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Features / Usability

Features / Usability


Hiring a Developer Questions

posts: 758 United States

Dear folks, or Devs, or anyone with knowledge.

Lately I have considered hiring a dev to fix some bugs in Tiki. I have never done this before, so I am not sure what to expect.
Perhaps someone can chime in here, I can list my questions so they can easily be answered, thanks!

  1. What is the average or prevailing rate (eruos/us) per hour?
  2. Is a down payment before work begins standard?
  3. Is payment in full before work begins standard?
  4. The bug is fixed, do i have a guarantee of support free of charge if the bug returns in a certain time frame?
  5. So the bug is fixed, we version up a month later, and the plugin no longer works again, should I pay to have it fixed again?


Just some questions/concerns before I invest.
Thanks all!

posts: 8633 Israel

Hi John,

This is my personal feedback.

Each consultants (coders included) have different skills experience and price.
Some are very busy and some less busy.
Price will depend of what you want and when you want it. (may be also if you want a kind of warranty)

The other points are totally dependant of your discussion/negotiation with the person you want to hire and how he work.

I have some plan for a "Tiki Board" were people could post their request and Tiki Consultants can "grab and apply". Until it gets real (if) I suggest you talk directly to people. :-)


posts: 758 United States
The board where folks can post their "for hire" requests is a great idea Bernard. I know with other applications they have a "Bounty Board" where we can post a job and devs can look in and pick up the bounty if they want to head it up. It saves us, the customer a ton of time, instead of us contacting 20 devs, the devs look at the bounty board and pick up the work they want to pick up. I think it would be a win win for all.

posts: 758 United States
Come to think of it, a simple forum category would be a great place to start for a "Bounty Board". Just thinking here.

posts: 3665 United States
John Morris wrote:

4. The bug is fixed, do i have a guarantee of support free of charge if the bug returns in a certain time frame?
5. So the bug is fixed, we version up a month later, and the plugin no longer works again, should I pay to have it fixed again?


Ideally, the fix is checked in to the main Tiki codebase. This way, you don't have to worry about re-fixing the same issue again.

I would think that if you're hiring someone to write a custom plugin for you, part of the discussion would be who owns/supports the code? Or is this something you would want to add to the Tiki community (but then you loose ownership/control.


HTH,

- Rick | My Tiki Blog | My Tiki UserPage

Why be a dummy? Get smarty! TikiForSmarties.com
Tiki for Smarties, your source for the best (and only) Tiki books, guides, and tutorials.
posts: 758 United States
Thanks Rick, my idea would be to fund the fix, and release it back to the community, keeping within the spirit of community.

posts: 2428 Czech Republic

Hi John,
briefly my answers below:

What is the average or prevailing rate (eruos/us) per hour?
This is individual choice of the consultant/developer. You should email several and query them, then you can compare the prices.
Is a down payment before work begins standard?
I don't think it is standard but optionally a proforma invoice for a bank of hours can be issued if you agree on that
Is payment in full before work begins standard?
No, I don't think so
The bug is fixed, do i have a guarantee of support free of charge if the bug returns in a certain time frame?
Depends if you agree on that with the individual
So the bug is fixed, we version up a month later, and the plugin no longer works again, should I pay to have it fixed again?
Surely not but there can be rare exceptions if you hire someone (newbie developer) who does not know the code-base well and commits something really nasty (which might fix your issue anyway). Every developer contributing the code should respect the environment which means they should try and avoid causing regressions as much as possible (imho) and do not cause big changes without prior communication on the development mailing list. If they do not follow the 3Rules or commit some really bad code without willing to fix their own mistakes they will get their commit access removed and some volunteer will need to rollback their code back to a working state (that can of course include bad code contributed in good will paid by third party (you))
posts: 758 United States
Luci, thank you for your feedback!

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