From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1SYWuL-0002nf-W8 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Sun, 27 May 2012 06:24:54 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id C94DAE0850; Sun, 27 May 2012 06:24:35 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-ob0-f181.google.com (mail-ob0-f181.google.com [209.85.214.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F1C0E07AB for ; Sun, 27 May 2012 06:22:23 +0000 (UTC) Received: by obbuo19 with SMTP id uo19so4345774obb.40 for ; Sat, 26 May 2012 23:22:22 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=20120113; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type:content-transfer-encoding; bh=r/Rpyoou19IPEfY3LICKlv3/9zmD+YpNkQLJXH+fy5E=; b=Wa3LjDHHI5ZkIevtRgITqNIqvHZXAE3ASJUPTWt4kDuCQU0437wP8Q3fatFdXDLomq sL2Q0DCWf0fPFI6Pv9Uxte+DlGl11Z1DTll/JBUcsOGPLYPOb4Ha0Xj6Wf56/SLLHI2Q AGWZ5rHOea7iuemqum5AzhulBrQfOI5Wl7vg/XZ1ZsnTvATYaDhjZCDbE+1ut2jekRZf 2nFd0sHVj1eKGVaCWq2ZruBTWPngmpx/7iNUpNMsTIUzuV8CCLvjUlJ0pSg2SqTEkAe7 /qLjXAt8523N62w5Z21peAe746sIZ17itFMOhv+08X0BiVWA6frB/xyJN6XfJx2vKNzn wIUA== Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.60.14.36 with SMTP id m4mr4160564oec.12.1338099742887; Sat, 26 May 2012 23:22:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.182.113.3 with HTTP; Sat, 26 May 2012 23:22:22 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: <4FC0C217.6050302@binarywings.net> References: <4FC0C217.6050302@binarywings.net> Date: Sat, 26 May 2012 23:22:22 -0700 Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] {OT} hire a programmer or company? From: Grant To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Archives-Salt: 6faaa07a-2ff1-4e1d-91ab-c297f55053a5 X-Archives-Hash: b4b0170698449bcce6a657129e372cab >> I'm debating whether I should hire an expert programmer for $X/hour, >> or a company of expert programmers for $2X/hour. =A0It 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, ...)? The project is made up of various and ongoing scripting tasks for a relatively complex website. > 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). That's a really good point. > 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. Can you tell me what sort of positive and negative things to watch out for? > 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. ;-) Once I need more than one developer (which could come sooner rather than later due to the availability of these guys) am I likely to struggle managing them? I've read a bit about "Agile" software development and I plan to read a lot more. Is that the way to go? Would hiring a company make management a non-issue from my perspective? - Grant > Regards, > Florian Philipp