Selling Ruby on Rails to the Masses

Rails
1

I am looking for information about how to sell or pitch the advantages
of Ruby On Rails to businesses from a Web D.s stand point I can
see the great potential of RoR but I need to list these features so I
can then convince other non web developers.

Does anyone have any links or resources to share? Please post em.

2

Andrew B. wrote:

I am looking for information about how to sell or pitch the advantages
of Ruby On Rails to businesses from a Web D.s stand point I can
see the great potential of RoR but I need to list these features so I
can then convince other non web developers.

Does anyone have any links or resources to share? Please post em.

Have you seen ‘From Java to Ruby’ (by bruce tate)? As you’d guess it’s
only about people moving from java, but the stuff about the advantages
of rails should be fairly relevant to people with other backgrounds.

Fred

3

I’ll take a look thanks

4

I would just sit back and think of reasons why it makes sense to use
rails
over something else. If you can’t think of those reasons, maybe you
shouldn’t pitch it to your clients just yet. :smiley:

On 10/30/06, Fred [email protected] wrote:

Have you seen ‘From Java to Ruby’ (by bruce tate)? As you’d guess it’s
only about people moving from java, but the stuff about the advantages
of rails should be fairly relevant to people with other backgrounds.

Fred

–
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

–
Chris S.
[email protected]
http://compiledmonkey.wordpress.com

5

I am looking for information about how to sell or pitch the advantages
of Ruby On Rails to businesses from a Web D.s stand point I can
see the great potential of RoR but I need to list these features so I
can then convince other non web developers.

Does anyone have any links or resources to share? Please post em.

No links, but the advantage to them is the same as it is to you… just
with a ROI slant.

  • You like Rails because you can developer quicker.
  • They like Rails because it costs them less cause you can develop
    quicker.

Etc…

6

On Mon, 30 Oct 2006 16:31:27 +0100
Andrew B. [email protected] wrote:

I am looking for information about how to sell or pitch the advantages
of Ruby On Rails to businesses from a Web D.s stand point I can
see the great potential of RoR but I need to list these features so I
can then convince other non web developers.

One thing I would recommend Andrew is, “Never throw pearls before
swine.”

Meaning, if you are working with or leading a group of developers who
are vehemently opposed to any new technology like Ruby, Python, etc.
then don’t bother. It’s not worth it to convince them since the threat
to their jobs and ego is too much.

In my opinion, you’re better off hiring a group of new folks who are
interested in learning the new stuff, then a mentor to train them, and
then use the previous group as maintainers. Eventually the previous
group will either find new jobs, join the new group willingly and
eagerly, or be happy to keep the old systems working. I think the best
people for this are folks with degrees NOT in computer science who are
smart and can already code.

My only word of caution is that when the old timers join the new group
you’ve got to watch for saboteurs. I actually worked on a project where
a new sysadmin got caught purposefully crashing our servers. He at
first was just killing the processes and changing file permissions
(Samhain is your friend), then him and other sysadmin friends would just
walk over to the box and turn it off.

I worked with another guy that would spend all his free time finding
flaws in RoR and then come to work ranting about them or demanding we
use these features so he could demonstrate how screwed up they are.

So just watch out for this. It happens a lot more often than you think,
and many times it’s just not worth going to the trouble to use possible
saboteurs.

Hope that helps.

–
Zed A. Shaw, MUDCRAP-CE Master Black Belt Sifu

O'Reilly Media - Technology and Business Training – The Mongrel Book
http://mongrel.rubyforge.org/
http://www.lingr.com/room/3yXhqKbfPy8 – Come get help.

7

@Zed:

That’s really great advice and extremely well-put. I’ve seen that stuff
before too and it’s not fun at all. IT is a changing industry, and it’s
so
strange to me that people resist change.

The real test for us is to be willing to adapt when RoR is replaced by
something better. (!!GASP!!)

8

"Selling Ruby on Rails to the Masses"

Do the masses need Ruby On Rails?

The scenarios Zed describes are not uncommon any time a new technology
appears and sometimes you might save yourself a lot of heartache if you
just
keep it to yourself until the Old Guard retires or dies. Or, you can
work a
few hours a week on your own time and develop something that shows
them
why you think Rails is the way to go… if it works, great. If not, and
you’re still stuck on the idea, start looking for a new place to work,
somewhere you’ll be happier. (Better yet, work for yourself.)

Just for perspective: this battle has been going on forever.
Starry-eyed
hippie engineers would get hired right out of college babbling about
some
fancy new language called ‘C’ or ‘C++’ or something equally absurd, and
the
Fortran and COBOL and Lisp guys would feel The Fear - if this new
technology
became a focus, they’d either have to learn this strange new language or
face becoming irrelevant. And the new hires, to whom the new language
Just
Made Sense, were left wondering where all of the hostility and
resistance to
change was coming from. Now those same guys are staring at you
wondering
where you get your crazy ideas.

-foobario

One thing I would recommend Andrew is, “Never throw pearls before
swine.”

9

-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Zed A. Shaw
Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 3:55 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: [Rails] Re: Selling Ruby on Rails to the Masses

My only word of caution is that when the old timers join the
new group you’ve got to watch for saboteurs. I actually
worked on a project where a new sysadmin got caught
purposefully crashing our servers. He at first was just
killing the processes and changing file permissions (Samhain
is your friend), then him and other sysadmin friends would
just walk over to the box and turn it off.

Wow, I’d love to hear more about this. They did this because they felt
the new project/technology threatened their jobs, or did they have other
motivations?

I worked with another guy that would spend all his free time
finding flaws in RoR and then come to work ranting about them
or demanding we use these features so he could demonstrate
how screwed up they are.

What happened to this guy? What was his preferred platform (if any)?

So just watch out for this. It happens a lot more often than
you think, and many times it’s just not worth going to the
trouble to use possible saboteurs.

You’re scaring me Zed.

  • Dan

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