Ask HN: How common is it for web agencies to grant repository access to clients? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How common is it for web agencies to grant repository access to clients?

5 pointsdongavich5 comments

Lack of trust between client and web dev agencies seems to be a common thread.

For me, the most important issue is code quality - all I see are the defects discovered by our internal test team... often functionality is broken that has no apparent relationship to the features being worked on.

I would love to see who is approving pull requests (or if code is just being merged without any checks).

Has anyone heard of clients getting read access to their dev agency's repository?

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"often functionality is broken that has no apparent relationship to the features being worked on."

This is not necessarily about getting access to the code repo. You need a project management tool between the client and dev term where they can track requirements and delivery of those requirements. The code is more of an implementation detail.

If clients start asking for access to code repo, that opens up a whole different ballgame and should be done at a MUCH higher price (read: enterprise). I would never give access to our code repo unless the client has specifically agreed to pay for that access. If clients are worried about what is being delivered, project management tool solves that.

Yes, I understand that clients can also be developers or technical. But the whole point of going with a third party company is that you DON'T want to look into code and stuff. Otherwise, you may as well build an internal team yourself.

I'm not really familiar with the web agency space, but from working at a few enterprises that have outsourced dev work & technical understanding for internal line-of-business applications:

* If you're paying someone to write or customise code for you, why wouldn't you want to own that code, and be able to read and/or patch it?

* If you've outsourced the dev talent, do you have enough in house technical capability to evaluate if the company you're outsourcing to is taking you for a ride and is producing a giant pile of tech debt that will become increasingly expensive and slow to make controlled changes to (i.e. changes that don't inject a high rate of new production defects and regressions)?

I think it's common, but not really a lack of trust thing -- instead the code is a work product unless what you are paying for is a functioning application + hosting + support.

If stuff is breaking then it means you have a more serious problem on your hands then just lack of access to the code base and that access will not solve it for you.

That would depend entirely on the contract agreed by the agency and the client. Providing source code is usually a (heavily) billable deliverable.

Yes, all our customers can get source code access if they wish. It is their application after all. Any reason why they should not get access?

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