Information for customers or in defense of programmers
Hello colleagues!
I am a programmer (web developer). For a long time I was going to write a memo for my clients and now I wrote. It seems to have turned out well (conceit). Everything on this list, I have lived and live in my practice. I decided to share with you, maybe someone will come in handy to adjust the customer's attitude for the better for you.
1. Dear customers, you don’t even have a close idea how many of your hidden problems are solved by programmers (developers) when working on your projects, especially when it comes to projects “picked up on the road” (projects under development).
2. If the programmer says that he will do it in 2 days, and he will do it in 10 days - he has the right to do it! There is no and cannot be normalized processes in a programmer’s work *. Therefore, leave your claims on time with you.
3. Remember that when hiring a programmer, you pay only for execution. A programmer should not come up with you. If the programmer comes up with you, multiply the cost of the work by 2-5 times, unless otherwise agreed.
4. Terms of Reference (TOR) - the customer must provide. If you do not have TK, you can ask the contractor for help, but know that this is a paid service. Remember that without a clear TK - the result will be HZ. Therefore, leave your claims for the result to yourself.
5. Know and remember that you always underestimate the work of a programmer. You always pay less than the actual work. You explicitly or not explicitly take advantage of the fact that the programmer is not a seller!
6. Know that the longer you maintain a working relationship with a programmer, the more reliable and better for your project. The longer a programmer works on your project or projects, the higher its value as a specialist (employee). The salary of a programmer should constantly grow only because of the experience itself.
7. Offering penny budgets for work, you thereby expose yourself to various risks. The programmer is forced to take projects from several customers in order to provide a decent income for himself. A few examples: Because of the work on several projects, a programmer may not get enough sleep, because of which the quality of your project may suffer. If a programmer finds better conditions for himself, he will leave your project. The demand for programmers is huge!
8. Never save on programmers and hosting. For your projects, use only physical servers (DS) or VDS / VPS.
9. Always pay more than the programmer calls - it motivates. Remember that a programmer is not a salesperson and hesitates to name more or thinks poorly due to chronic fatigue, despite the fact that the work of a programmer costs more than the numbers you can see on the Internet.
10. Always focus on a period of 2-5 times more from what the programmer calls. If you reproach the programmer for the time, after that you will receive a portion of not the code, but the shit. And you won’t even know about it! A programmer should always strive to do his job well if the customer has not previously demotivated it. Better just expect the result.
11. A programmer who names the work of another programmer, more often with the goal of excelling himself, is a complete asshole. A professional and an adequate person will never turn to a person, and will treat other people's work with understanding.
12. Remember that you never pay for the beauty and accuracy of the code, you never give time to put things in order. Therefore, get the appropriate result.
13. Know that urgently is when a person is in intensive care, everything else is not urgent! For software projects urgently does not happen. If it is urgent for your project, then most likely:
14. Know that a programmer may not show a result for a long time, much less a visual one, but this does not mean that there is no result at all. A programmer can “do nothing” all day, that is, not write code, but this does not mean that he is not working on your order. Work can go on the level of thoughts! Or a programmer can work on another project at the same time, but be aware that all professional experience will only have a positive effect on your project. If you do not know about such things - this is one, if you do not accept such features, then you are a bad customer!
15. Know that the profession of a programmer is a creative profession. Not always a programmer can work for 8 hours. The working time in days, the programmer must distribute in his own way!
16. If you order the services of a programmer on freelance, especially through the "Safe Deal" - think about including a weekend for the programmer, and think about the fact that the programmer does not work 24 hours a day.
17. If you pay a programmer monthly (salary), in no case tie the salary to the result. Pay on time always, even if the result is not on time. Otherwise, the programmer will leave you. A programmer is such a profession where there are no exact terms *, so because of your not understanding this, the programmer will start to worry about the lack of stability in getting a salary and will have to take third-party projects to hedge himself. Because of this, the programmer will be tired, will not get enough sleep, your project (s) will suffer. Only you are to blame!
18. If you are a customer from Russia, then know that the minimum income of a programmer should be 60,000 rubles. Strive to provide this minimum income.
19. Know that more often they tell you the term and cost only for development. The named time does not include the testing phase and technical optimization. Give extra time plus one month.
20. Technical optimization of the project is paid separately and this process can take quite a long time.
21. Programmers are a special caste and do not argue! If you are not a programmer with ten years of experience or not a programmer at all, but you think that you understand something about the programmer’s work, you’ll think like “Yes, what’s unusual here,” “You don’t program, you use a framework” or you think Since the programmer is an ordinary office worker, you do not know about the work of the programmer - nothing !!! More often, unlike an ordinary office worker, a programmer is constantly engaged in his education, knowledge, self-study.
22. An ideal customer is one that pays well and pays on time. Which does not control every hour or every day, but silently awaits the result.
“Leading means not stopping good people from working.”
Peter Kapitsa
23. On long-term projects, immediately agree on “iterations” (work steps) in 1 or 2 weeks. For example, a programmer works for 2 weeks, then shows or talks about the results. During the iteration, leave the programmer alone. Do not control. After reporting, the next iteration begins. Remember that for a new project, the first iterations must be longer before the first visual results appear. The programmer will love you for this!
24. You ask to place a blue button with a new function. Visually, for you this is just a blue button and you think that it is fast, but for a programmer it can be two days of work! A blue button may entail writing a new module, a bunch of auxiliary functions and classes. And visually - it's just a blue button. Yes, you really know nothing about the work of a programmer.
25. Agree in advance the periodic time for communication on Skype. Then do not disturb the peace of the programmer with a sudden appearance on Skype. Otherwise, the programmer will disable Skype or ignore you. It is better to write by e-mail, the programmer is always busy and will answer in order of priority.
26. If you think that the programmer is an asshole, it may be so, but if you look at the root, then it was made so by the customers and the environment. The entire environment of the programmer (system administrator, computer programmer) always tries to take advantage of his personal knowledge and experience for free.
27. Always pay extra time for the programmer. Even if he spent half an hour and refuses to accept material gratitude, offer the amount or ask for the name of the performer. Pay anyway!
28. Office programmer, you must provide a comfortable chair and in general, a good and modern workplace.
29. You must know this - your programmer is the best! Take care and take care of your programmer.
* There are exact dates, only in large specialized software development companies, where all processes are divided into small portions. But this is most likely not in your case.
I am a programmer (web developer). For a long time I was going to write a memo for my clients and now I wrote. It seems to have turned out well (conceit). Everything on this list, I have lived and live in my practice. I decided to share with you, maybe someone will come in handy to adjust the customer's attitude for the better for you.
1. Dear customers, you don’t even have a close idea how many of your hidden problems are solved by programmers (developers) when working on your projects, especially when it comes to projects “picked up on the road” (projects under development).
2. If the programmer says that he will do it in 2 days, and he will do it in 10 days - he has the right to do it! There is no and cannot be normalized processes in a programmer’s work *. Therefore, leave your claims on time with you.
3. Remember that when hiring a programmer, you pay only for execution. A programmer should not come up with you. If the programmer comes up with you, multiply the cost of the work by 2-5 times, unless otherwise agreed.
4. Terms of Reference (TOR) - the customer must provide. If you do not have TK, you can ask the contractor for help, but know that this is a paid service. Remember that without a clear TK - the result will be HZ. Therefore, leave your claims for the result to yourself.
5. Know and remember that you always underestimate the work of a programmer. You always pay less than the actual work. You explicitly or not explicitly take advantage of the fact that the programmer is not a seller!
6. Know that the longer you maintain a working relationship with a programmer, the more reliable and better for your project. The longer a programmer works on your project or projects, the higher its value as a specialist (employee). The salary of a programmer should constantly grow only because of the experience itself.
7. Offering penny budgets for work, you thereby expose yourself to various risks. The programmer is forced to take projects from several customers in order to provide a decent income for himself. A few examples: Because of the work on several projects, a programmer may not get enough sleep, because of which the quality of your project may suffer. If a programmer finds better conditions for himself, he will leave your project. The demand for programmers is huge!
8. Never save on programmers and hosting. For your projects, use only physical servers (DS) or VDS / VPS.
9. Always pay more than the programmer calls - it motivates. Remember that a programmer is not a salesperson and hesitates to name more or thinks poorly due to chronic fatigue, despite the fact that the work of a programmer costs more than the numbers you can see on the Internet.
10. Always focus on a period of 2-5 times more from what the programmer calls. If you reproach the programmer for the time, after that you will receive a portion of not the code, but the shit. And you won’t even know about it! A programmer should always strive to do his job well if the customer has not previously demotivated it. Better just expect the result.
11. A programmer who names the work of another programmer, more often with the goal of excelling himself, is a complete asshole. A professional and an adequate person will never turn to a person, and will treat other people's work with understanding.
12. Remember that you never pay for the beauty and accuracy of the code, you never give time to put things in order. Therefore, get the appropriate result.
13. Know that urgently is when a person is in intensive care, everything else is not urgent! For software projects urgently does not happen. If it is urgent for your project, then most likely:
- You do not know how to plan.
- You pay a penny, why, and you are not constantly a programmer and system administrator.
- You are a reseller who is being screwed by a client.
- You have something broken in the project, and since you do not have a programmer and a system administrator for the reasons from point 2, it is therefore urgent for you.
14. Know that a programmer may not show a result for a long time, much less a visual one, but this does not mean that there is no result at all. A programmer can “do nothing” all day, that is, not write code, but this does not mean that he is not working on your order. Work can go on the level of thoughts! Or a programmer can work on another project at the same time, but be aware that all professional experience will only have a positive effect on your project. If you do not know about such things - this is one, if you do not accept such features, then you are a bad customer!
15. Know that the profession of a programmer is a creative profession. Not always a programmer can work for 8 hours. The working time in days, the programmer must distribute in his own way!
16. If you order the services of a programmer on freelance, especially through the "Safe Deal" - think about including a weekend for the programmer, and think about the fact that the programmer does not work 24 hours a day.
17. If you pay a programmer monthly (salary), in no case tie the salary to the result. Pay on time always, even if the result is not on time. Otherwise, the programmer will leave you. A programmer is such a profession where there are no exact terms *, so because of your not understanding this, the programmer will start to worry about the lack of stability in getting a salary and will have to take third-party projects to hedge himself. Because of this, the programmer will be tired, will not get enough sleep, your project (s) will suffer. Only you are to blame!
18. If you are a customer from Russia, then know that the minimum income of a programmer should be 60,000 rubles. Strive to provide this minimum income.
19. Know that more often they tell you the term and cost only for development. The named time does not include the testing phase and technical optimization. Give extra time plus one month.
20. Technical optimization of the project is paid separately and this process can take quite a long time.
21. Programmers are a special caste and do not argue! If you are not a programmer with ten years of experience or not a programmer at all, but you think that you understand something about the programmer’s work, you’ll think like “Yes, what’s unusual here,” “You don’t program, you use a framework” or you think Since the programmer is an ordinary office worker, you do not know about the work of the programmer - nothing !!! More often, unlike an ordinary office worker, a programmer is constantly engaged in his education, knowledge, self-study.
22. An ideal customer is one that pays well and pays on time. Which does not control every hour or every day, but silently awaits the result.
“Leading means not stopping good people from working.”
Peter Kapitsa
23. On long-term projects, immediately agree on “iterations” (work steps) in 1 or 2 weeks. For example, a programmer works for 2 weeks, then shows or talks about the results. During the iteration, leave the programmer alone. Do not control. After reporting, the next iteration begins. Remember that for a new project, the first iterations must be longer before the first visual results appear. The programmer will love you for this!
24. You ask to place a blue button with a new function. Visually, for you this is just a blue button and you think that it is fast, but for a programmer it can be two days of work! A blue button may entail writing a new module, a bunch of auxiliary functions and classes. And visually - it's just a blue button. Yes, you really know nothing about the work of a programmer.
25. Agree in advance the periodic time for communication on Skype. Then do not disturb the peace of the programmer with a sudden appearance on Skype. Otherwise, the programmer will disable Skype or ignore you. It is better to write by e-mail, the programmer is always busy and will answer in order of priority.
26. If you think that the programmer is an asshole, it may be so, but if you look at the root, then it was made so by the customers and the environment. The entire environment of the programmer (system administrator, computer programmer) always tries to take advantage of his personal knowledge and experience for free.
27. Always pay extra time for the programmer. Even if he spent half an hour and refuses to accept material gratitude, offer the amount or ask for the name of the performer. Pay anyway!
28. Office programmer, you must provide a comfortable chair and in general, a good and modern workplace.
29. You must know this - your programmer is the best! Take care and take care of your programmer.
* There are exact dates, only in large specialized software development companies, where all processes are divided into small portions. But this is most likely not in your case.