Am 26.05.2012 13:26, schrieb Grant:
> I'm debating whether I should hire an expert programmer for $X/hour,
> or a company of expert programmers for $2X/hour.  It makes sense from
> a financial perspective to hire programmers directly, but I wonder if
> there are benefits to hiring a really good company.
> 
> I'm sorry this is OT, but I bet you guys have some seriously good
> insight on this.
> 
> Thanks,
> Grant
> 

For starters, you could give us a bit more insight into the kind of
project we are talking about. What's the expected development effort,
what are the services you pay for (binaries, source code, testing,
maintenance, ...)?

Regarding programmer vs. company, I'd say it depends on what you expect
and pay for. If you just want it coded, then the lone programmer is
probably as good as the company (since programming itself doesn't really
scale well with the number of devs).

Extensive testing, on the other hand, is something a team should do.
Sure, the lone programmer can write you some unit tests and conduct a
system test, but testing itself is a profession of its own and should be
done by a second person with the relevant training.

But in the end, these issues a minor. It really boils down to whom you
trust more. Ask for references, look at their previous work, talk to
them, etc.

All things being equal, paying 1*x instead of 2*x gives you the chance
to pay another 1*x to a second developer if things don't work out with
the first one. ;-)

Regards,
Florian Philipp