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Developers versus Programmers

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 10:14:21 -1100

Choosing a Freelance Software Developer can be a challenge. You have a software product to develop, a business to run, and two hundred emails to sort through. Taking the time to find a good freelance software developer can seem like an overwhelming burden.

But the benefits are worth the time.

Outsourcing your software project to a freelancer requires more of him or her than just writing code. There are many other things your software developer does to help you be successful:

Creating requirements
Designing project architecture
User interface design / Usability
Estimation
Project management
Database design
Programming
Testing
Solving big hairy problems
Writing documentation
Deployment
Clearly communicating
Technical support

You’ll notice only one item in that list is programming. “But wait,” you ask, “aren’t a developer and a programmer the same thing?”

No. A programmer is the guy whose only job is to cut code. The developer does much more and that’s what you need. Author and Software Craftsman Eric Sink:

Instead of "programmers" (people that specialize in writing code), what you need are "developers" (people who will contribute in multiple ways to make the product successful).

Specialists on a team of one is suicidal. A programmer will write code for the project whether or not it makes sense. A developer will call a timeout and ask “Why are we doing this?” A developer will guide your software to where you need it to be. A developer thrives on flexibility.

Separating the wheat from chaff

So how do you, perhaps a non-technical business person, determine if a freelancer is a programmer or a developer? Simple. Most of the differences between the two types aren’t technical issues anyway.

Asks good questions

A programmer will take the requirements as handed to them and begin to implement them. As I mentioned above, a developer will ask why you’ve made the decisions you have. Really good developers will find the flaws and help you build better software. They may even disagree with a design and push for a better solution.

Humility

A good developer will be humble. No one knows everything, and a good developer is humble enough to admit that. Developer Steve Yegge points out:

“[A]s your competence increases, your self-evaluation diminishes. The most competent people apparently tend to rate themselves below their skill level.”

Those are the kind of freelancers you need. Humble.

Has A Broad Resource Summary

A resource summary is like a resume for the freelancer. It lists the skills and experience the freelance candidate has. With a developer, you will see as many, if not more, of the non-programming tasks listed above than the programming ones.

From Design To Product

“Developers are involved in the whole process from design to product.”

Brian Howenstein said it best in his tweet. If you can’t imagine your candidate freelancer being involved for the whole project from start to finish, the candidate is probably a programmer. There is a place for heads-down programmers in a team environment, but when you hire a sole freelancer, you need a developer.

John Uhri has been helping his customers solve their business problems through Red Bit Blue Bit since 2006. He has been developing software professionally since 1995. John lives in Fishers, Indiana. Call him at 920.540.5490 to discuss your software needs.

Hierarchy of the Successful Independent Software Developer

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 16:53:38 -1100

In a 1943 paper, Abraham Maslow first proposed the Hierarchy of Needs. These were the needs he felt all people needed to fulfill, starting at the most basic and moving up as the needs below were met. The needs, progress from basic selfish needs to outwardly expressed ones. This progression moved through physiological, safety, belonging, esteem and ended at self-actualization.

Blogger and freelancer Tony D. Clark made a play on this with his Hierarchy of the Successfully Self-Employed. His hierarchy outlines four levels to self-employed success.

Mr. Clark’s four levels are freelancer, consultant, expert and guru. He defines those as follows:

Freelancer
The freelancer works on small projects for multiple clients. Unfortunately for some freelancers this can mean a meager income in trade for being someone’s lackey. Mr. Clark gives this imaginary comment from a client: “you’re a vendor, I’m the client. I don’t care what you think, just do it like I ask.” Most of these freelancers are doing okay, but only barely making a living. They trade their time for money. Personally, I don't consider the term "freelancer" to be pejorative. I actually like it.
Independent Contractor
Moving up the hierarchy of self-employed success means becoming an independent contractor. At this level, work is for a single client at a time on long-term projects. These projects could be anywhere from 3 months to a few years. Benefits here are a steady income and regular interactions with the same group of people.
Expert
Jumping the great divide of selling from transactional to consultative selling takes the contractor to the level of expert and trusted advisor. I like to think the expert is the consultant that's willing to tell you when you are wrong, even if it's at the expense of a consulting fee. Sometimes it means turning down new business when the expert's offering is not in the customer's best interest.
Guru
Mr. Clark insists becoming a Guru is not something attained, it is something realized. The primary realization is that there are two types of currency: money and time. Money can be replenished, time cannot. This is why Gurus “focus the bulk of their time on the Holy Grail of self employment — passive income.” Mr. Clark says the self-employed gurus do this through teaching.

Software Gurus

But I think Mr. Clark didn’t consider the geeks. I think programmer-types, in general, have a different plan of attack. Corporate developers look at the life of a freelancer and see the freedom. Rob Walling:

“Every corporate developer dreams of starting a consulting firm because it consists of working in a coffee shop with attractive baristas serving free Lattes, cutting a deal on your cell phone just before logging off for the day around noon to go catch a matinee.”

But like Mr. Clark, Mr. Walling knows the truth:

“The real story is getting a call at 7pm on Friday from an angry client telling you their site hasn’t been updated, or the server going down at midnight and having to take care of it because you are the only person on your team.”

At the same time, like the Freelancer and Independent Contractor, the Independent Software Developer is fighting over the work they do with their clients.

So… what, then?

Eric Sink, Software Craftsman at Sourcegear, wrote several MSDN articles back in 2004 about independent software vendors, or ISVs. Back then, Microsoft considered any company that was “not Microsoft” and selling software an ISV.

But that wasn’t what intrigued Mr. Sink. What he was really curious about was what he coined the Micro-ISV: the one-man software shops that sold a product:

“It turns out that lots of software products are created by companies made up of exactly one person. Those tiny companies are the focus of this article. Some might call them "indie" software developers. For now, I'm calling them "micro-ISVs".”

Micro-ISVs sell a downloadable product, games or shareware software. While some MicroISVs support their owners on a full-time basis, many more are so small, with so few sales they are a part-time endeavor.

That’s a problem.

Mr. Walling wants to take the Micro-ISV to the next level. The Guru Level.

He calls these small, one-person technology businesses Micropreneurs.

The Micropreneur has many of the same goals as the Micro-ISV, but with a radical mind-shift.

Write Code and launch awesome software
Support yourself without employees
Break away from the money for time tradeoff
Work where and when you like

Mr. Walling will be launching his own community of Micropreneurs at Six-Figure Software. (Now, before you think this is some sort of get-rich ponzi scheme, Mr. Walling is a highly respected technology blogger. His website ranks in the Top 100 Blogs for Developers (#40), and he has been a Micropreneur for 9 years.) I’m excited to see how his Six-Figure Software community grows.

I think, in the software world, there is a different hierarchy. I’ll call it the Hierarchy of the Successful Independent Software Developer.

I love helping my clients, but even as I do, I’m heading for the top. Fortunately, this isn’t a step-by-step process.

Communicating with your Freelance Software Developer, Part 2

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 05:58:53 -1100

Ultimately, the interactions you have with your freelancer should leave you with what consultant Steve Friedl calls “the Warm, Fuzzy Feeling”. This is the feeling where you are comfortable enough with your developer that you don’t wake up in the middle of the night wondering how your software project is doing. It is the feeling of trust. Building a trustworthy relationship with a remote consultant requires good communication. So what good communication habits can you establish with your developer to build that trust?

Understand creative flow

Creative flow, or being “in the zone” is a happy place for your software developer to be. It means he is being productive and getting your code written.

Imagine, if you will, a juggler. It is pretty easy for her to start juggling three balls. Picking up and juggling one more ball is pretty easy, but takes a bit of time. Eventually, our talented juggler has 20 balls up in the air. Amazing! She could keep this up all day. Unfortunately, some yahoo from the audience has rushed the stage and knocked her over. The balls fall to the ground. She starts to pick them up and starts the routine again. Twenty minutes later she’s back to the same point she was before being knocked over.

Creative flow is a lot like that. A software developer juggles bits of code, variable names, and things he (or she) needs to do next in the context of the software he is writing. A one minute interruption can knock a developer out of his flow and it can take up to 20 minutes to return to the previous state of productivity.

One benefit of working with your freelance software developer is that he has carved out an environment that allows for maximum productivity. Interruptions from the “water cooler gang” are non-existent in the freelancer’s office. It is by design. Don’t be surprised if your freelancer doesn’t immediately answer the ringing phone or the pinging email. He might just have the ringer silenced and the email app closed during an intense burst of coding.

Be responsive

Once the project has gone into full-bore development mode, your developer will be thinking of issues in small, bite-sized increments. Questions that arise during this time are often show-stoppers for the developer, so he needs answers quickly. The developer may be able to work on another bit of code for a while, but the open questions will be a drag on his productivity. Respond to the developer as soon as you have a free moment to keep him going.

So does the responsiveness of your freelancer to you contradict his need for flow? Yes, but that being said, your developer should be checking voice mail and email at least twice daily and responding within one business day. Your questions to your freelancer are just as important as his.

If it isn’t written down, it doesn’t exist

Human brains are fickle things. We tend to forget things pretty easily. Since this is the case, every decision should be written down. It provides a record of what was discussed and what decision was made. Usually a quick follow up email will suffice after a phone call or meeting. If changes are significant enough, an update to the requirements might also be necessary. Ensure the entire team knows what changes were discussed and it’s impact to the project.

I believe this is everyone’s responsibility, but as the freelancer I always document what was said in a quick email. I find it is better for me to write it down in a way that makes sense to developers. Your project might be different. Make sure you communicate who will follow-up with post-meeting notes.

The value of time

Meetings and phone calls can absorb a lot of time, especially when more than one team member is involved. To make meetings more efficient, the meeting requestor should create an agenda. Sometimes, the bullet points can be discussed without a meeting, thus shortening the agenda considerably or even eliminating the need for a conference call at all.

In Conclusion

Clear and effective communication will help your project’s completion. Working with a freelance software developer can be a great experience if both parties make the effort to build trust through efficient communication.

Communicating with your Freelance Developer

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 07:44:54 -1100

Outsourcing your software development to a freelance developer allows you to get your software built without the overhead of office space and providing computer resources. But communication with an off-site programmer has its own challenges. A freelancer is not as intimately connected to your organization’s mission. Software development also needs its own level of communication in expressing detailed requirements.

Jason Williams (@centrolutions) asked, “How do I communicate with you effectively about technical details/specs if you’re not working from my office?”

The answer to the question depends greatly on the technical abilities of the client and the size of the team. The tools used by a Technical Team Lead for a team of 5 will be different than that used by a small business owner using the freelancer as a software development team of 1. The size of the project (and therefore the amount of specs needed) is also a factor. In any case, no single technology solves all of the problems, but a good blend will create an effective communication strategy with off-site freelance developers.

Face-to-Face Meetings: Getting together with your freelance software developer is the best way to communicate requirements and vision for the project. Great for kick-off and milestone meetings.; Pros: This is the only method that accounts for non-verbal communication. Unclear requirements can be hashed out and problems discussed.; Cons: Expensive or infeasible when you and the freelance developer are not in the same regional area. Written documentation must be created based on discussions from the meeting.
Phone Calls: Picking up the phone and having a short conversation with your freelance developer allows you to quickly discuss issues, statuses and concepts.; Pros: Once the project is underway questions can be quickly answered. Great for quick status updates. Clarification of issues from email or IM is often faster via phone.; Cons: Non-verbal cues might be missed. Follow-up documentation will still need to be created. Can be disruptive.
Voice Mail: Pros: Good for answering quick, simple questions.; Cons: Not good for discussing complex issues. Message is sometimes lost in the rambling. No written documentation. Playing phone tag may take more time than a simple email.
Conference Calls: When a team is involved, conference calls are the next logical step after one-on-one phone calls.; Pros: Verbal dissemination of information to the team.; Cons: Often it is difficult for the off-site freelancer to hear the full conversation. Sometimes hard to know who is speaking. Definite non-verbal communication loss within a group. Not documented.
Email: Email is the de facto method of communication for business today. Everyone is familiar with email.; Pros: Provides a method for explaining complex thoughts. This is written documentation that can be referred back to later.; Cons: Less interactive than a phone call or instant message. Verbal tone and connotation is missing. Written documentation is not organized in any way and is only available to the participants of the email thread. Favors people who can type.
Instant Messaging: Instant Messaging, or IM for short, is an interactive text-based method for communicating with others on the Internet. IM allows for a dialog to go back and forth in real-time.; Pros: Non-disruptive - IM can be ignored if one part is busy. Also less disruptive than a verbal conversation in an office setting. Self-documenting. Interactive - the conversation can ebb and flow as needed. A conversation can carry on throughout a day, picked up whenever someone has information to add.; Cons: It's not a tool many clients are familiar with or comfortable using. IM favors the fast typist. Documentation is not organized and is localized to the participants.
Word, Excel and Visio: Office productivity applications are the de facto method for documenting requirements. These tools are only part of the solution, as getting the information to your freelancer requires one of the other methods.; Pros: Everyone knows how to use Word or Excel.; Cons: Documents still need to be passed back-and-forth. Often this is as email attachments which can result in versioning problems (where one person references an out-of-date document). Often documents are not updated as the project progresses.
Issue Tracking Software: Issue tracking software is used by most software development teams to track, assign, resolve and report on defects or features implemented in a software solution. Requirements can be expressed as an issue in the tracking software.; Pros: All issues are tracked and their status is known. A history of changes can be reviewed. Issues are assigned to a certain person on the team.; Cons: Not all issue trackers are online and accessible to all team members. May be difficult for non-technical folks to understand and use.
Wiki: A wiki is an online, editable website designed for collaboration. Anyone on a team can create, edit and clarify pages.; Pros: Changes are tracked in history. Latest version of any document is always displayed. Information can be cross-referenced and linked.; Cons: Edit syntax can be difficult to learn.
Web-Based Project Collaboration Tools: Online products like 37 Signal's Basecamp provide a centralized location for a client and freelancer to work together.; Pros: Online, available to entire team. Centralized documentation.; Cons: You may need to pay for these services.

In a follow-up post, I will cover my preferred workflow and some other thoughts in communicating with your freelance software developer.

Groundhog Day Resolution Review #1 – 03/03

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 07:25:49 -1100

Today is March 3rd, and thus is a Groundhog Day Resolution Review day. Unfortunately, I was so late in the month in publishing my goals, I only had one week to work on them. It is still better than nothing.

To review, the goals were:

Blog each Monday on Read Bits. I posted my GHD Resolutions last week Monday. Also, for the first time, I’ve set up a blogging workflow I believe will help me be successful at maintaining a blogging schedule in the future. Pass.
Blog each Thursday on Smaller Indiana. I posted a number of links to inspiring entrepreteurial posts. Pass.
Blog each Wednesday on the SaaS idea. I’m still not ready to fully publicize what I’m working on, but I did post to the “Project10” blog. Pass.
Finish the database design for the Project10. I’m pretty happy with the first pass of the database design for the project. I’ve built the tables and the table relationships. Views and Stored Procedures will be created as needed. Pass.

For the next month, here are the goals I would like to accomplish.

Consulting
- Goal: Determine status each week on open proposals.
- Goal: Make/touch base with four contacts each week to build new business.
Marketing
- Goal: Blog each Monday on Read Bits
- Goal: Blog each Wednesday on Project10 blog.
- Goal: Blog each Thursday on Smaller Indiana.
- Goal: Attend two networking events here in #Indy by 04 April.
Building a Web Application
- Project10 is in progress. As this project is only a part-time endeavor, progress may seem slow for the time being. I’m setting a couple of goals for the next few weeks.
- Goal: Set up a home page and login validation by 11 March.
- Goal: Create a logged-in user’s home page by 20 March.
- Goal: First pass displaying a user’s public profile by 04 April.
Personal Education
- Learning is a requirement for any software developer. Skills in the technology industry change so quickly. There are two things I would like to pursue this year: Learning ASP.NET MVC and Ruby on Rails. It makes little sense for me to try and learn both right now. Because Project10 is just getting started, I have the opportunity to build a project from the ground up using ASP.NET MVC. Goal: Learn and implement ASP.NET MVC in Project10.
Other
- My current development workstation is 3 years old. This has surpassed the typical 18-month life of a development machine. It’s time to upgrade. Instead of purchasing a new computer from Dell, I’m going to build a machine I can upgrade components as needed. Goal: Determine new computer components to purchase by 20 March.

(FYI – It has not eluded me that I’m releasing this post on Tuesday rather than Monday.)

2009 Groundhog Resolutions (aka Business Goals)

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 16:02:32 -1100

Back at the beginning of February, I blogged about Groundhog Day Resolutions, and the monthly reviews (GHDRR). At the time, I didn’t get specific on what my business goals were for this year. Checking the calendar, I now realize I’m closer to the 3/3 review than the 2/2 goals setting date. Ack!

Honestly, I’m not sure this post will truly outline what those goals are either. First, I want to outline my high level aspirations for the next year. These aspirations fall into one of 5 categories:

Consulting

Software development consulting has been the basis of Red Bit Blue Bit from the beginning. My plan was to start with subcontracting – where I outsourced the marketing and sales to another company who took a portion of the hourly rate. After using my own time to build a base of clients I cut out the middle-man (as it were) and consulted directly with my clients. This is a better relationship for me as it allows the personalized service I offer to my clients. It also allows me the flexibility to work offsite rather than occupying a desk and resources at my client’s office. I will continue to pursue this as an income stream for the next year.

Marketing

The lifeblood of a consultancy/freelancer is the ability to fill the sales pipeline with new contacts. Eventually, some of these contacts will turn into referrals or new business. Marketing is one aspect to the sales pipeline. It is what populates the pipeline at the very top. Marketing efforts will include blogging-at and the redesign-of the Red Bit Blue Bit website, blogging on Smaller Indiana – a website for small business people in Indiana – and attending local networking events.

Building a Web Application

Separating time from revenue is the holy grail of the entrepreneurial lifestyle. Multiple revenue streams that work while I sleep allows me to better focus the time when I am awake. To this end, my third phase from my original business plan was to become an Independent Software Vendor (ISV) with a product to sell or a Software as as Service (SaaS) offering.

I have identified a need I believe a SaaS solution will solve well. To that end, I’ve started building the website for the project. At the same time I am blogging on issues related to the niche need. Both of these pursuits will be a focus for the month.

Learning

No one succeeds in their career without learning and growing. My SaaS project will be developed using the ASP.NET MVC framework – a relatively new framework for ASP.NET. I feel this is a good thing to learn as I am already familiar with C# and the .NET framework.

Family-First Entrepreneurship

The idea of Family-First Entrepreneurship was coined by Mike Warnke. My final goal is to remember that building a business comes with a balance with family life. One will always affect the other. For me, I believe that my time here on earth should be defined by who is impacted most: my family.

Short Term Goals

Because of the limited time between now and the next GHDRR, I’m only going to set a few small goals I would like to accomplish in the next week or so.

Blog each Monday on Read Bits. (Marketing)
Blog each Thursday on Smaller Indiana. (Marketing - local)
Blog each Wednesday on the SaaS idea. (Marketing / SaaS)
Finish the database design for the SaaS idea. (SaaS)

At the next GHDRR I will set additional goals and outline the longer term goals in more detail.

Groundhog Day Resolutions 2009

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 14:37:09 -1100

In the movie Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays a crude, selfish weatherman by the name of Phil Connors. By some strange twist of fate, Phil is seemingly doomed to repeat February 2 over and over again until he able to correctly navigate the day, win the girl, and turn into a generally decent person. As productivity blogger David Seah said, it is a movie about “self-improvement and establishing genuine relationships”.

What’s wrong with New Year’s Resolutions?

Every year, millions of Americans (and probably folks worldwide) set goals on New Year’s day. But exhaustion from the holidays sets in, a backlog of tasks need to get wrapped up, and next thing they know it’s February and the treadmill is buried under a pile of laundry that needs folding. More often than not, it’s a lesson in futility.

Someone should find a better way.

Groundhog Day Resolutions

Fortunately, David Seah did. He combined goal setting, an under-appreciated holiday and a self-improvement movie into a clever way to create and track goals. In 2007 he introduced the world to Groundhog Day Resolutions. Instead of setting goals on 1/1 – in the frantic-ness of the new born year, he suggested setting goals on 2/2 – Groundhog Day.

In a brilliant bit of patterning, he also started a tradition of review days on: 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8, 9/9, 10/10, 11/11 and 12/12. Once you’ve reached 12/12 you can sit back and enjoy the holidays for the remainder of the year.

2009 Business Goals – meta thoughts

In the past, I’ve posted my personal GHD resolutions on my personal blog. My business goals, though, were something I held privately. I thought perhaps that business goals should be held privately so the competition doesn’t know what I’m up to. But really, I think there’s a fear of criticism. It’s something Seth Godin talks about in Tribes:

“Fear of failure is actually overrated as an excuse […] ”

“What people are afraid of isn’t failure. It’s blame. Criticsm.

“We choose not to be remarkable because we’re worried about criticism. We hesitate to create innovative movies, launch new human resource initiatives, design a menu that makes diners take notice, or give an audacious sermon because we’re worried, deep down, that someone will hate it and call us on it.”

Criticism is a pretty silly thing to deter the changes in personal and business goals. It is especially true if you want to do something amazing, and who doesn’t?

In today’s interconnected, social media online world, the criticism is hardly a worry. The best benefit is the encouragement others can give you. Lorraine Ball at Roundpeg shouts it from the rooftops:

“Whatever your goal is, do not keep it a secret! Share your goals! Tell others what you want to accomplish so they can help. Make sure everyone on your team knows what the company is trying to accomplish so they can work toward the same goal. Communicate progress toward a goal and celebrate the achievement of the goal with everyone involved.

“If you work alone, share your goals with peers, friends and advisors. I find sharing my goals with my peers keeps me focused, energized and on-target toward my goals.”

On Twitter I’ve been using the #dailygoals hash tag to track micro-goals at the daily level. I can see how I did by going to TrackDailyGoals. I love the fact that people I barely know are watching to see how I did. Public accountability can sometimes be a great motivator. I also like classifying success as movement toward the goal, rather than the completion of the item. I think success breeds success with this mindset.

2009 Business Groundhog Day Resolutions

In the next few days I will post my goals. Back in November I drafted a few things I wanted to have as 2009 goals, and I want to polish them up before posting. Stay tuned :-)

Why Hire a Freelancer?

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 07:36:18 -1100

As a business owner, you are no doubt evaluating your business in light of the current economic environment while planning your software development expenditures for this year. One consideration in your planning is to use freelancer software developers. Now, there are plenty of false assumptions about hiring independent contractors, and many companies are unaware of the benefits of hiring a freelancer. I will address some of the reasons to hire a freelancer:

Specific Expert Help

Freelancers are exposed to a variety of problems, business domains and technology solutions. It is unreasonable to expect employees to cover all of these bases. Finding a freelancer with the specific knowledge you need is a huge benefit. If your project has a specific problem that needs solving, a freelancer with the right knowledge can fix the problem without being a cost for the duration of the project.

Offload burdens

Existing staff is often called up on to support existing systems. Frequently, this leaves little time to develop new software processes that will take your business to the next level. This is the perfect reason to call on a freelancer. The independent software developer can work on your new project and free up your employees to do what they know best.

Only paid for work

When an employee is sick, your company still pays his or her salary. The same is true for vacations, holidays and jury duty. With a freelancer, only the time spent working on your project is billable. You don’t pay for the health insurance benefits, 401Ks or dental plan for a freelancer. If there is a slowdown in the project because of more pressing business matters, you can throttle down the work the freelancer is doing to reduce the billable hours, saving you money.

Flexibility

The work you need to accomplish may not fit into a single block of time. With an employee, you must find other things for him/her to do when the project is not in full development. Freelancers live a life of ensuring they have work for those downtimes so you do not have to. Independent contractors can work on a long-term, short-term, full-time, part-time or as-needed basis. This flexibility allows you to fit the project into your timelines and focus on your business.

Lower Expenses

Freelancers provide their own computer equipment, benefits and desk space. These are fixed costs with an employee ongoing outside of the project itself. While there is a premium for using a freelancer, it is only for the duration of the project. This lets you free up financial and physical resources for other needs.

Commitment to excellence

Referrals are the lifeblood of a freelancer. Since this is the case, an independent freelancer will work hard to ensure the project is completed on time and within budget. The freelancer is motivated by a good referral to do their best work.

Outside the box thinking

Freelancers aren’t encumbered by the “that’s the way we’ve always done it” mantra. Their creativity can breathe fresh life into your project by finding new and more efficient ways to solve your business needs.

Outside the politics arena

Freelancers are generally emotionally detached from the politics of a corporate environment. Political games are played when promotions, raises and benefits are involved. Freelancers, especially those off-site, are not distracted by these environmental factors and can get down to work. Independent contractors are not invested in the company, only the project.

Minimum hire and fire friction

There is no question in a freelancer’s mind that hiring and firing are a part of everyday life. When an employee’s entire income is generated by their salary they are emotionally affected by a termination or change in the business environment. Contractors take a terminated contract in stride and move on with little drama.

Accountability

A benefit to using freelancers is a formal structure for accountability. When you hire a freelancer, your company and the freelancer enter into a contract (hopefully written) that defines the relationship. “The project is X number of hours to be billed at Y rate to develop Product Z.”

In corporate life, employees sometimes play the blame game. Freelancers are solely responsible for their work and are motivated to clearly define their role in a project. As the project sponsor, you should be able to say “yes” or “no” to each requirement as defined and know if the freelancer has met his or her commitment.

Final Thoughts

Hiring a freelance developer can be intimidating without understanding the benefits a freelancer can bring to the table. I hope I have been able to show you some of these benefits to consider in your business planning for 2009.

Contact Red Bit Blue Bit today to discuss your business needs. I love to create software that solves your business problems. Together, we’ll turn your problems into solutions.

Test Post.

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:00:00 -1100

This is a test post, I'm using to test commenting.

MVC Storefront Screencasts

john.uhri.nospam@nospam.redbitbluebit.com (John Uhri) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 02:57:00 -1100

Rob Conery has been building a Storefront demo using Microsoft's ASP.NET MVC framework. He has screencast the process and posted them on his blog. I was getting frustrated trying to get to the beginning of the list (since they are in reverse chronological order), so I've created the list of posts in order: