Ask HN: How do you convince your bosses to use the right tools?

I find the "saves money" routine a bit transparent. It deprives your boss of the satisfaction to have contributed something important. Let your boss save the money, get the tools you want or need.<p>How? Simple, compare two solutions, write up advantages and disadvantages and present them. Since you have already made up your mind, you're biased to the thing you want anyway. Your boss will usually see your point and make the right decision.

I don't work at places that aren't already coughing up for the right tools. Literally. I have declined jobs because of this and would leave my current employer if this happened.

Become the boss. But you may find that your arguments aren't as persuasive as you thought they were once when you are the boss.

Things that have worked for me in the past and present:<p>1) Just use them. When you're demoing the product after a certain amount of work, explain how this new tool you've incorporated has benefitted the project in some major way.<p>I got Django accepted into the federal government doing this in what I believe was its first deployment (agencies don't generally talk, so there's no way to confirm that.)<p>Python was an accepted language, so I just wrote code in Django, explained how its use 'as a library' would expedite future releases, enable RAPIDER development and keep a clean, structured codebase, which was something they were having troubles with.<p>2) Choose products that actually DO provide benefit to the project. Sometimes it's hard, as a developer, to know the difference between "I want to use the Play Framework for this" and "The Play Framework is the right tool for this job." I often struggle with this myself, as I want to learn new things, and it's easy to get caught up in a new toy's feature list, and directly apply that to pain points you're having currently. When I was learning Ruby, I saw it as the tool to fix a lot of problems. Then, when I was learning Python, I saw the flaws in Ruby, and laughed at how I ever thought Ruby was the right idea. This isn't meant to be a slight on Ruby, as I'm guessing if I'd learned them in reverse order, I'd have had the reverse opinion.<p>It wasn't until well later that I got a good baseline for what each was actually better at (aside from the marketing points), and how to determine which one might fit a project better. It was even longer that I could make an emotionless decision to determine which actually made more sense _for a given project_.<p>If you have a real, valid reason to select a new language/framework/tool, and can both express the pain point to your boss, and illustrate how this new solution can reliably resolve that pain point without introducing equally sized, but different pain points, then it should be an easy sell. If you can't illustrate that, you might be a victim of your own personal bias. Don't feel bad, it happens.

Arguing that they'll get a decent return on investment. If your boss can't see that a £x outlay now will mean n * £x savings in improved efficiencies during a given period, you'll probably end up leaving to work for somebody who does! I know I have.

Put yourself in your boss' position and imagine he had to turn around and pitch your idea to a VP. What ammo can you give your boss to make that next-level conversation go smoothly? How does this new tool solve some problem the VP has been on your boss to solve?<p>Mention a competitor or partner company already using this tool successfully. Tell him what business metric will be positively affected by adopting the tool.<p>Timing can be critical so watch for the perfect moment to pitch your idea -- like ahead of a management meeting where your boss needs to talk up what your group is working doing.<p>But above all, be honest about the costs, benefits and alternatives. Good luck.

The answer to any question starting with "How do you convince your boss..." is always the same:<p>Give them an easy way to present it to their boss as their idea.

I've worked in more than one organization/department where management insisted upon "using the wrong tools".<p>In retrospect, the answer was / would have been always to leave.<p>Not only does it reduce your productivity while increasing your frustration. It marginalizes you in your career.<p>Get out, and look for some place interested in helping you maximize your potential.<p>(Note: This assumes you really do know what the best tools are, for a given circumstance. Inform yourself -- don't just assume.)

Don't forget that you may have to spring for some things yourself. If you worked with physical tools, like hammers, hard-hats, or calculators, you may have to provide some or all of them yourself. So, don't be afraid to bite the bullet and buy a license for a piece of software that will help you do your job better.

* Tell them how much money and how much time it saves.<p>* Where possible convert time into money.<p>* If it costs a lot of money, tell them how long it will take to recoup the investment.<p>* Give numbers.<p>* It is possible that your boss does not control the purse strings - so when you give your numbers make sure it's in a format that they can forward to their boss with few changes

Depends on your position . I will just tell that my productivity will be decreased if I don't use the one which I believe is best.

Become one of them and you make calls then.

Nothing.