Are online custom research services real?

Would you approve/disapprove of allowing developers to research and work on new technologies a few hours per week in a software services startup (where finances are client-driven)?

• I have seen that working in a fledgling software services firm as a  programmer entails a lot (in fact, all) of the time being spent working  on meeting client specs and requirements on their software projects as  well as shuffling between different projects. So much that little effort  can be made to sit and research (and then work) on new and exciting  technologies. For instance, HTML5 holds wonderful prospects on both web  and mobile platforms but since it is still bleeding-edge (hence  difficult to convince clients to use it) and relatively new (hence the  lack of developers proficient in it), it's difficult to implement it on  the projects.  My question is, does it make sense to allocate a few hours in a week  (say, 2-3hrs on a particular day of the week) to let  programmers/developers work on the tools and technologies that they are  interested in with the aim of (what I see as) fulfilling the following: The developers are happy since they get to learn about and research on cool stuff. The company can (and ideally should) benefit from the research,  say for instance, we learn that mongoDB databases are a better choice to  implement on future projects than memcached-MySql. Of course, there could be some rules put into place to ensure  productivity and output such as pairing between programmers, giving a  presentation of the research or a rudimentary demo application of the  subject just researched. Not everything has to be bleeding-edge though.  For example, one could weigh the benefits of using Groovy web framework  over Spring (both of which are old technologies) and use the former in  the next java-based web project.  The underlying question remains if its a good thing to implement this  idea in a startup where finances are client-driven? How do you convey  this message to the client (that for so-and-so time period, we won't be  addressing your concerns)? The idea is to retain talent in the company  and deliver "cutting-edge" software products using the best tools and  technologies. Would you strongly disapprove of it? And if you concur,  how would you feel is the best way to go about it?

• Answer:

  From my experiences I've learned that most clients especially those who are focused on building sustainable long term businesses are willing to invest in this level of developer freedom. In fact there a lot missions which are purely to prototype and evaluate (a given technology or solution). This may not be the case for early stage companies that are striving towards that first round of investment. In such cases the company providing such services should estimate and identify goals that are achievable at a sustainable pace taking into consideration developer morale and motivations. An overly optimistic estimate would significantly burn out the team. In such cases it more a game of estimations and managing expectations. I've seen that these discussion usually evolve when you've been supporting a client for a significant period of time and have already established a certain level of trust. Its much harder to demand that freedom right at the beginning of an engagement. This is much easier for an already established company that has already established its credibility and most of what they say goes. Having said that its important that these expectations are set right for fixed bid projects and MVPs at the on boarding stage rather than mid flight.