Questions about running a software development business.
1
vote
1answer
109 views
How do you sell the use of third-party libraries to your organisations? [closed]
I've never really had a problem integrating popular third-party libraries into my projects at work until quite recently.
I was moved onto a project team who had historically written code for embedded ...
0
votes
1answer
89 views
Can I remove features from my iOS app? [closed]
I have a free iOS App. So far, I have been using advertising to generate revenue (with an in-app option to remove ads), but I'm contemplating to change the model to limited functionality and then use ...
2
votes
1answer
89 views
Should a Biotech company invest in developing its own software? [closed]
Working in a Biotech company, there are many opportunities for automating the processing of information. There are also many software solutions e.g. LIM systems, ELN's etc. to fit those specific ...
5
votes
4answers
370 views
Can a lone programmer become a mid or senior level programmer without a mentor? [duplicate]
Question:
Can a mere entry level programmer become a mid or senior level programmer working in a company as the only programmer without a mentor?
Background:
I was hired as an entry level programmer ...
0
votes
2answers
110 views
Ext JS licensing issue
First of all I'm not asking for legal advice but just checking if anyone agrees with my suspicions. That might help in convincing Sencha to change their license.
Their commercial license says:
...
1
vote
2answers
140 views
Justifying deficiencies in design
I would like some input on how to handle clients and third party vendors that ask me about the deficiencies in my design.
For example. It turns out I need a data field in a webservices response. This ...
-1
votes
1answer
89 views
Should I bother / best way to format and publically distribute code snippets?
I have collected a significant library of code snippets for various languages which I collect in Evernote.
They are generally well labelled and formatted, and I think could possibly be useful to ...
0
votes
1answer
241 views
Are we developers mere tools in the hands of visionaries and business people? [closed]
Dear fellow programmers
I'm the CTO and the lead programmer at our start-up. Our CEO came into office with hurry and asked me to reschedule so we can pick a very important customer at the airport. ...
3
votes
5answers
309 views
What is the business cost of anemic domain model
I am looking to quantify the cost or problems of bad software development practices. Specifically can software that has been developed resulting in an anemic domain model be quantifiable in terms of ...
-1
votes
5answers
270 views
What do you do to overcome the need to make code perfect? [closed]
I'm sure I'm not the only one in this situation and I wanted to see what you guys do about this on day-to-day basis. Sorry if this comes off a bit ranty.
As a company founder and the main tech guy, I ...
1
vote
1answer
121 views
Finding developers for collaboration in enterprise open-source project
I am a founder and only developer of an open-source software designed for a small subset of enterprises. It was originally developed for and now runs at one of businesses of the type it was designed ...
0
votes
1answer
281 views
Is there a correlation between the type of a company/industry and the software engineering rigor?
I would like the answer to explain what impact, if any, does the type of company/industry have on the rigor, depth and breadth with which software engineering is practiced. The best would be some ...
1
vote
5answers
150 views
Do you use Instant Messaging to communicate during your day with your fellow devs? [closed]
Hello Fellow Programmers:
I run a small business and we typically communicate over IM during the say. We sign on to IM when we arrive and stay on all day. It seems to be quite distracting, in my ...
-2
votes
1answer
186 views
What architecture to use? [closed]
I work at a small software engineering company. We are facing some issues regarding maintainability and speed with our applications. Currently, we have the following situation:
For each of our ...
10
votes
1answer
316 views
Do support sites like Stack Overflow upset the paid-support open source model?
In order to stay relevant in the marketplace, I'm researching new business models for my software company. The open source model with paid support seems like a good fit for our product, but I have ...
-2
votes
1answer
129 views
Selling software instead of on-demand work [closed]
Doing on-demand work stresses me out and is not good for my back.
What tips could you offer if you have experience in spotting needs and writing custom software to suit ?
3
votes
2answers
322 views
Is it required to start a business to sell Android Apps (US)?
I know you can sell apps using your own personal tax information, but what if there are several people working on the app? Our plan is to just have one of us register for the Google Merchant account ...
5
votes
3answers
264 views
I want to sell my software along with it's source code. Is there a licence restricts anything but in-house changes?
Is there a license that:
Allows the client to make in-house changes to the tool/source code if need be.
Prohibits to redistribute the source code outside the company.
Prohibits to sell derivative ...
1
vote
2answers
79 views
Any good resource on running a service software company? [closed]
A service software company is like an outsource company.
You give us the requirements, we band the result for you.
This is a unique situation where each project is short lived and vastly different ...
3
votes
3answers
360 views
Where can I hire local programmers with very specific skillsets? [duplicate]
I have been browsing the site and haven't found a exact fit to this question so I'll post it but if its already answered(since I'm sure its a common problem, then let me know).
I have a business and ...
6
votes
6answers
491 views
Should I be looking for developers with specific skill sets or generalists that need to learn?
Thanks to the great help of this site and SO, I've been able to make a prototype of a software I want to sell but unfortunately although the prototype works I think my code quality is very low. I ...
19
votes
8answers
678 views
How to justify rewriting/revamping legacy software in a business case?
I work for a great little software company which makes good revenue from our main software package. The problem for me is that it's almost unmaintainable. It's written in Delphi 7 (has upgraded ...
4
votes
3answers
202 views
Pricing personalized software?
Currently i'm working on a Purchased Order System Application Project for a small scale company.
The Software that i am working on is personalized based on the on their business requirement.
The ...
-2
votes
2answers
196 views
Roughly, what percentage of “business” users have .NET 2.0, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 installed? [closed]
Home use has already (somewhat) been established, but I'm curious about business users. Approximately, what percentage of business users worldwide have .NET 3.5 runtime installed? Client profile will ...
12
votes
3answers
514 views
How can we unify business goals and technical goals?
Some background
I work at a small startup: 4 devs, 1 designer, and 2 non-technical co-founders, one who provides funding, and the other who handles day-to-day management and sales. Our company ...
3
votes
3answers
355 views
Selling your services when you use uncommon technologies
I took a look in Stack Overflow most popular profiles, and then I did the same in several other sites, and then I took a look in job postings in several boards, mostly out of curiosity, because I ...
1
vote
2answers
195 views
What are some good programming frameworks for Business Process Modeling / Workflow modeling?
I'm looking for a framework that models business workflows, it doesn't matter what language, just so it is "enterprise ready".
A single business workflow might look something like this:
- from ...
3
votes
4answers
124 views
Drawing out a document with strategies for coping with “disasters”
Does anyone happen to know of some guidelines for writing up a document for coping with possible disaster scenarios ? By disaster I mean anything that could lead to loss of work, time or eventually a ...
0
votes
2answers
595 views
Get income on a free app, offline? [closed]
I have an Android app which I added adMob ads to. They only work though when the user is online. Now the problem is, the app is specially made for offline use, so pretty much nobody will ever get to ...
0
votes
2answers
321 views
IT Consulting from US and German VAT Tax [closed]
I'm an independent IT consultant in the US, and I just completed some work for a German company, all done remotely from the US. I've sent them an invoice, but they are now asking if I have a VAT ...
11
votes
3answers
593 views
Are there Negative Impact of opensource on commercial environment?
My company has a very broad range of products and there are a few that are not strategic to us so I wanted to open source them (so we can focus on what makes us unique and open source the products ...
6
votes
4answers
666 views
Why does iPhone and iPad apps have a Free version and a full version, instead of “unlocking” it through in-app purchase?
Many apps have a Free version and a Full version. How is it compared to, installing a single version, and use an in-app purchase of $0.99 or $1.99 to unlock to the program to make it a full version? ...
-1
votes
1answer
305 views
What makes Instagram so valuable? [closed]
If as in the FAQ, that topics about business (computer industry) is allowed here, I'd like to find out why Instagram can be so valuable, that it is acquired for $1 billion dollars (USD). To put it ...
0
votes
1answer
220 views
Teaching programming (languages) in central/northern Europe
I hope this question is not going to be off-topic; in case you think there'd be a better place to ask it, please let me know.
Anyway, I'm currently doing my PhD working in bioinformatics. I would, ...
0
votes
2answers
236 views
Resources for bidding on projects successfully? [closed]
What are successful guidelines for bidding on programming projects on sites like guru.com? How do you write a bid that is likely to be accepted? Are there any examples of great bids?
How do you ...
4
votes
1answer
153 views
Are there any reasons not to use distributed version control in a corporate setting? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
What does SVN do better than git?
In an effort to push coworkers toward a distributed VCS, I'd like to first understand why it is not a good change from a practical ...
2
votes
4answers
298 views
How to minimize the data loss when laying off a programmer?
I was just laid off and it was the standard process that is used in the US: call the person to talk to personnel, and remove access to the network while that is going on, then have someone help pack, ...
4
votes
3answers
423 views
Unix tools in business use: are they helpful?
Do you think knowing Unix tools like sed, awk, LaTeX, Perl give you a great edge in the business world? (e.g. being a manager) From my short reflection, the only profession that needs those sort of ...
1
vote
3answers
585 views
How to popularize Nemerle (or another programming language)? [closed]
Any .NET developer who is interested in different programming languages knows that F# is the most popular functional language for the .NET platform nowadays. The only fact describing the popularity of ...
11
votes
2answers
305 views
As a Europe-based company, is it possible to write a custom iPad application for a customer?
Our customer wants us to write a custom application for him that he can use on a handful of iPads in his company. This application is probably only useful for this one customer (maybe for two or three ...
1
vote
1answer
168 views
What standards to use in Business Process Modelling?
There are several approaches on how to model a business process in software applications (BPM software). For instance, a processes can be described in BPMN, EPC, IDEF0, SOMF, etc.
Additionally, ...
13
votes
5answers
320 views
Agile software development: How do you react *financially* to changing user requirements?
There's one thing I've always wondered when reading about all this "agile development" stuff here on SE and other sites:
In "traditional" software engineering, you
collect the user's requirements,
...
5
votes
4answers
223 views
Problem and Requirements Definition
I was recently hired to redesign a management system from scratch. This is my first business-scale project. I have assisted with business applications in the past, but I am the only one dedicated to ...
8
votes
3answers
392 views
Cost of design based on the cost of programming
What is your methodology when you need to determine the cost of UI design if you know the cost (work hours) of programming in some project?
Let's say, programming of logic in some project cost X ...
15
votes
10answers
1k views
At what point should I have my Windows developers upgrade to the latest release of Windows?
At what point should I begin upgrading our developer's machines to a later Windows release?
From experience, Microsoft typically has an epic fail about every other O.S. (I am really not trying to ...
3
votes
3answers
278 views
What to do (or not do) when a developer doesn't deliver the goods?
I've recently had the misfortune of hiring a developer who failed to deliver a working product by the arranged date.
I have the software, but it produces errors on installation. The developer said the ...
56
votes
16answers
3k views
How to stop the development spec from changing in mid development?
Problem: It seems with almost every development effort I'm involved in, no matter how much time is spent planning prior to starting development, there is always a large amount of changes required ...
13
votes
5answers
686 views
What is a realistic way to handle customer-specific software patches?
I'm trying to gather effective ways that others have solved the following problem. At work we've been forced to release a software patch (to be installed on end-user systems) that we only want ...
1
vote
1answer
209 views
Fee for standalone version of Mono-based application
I can't understand from Mono documentation, how much to pay for creating a standalone commercial application that doesn't need Mono-runtime (using mkbundle). Where can I find this information?
39
votes
19answers
3k views
Hiring programmers for small companies?
I've been running a company for nearly 10 years, and all this time it's been just myself, another programmer (who's a great friend and cofounder), and a salesman (who's also a friend). Together, we've ...
