IT Making Contact with Software Dev - Where to find good programmers

Question

I'm an IT Professional/Entrepreneur with a lot of experience on this side of the industry, but I'm not a programmer by any means. Being that we're on different sides of the same industry, often non-technical people come to me with projects for their companies or organizations that require software development...but I hesitate to take them unless i know that i have the resources to accomplish the task.

I've worked on a long list of different software or web dev projects, but i've never established a long lasting relationship with any developers. A good number of them were outsources to india (nightmare) or junior level programmers who have eventually moved on to full time positions at large companies.

The biggest challenge is that because I don't have experience programming, it's difficult for me to evaluate someone's previous work from a coding level... in other words i don't know if something is written well or not... just that it works or doesnt work.

So, with that said, in a nutshell, where is a good, reliable place to find a competent and affordable (not cheap but good value) programmer, and are there any tips or ideas on how to evaluate their quality of work? Should i be looking at particular sites? in universities for grad students? forums? Stack Overflow?

Thanks for the info!

EDIT// --> Again - whats the best way, methodologies, tips, steps, resources, etc for evaluating whether a programmer is coding the project well or not?

Answer 1

Right here! http://jobs.stackoverflow.com/

Answer 2

I suggest several places depending on the project type. Yes, jobs.stackoverflow.com is good. But also take a look at www.getafreelancer.com, www.scriptlance.com, www.guru.com, www.elancer.com, www.rentacoder.com, and the best is probably www.elance.com as they are set up for such work in the best way (most of them have similar tools such as pay by escrow..it is just that elance is the most professional of such sites). Also, don't under-estimate the power of www.craigslist.com!

Answer 3

I like the links others have provided on where to find programmers but your question on how to evaluate is a bit different.

It can be somewhat of a subjective answer because if one is happy with the product the developer(s) are putting out what else matters?

It's hard to answer that question unless one has some experience and knowledge of software development principles, best practices, etc. In the end, I think you're going to need somebody on the inside doing the evaluations of others on the outside.

You will never really know if somebody is truly doing work that is worthy of pay unless you have an eye for it. One could read the following question/answers to gage whether they're able to evaluate or need somebody else to do it for them:

What are the signs of talent in programming

Answer 4

"can you hire an evaluator on contract?"

Such a position does exist: the people are often called 'recruiters', 'head-hunters', or 'body-shops'.

Alternatively, instead of hiring strangers, most people have personal networks, know other people: for example if you've worked in the industry a while, you may have colleagues, ex-colleagues, people you've met at conferences and user groups, previous employers and employees, their friends and colleagues and team-leads, etc.; and you may know their reputation and their availability (and vice versa).