenge he had been looking for.
A TEAM LEAD READY TO CREATE A NEW PROJECT OUT OF AN OLD ONE
Together with the client we dug to the very root of the problem and realized that the task is wider than we both thought. So instead of searching for a support specialist ready to work with old tech, we found a team lead developer ready to rebuild the whole thing.
That’s how an unfortunate resignation story turned out to be a point of growth. The company obtained a talented new employee to improve one of its key products.