Pros
- Used to hire really smart developers. Many are still there. - Some good test practices, have a good test group. - Deliveries are consistently more stable, better tested than other contractors. - The Software Product Line approach has finally failed (only scaled-down version exists in the form of "futures"). - Mostly window offices rather than cubes. - Located in South Austin. - Some advance notice over the past few months about impending layoffs.
Kontras
- Jim Wade retired a long time ago. After company was acquired by Textron it hasn't been the same since. - Ambitious, talented developers run off by old-school, out-of-touch management. Now many of these developers are competitors who are siphoning away contracts. - Lost good managers (domain experts) who could bring in new business. - 0% flexibility to work from home. - No more pay over 40 hours (unlike competitors). - No flex-time. - Process at the expense of common sense (too much process, and the process police are often clueless). - The customer is often difficult, political, unpredictable, sometimes nasty. - Bug fix cycles can be monotonous, mind-numbingly tedious (lots of process). - Series of layoffs over the last two years have taken huge toll on morale. - Technical lead role usually means you'll never write code again. - The definition of a "good developer" according to management is often someone willing travel or take on lead roles rather than someone who can actually design or write code. This has resulted in a dilution of technical competency over the years.