Al Kags,

Anything is possible but here are my opinions.

Freelance developers should be bound to some form of technical business organization. Most developers burn out of projects in 6 to 36 months anyway so unless a non technical organization wants to become a software house.... There must be an institutional system or memory to maintain or improve a software project.

Contracted technology firms should be required to train and pay software developers in a way that makes it more probable for them to deliver on what is required. Many find it too expensive to train, certify or hire up to date techies. This means that the contracted firm should also not be underpaid. Training and equipping techies is not cheap at all.

Some of us have seen how creative techies can inspire others to produce in projects, informal forums, communities, seminars or classroom settings. Any developer or techie worth noting participates in a technical community or organization that can vouch for their passion, competence and reliability (goodwill). Team members should be consulted before adding anyone to their group. What if a new hire 'stole' your star developer's x?

Let us hear about the projects your contacts have in mind and then we can compete in gaining their confidence as individual, community or corporate teams. Since software project requirements are rarely static it should be no surprise that what is initially agreed on rarely comes to pass. Features are cut or modified to finish whatever becomes the software within a specified time period and budget.

---------

MM

On Sun, Jun 28, 2009 at 5:59 PM, Al Kags <alkags@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all.

Much has been said on this forum about government, organisations and
companies not giving much work to  developers who do are not
companies. having spoken to a few people who could give the contracts
etc., i understood them to say that the concerns were that their
concerns are:-

1. They cannot be assured of the freelance developers level of quality.
2. They cannot be assured of the freelance developers delivery time -
that they will deliver everything they say they will at the appointed
time
3. That they require too much supervision
4. That they over promise.
5. The development of a website/application requires several
competences - designer, IA, developer, integrator etc. The contention
is that you guys don't/won't work together as a team.

Here's a question:

If an organisation/ company was to decide to do a call for entries/
tender of sorts for a significant web project to be delivered by a
team of freelance individuals from this forum, can it be done?

The sub-parts of these question are:-

a) Can you form a team consisting of Project Manager (to assure
everything is done in time, guide the proposal making etc); Designer
(who does outstanding designs in CSS); Developer(s) who can work well
with Google Aps - integrate Gmaps etc into the site; mobile developer
to develop mobile apps, etc; integrator to ensure that the site is
seamless?

b) Can your team come together and bid for the project in detail -
including what you can put together, timelines, budgets,
documentations etc? (Each member of the team would sign a contract and
would be paid as an individual for their quoted rate)

c) Can the team that wins the bid implement the project in such a
seamless and timely manner, delivering such high quality that the
project can stand up as a model that the government, organisations and
companies can use to contract you?

d) Being that this is such an untried model, would the other
developers in the skunkworks arena support the winning team to ensure
that they succeed in delivering the project at the highest possible
quality and within the exact time they promised to do so? If yes, what
is the structure that skunkworks would use to do this?


Here's my thinking. A lot of the developers and other related
professionals here are passionate and really good at what they do, and
they often just need a chance. Not everyone can be employed by the
3mice etc of this world and so its a challenge to give everyone a
chance.

Given the concerns expressed by the client group, the onus is on
interested people here to prove to them that the model of contracting
individual freelance professionals here is a workable one.

I know one organisation that would be interested in trying it out. So
before they make a further move, I bring the idea here to you and ask,

what is possible?

--
Al Kags
-----------------------
Founder, The Desturi Trust
http://www.alkags.com
_______________________________________________
Skunkworks mailing list
Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke
http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks
Other services @ http://my.co.ke
Other lists
-------------
Skunkworks announce: http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks-announce
Science - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/science
kazi - http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/admin/kazi/general