Questions about running a software development business.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
14
votes
5answers
2k views
How Do You Determine Your Hourly Rate? [closed]
In pricing a service or product it is general practice to not merely charge for the effort spent and the costs involved + margin but from the value delivered down. As an independent consultant, how do ...
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 ...
25
votes
0answers
386 views
Bare minimum for an independent developer [closed]
I'm currently in the planning stages of starting out on my own* (with a business partner...) and am trying to come up with a list of minimum requirements that I'll need for the early stages of this ...
17
votes
9answers
824 views
How can I sell a legacy program rewrite to the business?
We have a legacy classic ASP application that's been around since 2001. It badly needs to be re-written, but it's working fine from an end user perspective. The reason I feel like a rewrite is ...
8
votes
9answers
572 views
What do programmers have to know about business/management?
As I've implied through my other posts, I'm still fairly new to the workforce. During team meetings, I tend to be able to keep up with technical discussion, but when my project manager starts talking ...
15
votes
1answer
859 views
Freelancers: How Do You Go About Gathering Requirements?
As a freelance programmer:
What is your process for gathering requirements from a client?
How much time does the requirement gathering process take you? I know this is not fixed, and there are ...
12
votes
3answers
2k views
Any hard evidence on how much smart phone app developers have actually earned?
I am considering making a smart phone app. Before I start, I want to see whether it is worthwhile at all. Unfortunatelly, I find it very hard to find any hard evidence on how much the developers of ...
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 ...
6
votes
12answers
886 views
What factors should be evaluated when determining a desktop software price?
What factors should be evaluated when determining a desktop software price?
6
votes
5answers
367 views
Web Development Law/Ownership of Website
I'm a budding web developer, and I wondered if it was illegal to edit a website for a client to include a link that says 'encourage the owner of this site to pay their web developer' and follows up ...
6
votes
6answers
494 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
4answers
280 views
Is it more important to focus on a business domain or a programming stack/technology for career growth?
i just basically realized that it's almost impossible to truly learn and master each programming language/technology before a new version is released.
so my initial thought was to focus on the .net ...
3
votes
3answers
193 views
What is an efficient way to retrieve product counts at multiple levels of a hierarchy?
I'm working on an e-business website to sell books and also want to display the number of available books in the category list.
The category list contains the genre and the format (pocket, ebook, ...
