Essay 39Demystify the Black Magic of Software

So, how can we get clients to appreciate our labors more?

Sometimes it starts with teaching clients how we do what we do. This is especially true when we’re working with someone who has never had their own application built before. Even the most completely obvious things to us are not common knowledge to everyone else. I’ve learned this lesson many times in my career.

Years ago, I took on a freelance project for a client who wanted to build an online recommendation system. I was 22, a relative programming newcomer, and this project sounded like it had a simple objective. The application would offer the cheapest prices on bulk liquor purchases for bars and restaurants based on a database search. ...

Get The Developer's Code now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.