Questions about running a software development business.
1
vote
1answer
107 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 ...
27
votes
14answers
3k views
What to do if you find a vulnerability in a competitor's site?
While working on a project for my company, I needed to build functionality that allows users to import/export data to/from our competitor's site. While doing this, I discovered a very serious security ...
24
votes
10answers
3k views
How important is Domain knowledge vs. Technical knowledge?
I am working on a Trading and Risk Management application and although from a C# background, I have been asked to work on SSIS packages. Now I can live with that. The pain point is that there is too ...
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 ...
0
votes
1answer
88 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
139 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 ...
64
votes
12answers
3k views
Getting non-programmers to understand the development process
When starting a project for a company that's not primarily a programming company, one of the expectations is that there's a finished product at the end free of all bugs and does everything needed ...
-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
240 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. ...
10
votes
5answers
1k views
Project Proposal templates/requirements [closed]
When drafting a project proposal, do you use any standard template?
What features/information should be included? What is nice to have included? What sort of boiler plate information should I shove ...
2
votes
5answers
165 views
Could Most Software Companies & Users Benefit From Rolling Versions
Having used Google Chrome now for a couple of years, I've really gotten to like rolling/automatic updates. I know that most modern software has "automatic updates", but many large pieces of software ...
9
votes
15answers
2k views
Over a million COBOL programmers in the world? [closed]
I think I heard on a previous StackOverflow podcast that COBOL was used as the programming language for traffic lights (or something like that), so this got me interested. I did a quick Google search ...
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
280 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
184 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
263 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 ...
19
votes
8answers
677 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 ...
1
vote
2answers
78 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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
3
votes
3answers
325 views
Intellectual Property cost
If a piece of bespoke software was developed by a company and the Intellectual Property was retained by the company that wrote it, but now the client of the software company wants to get that source ...
-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
512 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 ...
126
votes
29answers
6k views
Offshoring: does it ever work?
I know there has been a fair amount of discussion on here about outsourcing/offshoring, and the general opinion seems to be that at best it is difficult, and at worst it fails.
I have direct ...
7
votes
3answers
468 views
How “commercially savvy” should software developers be? [closed]
I have been watching answers to many questions on this site, and have come to the conclusion that commercial pragmatism does not factor into many software development discussions. As a result, I ...
3
votes
3answers
354 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
194 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 ...
317
votes
52answers
138k views
Why do business analysts and project managers get higher salaries than programmers? [closed]
We have to admit that programming is much more difficult than creating documentation or even creating Gantt chart and asking progress to programmers. So for us that are naives, knowing that ...
9
votes
3answers
987 views
Is there alternative way to sell android app?
I am a developer of android apps from Macedonia. So my country is not on the list of countries that one can sell paid app from (on the Android Market). I have a few apps ready for several months now ...
9
votes
5answers
560 views
Is it a must to focus on one specific IT subject to be succesful?
Lately I'm deeply disturbed by the thought that I'm still not devoted to one specific IT subject after so many years of doing it as a hobby.
I've been in so many different IT related hobbies since I ...
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 ...
1
vote
1answer
167 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, ...
11
votes
3answers
592 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 ...
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 ...
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? ...
82
votes
21answers
7k views
Making money with Open Source as a developer?
I'm currently a student (Applied Information Technology) and we do most of our programming in C# and Java. I was wondering how can I as a developer, make money with open source. I know there is the ...
6
votes
3answers
722 views
PHP and Ruby: how to leverage both? and, is it worth it?
As you might have noticed from the title, this is not a "PHP or Ruby", or a "PHP vs. Ruby" question. This is a question on how to leverage PHP + Ruby in the same business.
I myself am a PHP ...
-1
votes
1answer
304 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 ...
