Programming partnership wanted

[Sasha Pachev]

 > My web design company seems to have a problem finding programmers with the 
 >following traits:

 > 1. highly skilled (very knowledgeable in php, mysql, security, linux, etc)
 > 2. available regularly (don't have another full-time job)
 > 3. affordable (we're not looking to pay corporate-level pricing.)
 > 4. local (here in the US)

 > We always pay per-project to control our costs.  We don't pay per-hour.

Jason:

Perhaps the reason for the difficulty in finding programmers that meet your 
requirements is the current market situation with supply/demand/pricing. I took 
a look at your last project you posted that you wanted done for a firm $2000. I 
did not find it attractive - competitively with other projects available to me, 
the documentation requirements alone sounded like were worth about $2000. Maybe 
I was reading too much into them - if this is the case, this is perhaps 
something to consider - do not make things sound more complex than they ought to be.

Bidding on the whole project is great for the client, but terrible for the 
programmer. You can easily end up in a big hole. What if you misunderstand the 
requirements when you bid? What if the client starts pushing the limits in the 
interpretation of your agreement? What if you hit some hidden issue that takes 
way too long to deal with? The only time I would ever bid on the whole project 
would be when:

    * it is small enough to see everything at once and the risks being reduced 
to a zero
    * to prove myself and get my foot in the door
    * to be nice for some good cause

The reality of custom software development is that it is gets exponentially more 
expensive as the size and complexity of the project increases. Good programmers 
know it, and are not likely to bid a reasonable fixed price on something that 
could take forever to finish.

The solution I believe is to make sure that the client understands how much work 
his money can buy, while the programmer understands the budget limitations of 
the client. They should work together to simpify the requirements so that they 
can create a functional product within some reasonable amount of time.


-- 
Sasha Pachev
AskSasha Linux Consulting
http://www.asksasha.com