Web Developer Malpractice
By Bret A. Fausett
Dot-coms and the service providers that support them can't seem to hire a new janitorial service these days without issuing a press release to trumpet their newest "joint venture." The public relations people, in conspiracy with the marketing department, use every new contract as an opportunity to flood the wires with news of the latest deal, no matter how trivial.
While these press missives have their place, usually the only thing they get right is the mere fact that a deal has been struck. The glowing remarks in the press release are rarely indicators of each party's relative satisfaction.
Take, for example, this congratulatory pat on the back from Edward Menicheschi, chief marketing officer for IAM.com. In praise of IAM's Web developer, Razorfish, Mr. Menicheschi gushed, "Our partnership with Razorfish furthered our mission to create a talent community committed to learning and professional services, succeeding in the completion of our goal to develop a consistent yet customized user interface, organized around the needs of the diverse subscriber." (You can tell it's a press release because real humans don't talk like that.)
In the marketing department, everything works, everyone is happy, and every new deal has the potential to change the world. Meanwhile, back on earth, things aren't always so rosy. Within weeks of publicly praising Razorfish's "consistent yet customized user interface," IAM.com was complaining that the interface was actually "unusable." And that last quote isn't from another press release, it's from a complaint filed by IAM.c
