What Works (and Doesn't) Selling Formal Methods
56 points by oger
56 points by oger
The slide “Cheap techniques work!” part way down is worth looking at if nothing else, but the advice here is good for any consulting engineering, not just formal methods.
Back when I was doing solo consulting full-time, some of my best clients were ones that I told “I’m not a good fit for your project. I’ll be too expensive and there are better options elsewhere. If you ever end up with a problem like x, y, or z though please give me a call”. Later on they would call back and we’d set up a contract for a problem that was a good fit. Sometimes I would give referrals to other companies and sometimes they’d do the same for me.
Thanks for pointing out! I was starting to read the article, but then stopped midway. This slide (and the paragraph surrounding it), however, resonated with me. I’ve worked a bit with TLA+ (model checking) last year with some smaller successes, had a big success with proberty-based testing this year. This slide gives me confidence that I’m on the right track with these two testing strategies (because code review, testing and CI/CD from further up on the list are already in place).
This is excellent and in my experience applies to selling any technical product. I love reading about sales from non sales people, always learn so much more!