[taligent]

It's not impossible but retraining 100+ developers in a new platform takes a lot longer than hiring a new team. And it is not just about knowledge but also culture and enthusiasm.

Can you not see how the clean slate approach where you leave behind all of the Linux/Qt/Symbian baggage could be appealing ?

It's not dissimilar from what happen with Apple's failed Copland project where a new team came in (NeXT), took control of a new OS/apps strategy and ultimately saved the company.

[kabdib]

> It's not impossible but retraining 100+ developers in a new platform takes a lot longer than hiring a new team

So you don't get rid of them all.

I saw a team go from LISP to C++ in the space of a few months. Some people got disgusted and left, some people got disgusted and stayed (and we'd wished they'd left), but a surprising number prospered, hunkered down and shipped.

As long as you're in roughly the same domain (say, "phones") I imagine it's less expensive to keep most of a team around, deal with attrition, and hire in new folks to fill the cracks.

[emidln]

Why do you need to retrain developers? I'm certain that I've never had any corporate training outside of what jokes not to make, places not to touch others, and things not to give to anonymous (yeah, seriously). I've never undergone technical training through a career that has gone through at least a few pretty big companies (Omron, Abbott, EADS).

[edragoev]

I can clearly see why this kind of thinking may be appealing to some people.

The question is - how is this clean break and leaving "the baggage" behind going work?

I can't stop thinking about this imaginary company:

They have Java/Linux based system that is not selling very well so they hire new CEO. The new CEO announces to the company's customers that the Java/Linux is "burning platform". He fires all 100 Java developers and hires 100 C#/.NET developers ...

Somehow I think this is not going to end up well ...

A competent CEO (or CTO) will try to sell the new platform to developers by pointing out the advantages. He would hire maybe 25 experienced .NET developers to replace the 25 developers that left because they believe more in Java/Linux in the long term. He may have to let 10 developers go because they just don't want to learn anything new ... You end up with a team that still has the business knowledge, is committed to moving to the new platform and has people with experience about it.

Meanwhile you still make money selling the Java application until you are ready with the .NET one.

Isn't this 101 common business sense?

-- Can you not see how the clean slate approach where you leave behind all of the Linux/Qt/Symbian baggage could be appealing ?

[HorizonXP]

Fair enough. It does present an interesting scenario where there's suddenly an increase in good Qt developers in the market.

Since RIM is doubling-down on Qt for BlackBerry 10, it allows them to recruit experienced developers to help them. Maybe they can leverage it to pull off something similar to Apple with NeXT.

Here are some job postings:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:QAwzH5I...

http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/17584