Beware Renovators Remorse

After almost a lifetime in the Information Technology world, I've learned a few things. One of them is; Beware of Renovator's Remorse.

Renovator's Remorse is a condition that intrepid homeowners occasionally succumb to. A condition that has them saying "While we're at it, we might as well..... (insert unplanned improvement here)".

The temptation is almost unavoidable. Once you're tearing out a wall, you "might as well", upgrade the electrical or redo the plumbing... and in an instant your project goes from a room remodel to a major renovation. Your budget and timeline go out the window.

It's the same way with I.T. projects.

You begin with the mission to add some new functionality to a program. Once you're looking at the code, there's an almost irrestible temptation to fix it all. Rewrite code to make it more efficient. Clean up ugly or incoherant sections. Build better subroutines, take advantage of new technology, re-engineer the application...

And you do so at the peril of your project.

And your reputation.

It may make perfect sense to do all these things as long as you build them into your project estimates. After all, in the case of I.T. it's not YOUR money you're spending. And while you may be the beneficiary of more sustainable/supportable programs, the business may not be willing to pay the price or wait that long.

So be honest with your customer. If you sense a huge advantage in rewriting code instead of just adding it, explain it up front and get agreement before you dive in.

And next time, build in some time and expense into your job estimates to cover the "while we're at it" moments.