Sometimes you get a real productivity boost from using 3rd party components and/or libraries, where instead of reinventing the wheel you can just get it done quickly and more cost-efficiently. But what about when you're working on a project for your customer (as in freelancing or when running a custom development software shop)? I mean ...
Does anyone know of a solid free and/or open source business rule management system. The organization I work for is developing increasingly more complex (business-wise) applications and it would be really nice to have a rule based system for saving, maintaining and allowing inter-relation of those business rules over time. Edit: Additio...
E-Texteditor recently announced going open-source with their open company model. However after reading through I am not sure if this model is really open. The way I understand is that they open up the source and contributors, depending on how much the contribute get badges (like at stackoverflow) and are compensated accordingly from the...
As a freelance programmer, it can be a good thing when you quote for 4-5 jobs and get all 5 of them. It can mean lots of money, but it also has the effect of stress/burnout, and not knowing where to start and how to get anything done. Especially when each of the 5 clients want a daily progress report. How do you organize your time and t...
In my company we often value the software to be almost the same as concurrent software on the market. While this is one way I'm interested of other (maybe more academic) ways of value and put a price on software. Any ideas or methods that have been succesful for you? ...
I'm starting a job search, ideally ending up at a C shop. So far, I'm coming up empty in my local ads, and am starting to think I need to broaden my search, targeting specific types of businesses. So, what type of places typically use this language? ...
I'm working on a web based medical billing code search engine for my software start-up that will let users search for ICD-9 (and related ICD-10, clinical codes) medical codes used in medical diagnoses and medical billing. The problem with building the data files for the search is that the Center for Disease Control only releases the fil...
Myself and a friend have created a startup, but we are both software developers. We are quickly realizing that we are going to have to deal with, and understand, all of the intricacies of business. Are there any resources that can help us avoid common problems encountered by the non-business-savvy? How do you balance creating your pro...
I just started programming in C# and was reading about dividing your application / website into the three different layers was the best practice but I am having a hard time understanding exactly how. Im working on a pet project to lean more about C# but I dont want to start on any bad habits. Can you look at what I have and see if I am d...
What typically takes place during the due diligence phase of an acquisition of a software company? I am in particular interested in how the value of the software assets is determined. What is the scope and nature of the technical documents that is reviewed? Is it common to examine the actual source code? the version control history ...
I am fairly new to Rails and I have never developed a large application. A friend of mine and I are developing two separate applications and we found out we both have a need for a way to generically manage pricing / discount rules. Scenario: Say you have a conference registration application and depending on who uses the application, t...
Hi. I'm looking for a REA library in C#. The code in Pavel Hruby's book Model-Driven Desing Using Business Patterns has the makings of a good REA library, but it's incomplete. http://www.reatechnology.com/book.html ...
I'm working on Java-based server software that needs to be customized for a few, but large customers. A separate instance of the server runs for each customer. Each customer has sufficiently differing requirements such that different business logics is required for each of the implementations. At this time, the different business logic...
I'm trying to identify what would be the best selling point for a set of articles I'm writing. Should I cover RSS feeds or Facebook/Twitter/YouTube integration into a web site? Or something else? I'm already covering Image galleries, blogs, forums, polls, (and even shopping carts). I apologize if this is too subjective. I just want to kn...
Is there any solid and comprehensive book or article on business model for web startup? I am particularly interested in how to generate revenue from a web service. Info about ad revenue, case studies and interviews would be nice. ...
Three weeks ago, I completed a project for a guy. My former CEO gave him a good reference. The whole time I was doing work for this guy, I gave him updates he could see, and told him he needed to make sure to tell me if there were any changes he needed. At the end, he told me it looked awesome, exactly what he wanted, and he would send...
My company (with whom I've been working for the last 10 years) is asking me to sign a new confidentiality agreement with the following paragraph: You hereby assign to the Company by way of future assignment all Copyright, design right and other proprietary rights (if any) for the full terms thereof throughout the World in re...
I'm currently in the planning stages of starting out on my own* (with a business partner...) and am trying to come up with a list of minimum requirements that I'll need for the early stages of this venture. Leaving out the business craft side of things (sales marketing etc.) at this point - there are plenty of articles here on SO coveri...
I would like to find out what steps do people take when doing a freelance job over the net with someone you have never met to make sure that they get paid in the end when they deliver the end product? The following is what I normally do: set milestones and get paid when these milestones are met obfuscate assembly if source code is not...
I'd hope some healthy discussion will come out of this more so than a specific solution so I'll Community Wiki it as it is a fairly subjective topic. Appreciate if it can be left open as a helpful resource. Recently I've taken over as Dev Manager with a small Technical Team. The Business/Marketting/Design Teams out number the technical...