Best License for Selling Open Source Software
What's the best license to use for your software when you want to be paid for commercial use but are happy for non-profits/geeks to use for free? ...
business
What interview question weeds out 'bad' applicants?
We have a list of the best interview questions people have been asked and the worst interview question you've been asked but what question do you believe sorts the chaff from the wheat? One you've been asked, one you've asked or one you wish the co-worker from hell had been asked. There's no magic bullet but is there one question you t...
How do people choose product names?
I flatter myself that I'm a good programmer, and can get away with graphic design. But something I'm incapable of doing is coming up with good names - and it seems neither are the people I work with. We're now in the slightly ludicrous situation that the product we've been working on for a couple of years is being installed to customers,...
Starting out in Consultancy
What extra skills should developers interested in Consulting possess and what is the best way to gain them? see also this followup by Kristopher Johnson How does one get a true "consultant" gig, rather than just being a contract programmer? ...
What do I look for when hiring an Operations Director?
We are a small (20 people) yet growing Internet Agency and we have decided it is time for a operations director. Most of the heavy lifting operationally has been handled by the Tech Director and one project manager (who is moving out of project management into product development) What personality type is best? Should they have a tech...
What to charge for a simple website
A friend of a friend has asked me to build a very simple site (a few static pages and a forum which would be setting up and theming an existing forum technology) but I'm not sure what to charge. What do people think would be appropriate? ...
When/if to seek a patent?
I am working part-time on a personal project, and it's been going very well. I've shown it to a few people, and they are all extremely enthusiastic, so I've been considering actually finishing it up, adding some bells and whistles, and selling it. One key feature of the product is a certain combination of user interface and functionalit...
Coding beauty vs business needs
All programmers I have met, myself included, always want to start a project that touches old code by "Lets rewrite the framework for this thing. It's old, fugly and unmanageble" On the other hand, all sales/business people I have met will say "You will do the things that add functionality that makes us money" If the programmers get to...
Billing for phone calls
I have an arrangement with a couple of my regular clients whereby there's a regularly scheduled conference call to chat about various work being done and also new stuff coming down the pipe. At first I never billed for this time, since some of it was spent on sales-y stuff like discussing potential new projects, etc. It also just seemed...
Are BPM solutions worth the investment in money, time and effort?
This is more an architecture related question than a programming one, but I think it might be useful to developers given that I have been wondering this myself for some time. I have no experience with Business Process Management tools use or implementation. (The closest thing I have used is BizTalk server, but I know that it is not real...
MBA for a Computer Science guy?
I am a Programmer with a BS in Computer Science and I have recently been considering taking the GMAT and applying for business school. I have been in the work force for nearly 6 years and am wondering if my career path is doomed to be a programmer with highest hopes of a lead programmer in years to come. For the managers out there will a...
What's the single most important thing that Executives want from their software development folks?
Busy executives in technology businesses (that's most every business, these days - not just software development houses and software product companies) are generally less than happy with the performance of their software development folks (whether in-house or out-of-house). What, in your experience, is the one most important things they'...
What's the best way for a developer to start his/her own business?
I'm a developer who is interested in entrepreneurship, but also loves building good software. What would be the best avenue for me to own my own business? Would a service-based model work better, or should I go the ISV route and try to build a business around a product? Also, if you have started your own business, have you been succes...
What's the single biggest reason Senior Executives tolerate poorly-performing software development projects and teams?
Many senior executives of businesses that rely on custom software - within their products or underpinning their company's services - seem to tolerate or avoid tackling long standing dysfunctionalities in the projects and teams developing that software. In your personal experience, why should this be so? ...
How has the economy affected consultants and freelancers?
I was wondering if people across the country are seeing similarly steep drops in consulting business as we have seen in Los Angeles over the summer. Maybe I shouldn't have watched the CNN reports on the DOW dropping almost 1000 points in two days. How is your pipeline looking? Do you have big customers putting projects on hold? ...
Non-Compete Clauses
Do you agree with / have you ever signed a non-compete clause? What advice do you have, if I wanted to hire someone, about Non Competes? Not non-disclosures, mind you. Non-Competes.. ...
Wondering if I'm losing my passion for code
Hello everybody. I am new to this board. Since getting my BS/MS in computer science, I've been working in the industry since Jan 2003. Initially I was having a blast coding bleeding edge C++ technology at a research lab. Then, sometime, after I got married I guess, I turned into a zombie and became a test/QA droid. I tried getting...
Have you ever gotten a job on Elance?
If so, what do you do to get the job? The first time I tried, I underbid and pretty much halved the time of my competitors, I wrote a detailed proposal including an ER Diagram of the database I was going to create them and how long I estimated it would take each of the tasks to get done. I'm not trying to steal your super secrets, but...
Outsourcing
I am possibly going to have to outsource some work, the good news is that I will have a lot of authority over what I do (so no silly red tape) but the bad news is that I have no experience. I am not asking for suggested locations to find people that I can outsource to but for suggestions on how to make the best use of them and tips to h...
Setting an hourly rate for a freelance project
I have been offered to work on a medium sized maintenance project. I haven't done freelance work in a while and am looking for some advice on how to set an hourly rate for this project. The job was offered to me through word of mouth. A business needs some bug fixes and improvements done to their LOB software. The original software was ...