>> 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, ...)?
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
