Questions tagged [freelancing]
Questions for professional programmers who are often contracted out for various positions rather than being part of a company.
206 questions
31
votes
17
answers
6k
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A client wants us to screen work machines for pornography. Is it possible? [closed]
A long-time client has asked us to help screen their work machines for pornography. They're worried about liability if sensitive materials were found. Their main concerns (for obvious reasons) are ...
- 214k
1
vote
1
answer
463
views
What is the best way to send SMS through my own SIM card? [closed]
TLDR: I'm looking for advice on the most straightforward method to set up an SMS system using my own SIM card, without relying on SMS service providers like Twilio or MessageBird.
Currently, I am ...
- 214k
37
votes
14
answers
2k
views
How to improve relationships between consultants and staff programmers
I have been a consultant for a small software consulting firm for quite some time now. Our normal business model is not staff augmentation, but such that we find clients who need assistance in ...
- 33.8k
457
votes
22
answers
103k
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My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product [closed]
Working as a freelancer, I often see strange requests from my customers, some of which can negatively affect my daily work¹, and others trying to set some sort of control. I usually encounter those ...
- 434
12
votes
6
answers
1k
views
GPL in the workplace?
I once interviewed at a consulting company where it came up in the conversation that they use open source products (which is great, I've used Hibernate, JBoss, etc. extensively.) One thing that did ...
- 47.5k
2
votes
0
answers
64
views
How to back out of a website development job that's way out of my league [duplicate]
TLDR: project scope has crept beyond my capabilities and I need an early exit strategy (in both parties' best interest)
Early last year I took on a gig to develop a web application for a financial ...
- 29
11
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Employee vs Contractor mentality and career [closed]
I'm trying to work something out which isn't quite covered in any of the other "contractor vs employee" threads. In a nutshell: Is there a natural (possibly even hard-wired and inborn) tendency for ...
- 5,693
-1
votes
5
answers
600
views
Clever way to license/obfuscate web applications until the client has paid for it
I am doing contract work for various clients and I was wondering how best to go about safeguarding myself against non-payment. The projects will be ASP.NET web applications, most likely intranet-based....
- 1,811
-4
votes
1
answer
66
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When making websites for clients, what's the best way to handle payments that clients pay for, but you design?
When making a website for a client, how do you deal with payments (hosting, theme, plugins, software, ect) when you are setting everything up for them, though the client will be paying for the systems/...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
130
views
Change Requests Billing
I have a website developed for my client, and he's currently on an annual maintenance billing for the same post development pushed to production, that he'd paid me for the development charges ...
- 4,734
2
votes
2
answers
350
views
Estimating How Many Hours A Project SHOULD have taken
I am the senior developer at a company I work for and we have rapidly added many other developers and contractors. Our company is growing and that is great! Recently however, I have been tasked with ...
- 11.7k
6
votes
4
answers
2k
views
How and when to choose between Data Consolidation/Data Integration and Data Synchronisation?
I am having some confusion as to how to decide what to choose between Data Consolidation/Data Integration and Data Synchronisation? I know that:
Data Consolidation/Data Integration: refers to the ...
CommunityBot
- 1
18
votes
6
answers
12k
views
Recommended Payment Schedule for Freelance Development
I've been a freelance developer for many years and am setting up a system designed to attract clients through one of my developer websites.
If successful, these would be clients I do not know, and ...
- 20.8k
1
vote
1
answer
281
views
Charging for a project where you retain the IP for the end product
I have read up on quite a few of these questions asked on here regarding "how much should I charge for..." such as:
How should I charge for programming things which take two minutes to fix?
https://...
- 20.8k
2
votes
3
answers
192
views
Getting started with outsourcing small scientific computation tasks to online freelancers
I have to compute small mathematical problems for my work. My main work is to develop and solve these problems analytically. I then have to compute these problems in mathematica, but this is not my ...
- 1,132
7
votes
2
answers
350
views
How to define fixed priced software projects and how to argue what is inside scope and what is outside scope? [closed]
So here is what happened
The customer gave me a list of things he wanted to have. It is a funding website. So to start a funding project he wanted to have certain fields in the "create/edit funding ...
- 115k
16
votes
14
answers
11k
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Should I ask/tell my boss before freelancing? [closed]
I am currently working as an intern at a consulting firm. I am soon to move to a full time employee once I graduate next semester, and I love working there. However, as a student, I lack money and I ...
- 20.8k
13
votes
1
answer
18k
views
What are the characteristics or features of production-quality code?
This is the first time I will be delivering code for a freelance project (web-app), and, since I don't have much experience shipping code, I am having a hard time deciding whether my program is ready ...
- 241
-2
votes
1
answer
490
views
Is it a bad practice to quit a company only to begin as a consultant? [closed]
Like the title says; is it a bad practice to quit a company after a few years, only to begin as a consultant for the same 'customer'?
I've been lucky enough to come in to a company in the oil ...
- 200k
1
vote
3
answers
897
views
Is Professional Code Review/Mentoring Offered? [closed]
I'm a newer developer who has worked on some personal projects as well as non-profit/charity projects. However, I seem to be the most "senior" developer in my circle, meaning, most guys come to me for ...
CommunityBot
- 1
0
votes
1
answer
205
views
Impact of ending contract with know-ins-and-outs lead developer of a project [duplicate]
I have a long time running project. Its been running for about 6 months. The project is very big. The lead developer/team leader designed the project and the whole project is in his brain. He knows ...
- 20.8k
27
votes
3
answers
1k
views
What advice would you give to someone going freelance? [closed]
I'm trying to get out of the Corporate game and go indie. I've always prided myself on being a jack of all trades so I think it suits me.
If you're a freelancer or independent, what's the best advice ...
- 20.8k
8
votes
4
answers
1k
views
Where can you find your first customers as a freelancer? [closed]
I want to start doing freelance work, but no matter how I look at it, it seems like the best way to get customers and to have work most of the time, you have to already be in the freelancing game.
...
- 20.8k
31
votes
12
answers
3k
views
Why do companies tell me they want me as an in-house employee, not as a contractor? [closed]
Context
I am looking for work as a contractor in my field of expertise and would prefer to earn less money and have less benefits working as a short-term contractor.
The problem:
Companies say I ...
- 410
22
votes
11
answers
13k
views
Hand over source code to customer
I have made a couple iPhone applications for a customer and was asked today to hand over the source code so that they could do the maintenance if this should be required.
Until now, no code issues ...
- 39.5k
9
votes
3
answers
415
views
Queries on online project outsourcing sites
I have been looking at RentACoder, Freelancer and eLance from last few years but I always hesitated to register at these site. Hesitation includes little worry too. These questions fill me:
(1) Is ...
- 353
2
votes
3
answers
119
views
Is there a way to infer a task's cost using Story Points or something else in Scrum?
We are a bunch of freelancers working together making websites and apps and we starting using Scrum recently. We're enjoying Scrum and its transparency but we're encountering a problem with the budget ...
- 37.8k
1
vote
1
answer
160
views
Sharing code with API vendor for review without giving them access to the server or repo
A private company allowed me to use their API to make REST API calls (using Basic Authentication) in my application's server side. They also asked to see my implementation before I can go live.
From ...
CommunityBot
- 1
66
votes
28
answers
108k
views
Why are more programmers not freelance these days? [closed]
Leaving the whole pie to only a few of them, amplifying the huge differences between the two status. Pay is a (huge) one, not having to do overtime is another.
I leave the question open to hopefully ...
CommunityBot
- 1
0
votes
2
answers
760
views
How escrow works on software projects? [closed]
My understanding of escrow, as it is used in software projects between a "client" (commissioning the software/app) and a "contractor" (developer; provider of application services) is as follows:
The ...
- 200k
11
votes
3
answers
7k
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Starting consulting while employed - conflict of interest [closed]
First of all I am not after legal advice. This is a bit TL;DR but I have a summary at the bottom, I'm explaining it all so people can offer insightful advise.
Situation
I need to explain my present ...
CommunityBot
- 1
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Is it okay to add time for "unexpected delays" to a time estimate?
I've landed my first contract (hooray, self employment!) and the company is asking for time estimates.
Programmers are notoriously bad at time estimates, and I know I've been laughably wrong before....
- 20.8k
17
votes
6
answers
1k
views
How can I remove my fear of doing freelancing work? [closed]
I usually work in a web design company, but my manager also has his own company. He is a designer basically and he catches the projects with clients and then I do his work during weekends or whenever ...
- 20.8k
5
votes
2
answers
166
views
What document/artifact should alert me when an old requirement changes the scope of new one?
I developed a software application a year ago, I delivered it with a simple documentation.
For example, it has an special and complicated login system as requirement.
Now the customer calls and ask ...
- 3,188
2
votes
1
answer
81
views
Demonstrate or Report a project to Client while freelancing
I have started freelancing for couple of weeks and have done few projects.
While doing it I found myself in risky situation when client ask progress and also want to see it done. which means I have ...
- 1,293
2
votes
4
answers
535
views
Freelancing and GPL?
Is it possible for a freelance programmer to use Open Source products under GNU Public License and make money given that he cannot stop his customers from freely distributing his products?
- 162
34
votes
7
answers
8k
views
Who should pay for fixes/bugs? [closed]
So I just started freelancing both in desktop/web development and this client who already accepted my work, and payed me keeps coming back at me each time he finds a bug etc. And I have found myself ...
- 20.8k
3
votes
0
answers
118
views
Client and access to Github history [closed]
About a year ago, our company hired a development company to build a mobile app we had been longing to do, but never got the time to develop.
With previous bad luck with outsourcing, we got it on ...
- 299
4
votes
2
answers
225
views
Client Request Explanation of "Benefits" as part of consulting fee
I gave my rate to my client with a simple breakdown as requested.
I listed out the components of my rate:
Salary
Benefits
Overhead (tax, suppliers, etc etc)
The client is ok with 1) and 3)
But he ...
- 20.8k
5
votes
4
answers
2k
views
What to charge for a ready-built piece of software? [closed]
Recently I was contacted by someone interested buying a piece of software that I wrote to automate a process. The 'client' knows little about the program, except what it outputs and how easy it is to ...
CommunityBot
- 1
3
votes
3
answers
339
views
Made a windows gadget for the local tram company without request. What now?
I'm too lazy to look at a pdf/table when the next tram is, so I did a windows widget that always tells me when the next one is. You can add, edit and delete trams to be watched.
I don't work for this ...
- 27.7k
11
votes
2
answers
2k
views
How exactly do exclusive code rights work? [closed]
I was asked by a client to submit a proposal for a web-app he wants to built. This client is a startup with a relatively good traction so far (as it seems).
I have been asked to draft up a contract ...
- 1,931
7
votes
2
answers
3k
views
How can I reuse generic code for consulting between companies?
I am employed full time for company X and approached by company Y to do consulting services to write embedded C for them. While I know the basics of conflicts of interests and the big no-no's of ...
CommunityBot
- 1
13
votes
4
answers
18k
views
How to start a Software Company [closed]
I've always been interested in wondering how software companies happen. I find it extremely difficult once you're tied down with car, house, life etc. Funding is always the biggest concern.
To make ...
CommunityBot
- 1
11
votes
3
answers
872
views
Who owns code if project cancelled [closed]
The problem: I am working on a freelance marketplace, and I decided to cancel project with one of my clients, because client is impossible to work with with limitless delays and lots of bugs in his ...
- 6,752
-2
votes
1
answer
180
views
Providing production code samples as part of an invited freelance work proposal? [closed]
I have only recently started to market myself as a 'programmer' rather than an analyst or something else entirely. In a recent search of freelance/part-time/contract work, I came across an ad for a ...
- 2,837
1
vote
3
answers
275
views
Would be good to include your freelancer account in your Resume / CV when applying for a job? [closed]
I've been working as a freelancer for about two years in vWorker. Any person can visit a coder's profile, and see in how many projects the coder has worked on, (if the coders allows) see how much the ...
- 1
6
votes
1
answer
1k
views
Wrote an application for a friend. Who is the owner of the software? [closed]
Friend asked me to develop a software application for him. I did and he paid me.
There was no written contract. I live in UK and he resides in Canada.
My question is: who is the owner of the software ...
CommunityBot
- 1
5
votes
2
answers
928
views
Should one reject over-scoped projects? [closed]
I spoke to my first potential client today and he told me about the requirements of his project - an Android app. He is a well-known designer / photographer in my country and now wants me to "convert ...
- 2,522
18
votes
5
answers
9k
views
Are missed deadlines common in programming jobs? [closed]
It was my freelancer job at oDesk. I have done several jobs earlier in given time, but is was the first time I missed the deadline. It was a very lengthy job and I tried my best but I still missed the ...
- 39.5k