Dear client, here’s why building good tech is hard

Base photo credit: ktsdesign / 123RF Stock Photo.

As a developer and startup product manager, my friends often ask me for advice on their tech. These queries range from how to fix tech issues, how to find a developer, to how to find a CTO.

Commonly, a particular question will come up: “How long would it take me to build this feature/website/app?” And usually, the answer will be “Oh, I don’t know, it depends.”

As frustrated as you might feel when you hear this, I say it for a good reason. Even if you can provide me detailed information on what you want to build, there are endless factors that could affect how much resources are required for a product.

Even if I managed to estimate the time required, the usual response is “I didn’t know it would take so long.” Sometimes I even hear replies like “I’m sure it’s really easy, you or someone else can fix it in no time at all.” But the fact is, it isn’t easy at all. It takes time, in fact, lots of time.

Here are my reasons why I say tech is hard (and why we need time).

To help in visualizing what happens when we build this magical thing called tech, just imagine you are a real estate developer, trying to develop a new building.

There are many components in development

There are many components involved when developing a building: the architect, piling company, and contractors. All of them perform different roles in the development process.

For tech, visualize the architect as the project manager and sometimes also the UI/UX designer. The contractors—who are usually in charge of planning the plumbing, sewage, and electrical aspects of a builing—are the back end developers. Finally, visualize the piling company who are in charge of planning the floor plan, as the front end engineer.

All these components need to liaise and work together to make a website or an app, and each of these takes time to build and connect.

Considering seemingly invisible factors

When building tech, we must also consider invisible factors. This is something most non-techies find difficult to comprehend.

In a building, engineers need to worry about structural issues, whether the plumbing and the sewage are too close together or if there’s an escape route if the building catches fire. As tech engineers, we must consider how various factors impact and affect the product we are building. These range from the intuitiveness of our product’s user experience, the load our servers can handle, our product’s vulnerability to bots and hackers, and many others.

Again, understanding the current situation and planning the structure to make the product function as it should take time and effort. Would you like to live in a structurally unsound building? You probably would not. Similarly, I don’t think you want to build a slow, bug-ridden, and vulnerable product.

Finding good developers is not easy

As challenging as it is to find a building developer you can trust not to create exploding toilets, it is also difficult to find good web developers and vendors that you can trust will build a good product.

Complexity of the project

Fighting timelines, bugs, unexpected situations, and testing