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Freelance Programming Sites?
CarrotLord asks: "I have some small, fairly well-defined programming projects that I need done, but I don't have time to do them myself. So, I've been looking into sites like Get a Freelancer and ScriptLance. Does anybody have any experience of these types of sites? Specifically, I'd like to hear your recommendations and advice, as well as your experiences. My concerns include: getting very poor quality work; communication and language barriers and also losing control over the work that I've paid for -- if I'm paying for some work, I want it licensed on my own terms."
To prevent someone taking your work, have someone build the common libraries first, and then have someone else use that compiled library (obscurificated and with expiration date built in). You could also let them compile the code on your server and use remote desktop so you can see them working with the code, and then block the ports to make it harder for them to remove information from the computer. Good Luck...
Programming is a technical skill. You're asking for a product here. Don't go to a programmer asking for a product cause you ain't gonna get it. You're gonna get a technical solution. Something like a huge mass of C files and maybe a Makefile. Wow, look at that red-black tree he used. What you need is a freelance project manager who can manage the product you want and the technical people who can provide that product.
You are already on the right track if the projects are "well defined." I have had several experiences on eLance and the best results happen when you know exactly what you want. I mean, exactly. If you need something in ATL or MFC with specific dependencies (or lack of them), say so. The more specific the better.
Also specify how the project will be tested before being delivered to you. The end of the project can be the most frustrating. I have decided it's often easier to take ownership of the whole thing and do the little items (spelling and grammar in the UI) rather than trying to pass it back to them.
Finally, think about IP issues. If you think the project (or your whole company) will ever be bought by any large company, they will ask questions about where the code came from in due diligence. Get some assurances that the code they created "for you" is not yanked from some open source project.
*nods in agreement* I tried getting work at a freelance site, specifically scriptlance, for a few months and gave up.
Quite a few of the projects I found that I could do didn't pick anyone. Just about every listing had several people that would bid $10 on a $100 project saying they could do it for $500, or something along that line. There were also tons of responses that simply said "See PMB" (Private Message Board) which left me thinking "What's so special about your bid that you can't say it in front of the rest of us?"
*shakes head and rolls eyes* Not going through that again if I can help it.
I'm currently on a freelance project for a small consulting firm. My NDA prohibits me from getting any more into it, but I thought I would share my experience and philosophy on the whole shebang. My biggest problem so far is that I don't have any sort of structured documentation to work from. If I had been given a business requirements doc, or an SRS (lord halleleujah), I could have knocked it out no problem. Quite the opposite, he is relinquishing a lot of control and decision making to me, and I have to continually remind my client that the terms of completion, and what constitutes the deliverable, are determine by him. He's already given me a broad framework for the project, and one of my biggest challenges is eliciting requirements out of him. Anyway, my view of freelance is that a developer is there to make implementation decisions based on the requirements that the project sponsor has decided upon. Having a formal SRS means you have a laundry list of what is and is-not done at the end of the project. BTW, if anyone is looking for a freelance developer for small to medium sized projects, please drop me a line. I've got 7 years of experience in an enterprise level of environment (ongoing) and 3 years of freelance experience.
In my experience these websites are not useful to the serious freelance programmer who wants to pay the bills. However, they are vaulable as a way for students or those lacking in experience/qualifications as a way to find jobs with which to build up a portfolio. Bidding very low or offering to do jobs for free and explaining your situation will win contracts from small companies or individual sole-traders. As an employer, If someone offers to send you a free prototype, you have nothing to lose. I've been doing PHP/SQL freelance work in this manner for about 3 years while doing crap temporary Admin jobs and looking for a proper programming role, seen virtually no money whatsoever from it but have landed a permanent C# software development job largely on the strength of this (mostly unpaid) experience.
I've been working on Rent A Coder for the last couple months, and just finished a large project on it, that took 2 months. I agree that generally the site would work best for small projects. I think I got lucky, and managed to establish a good working relationship with the buyer. What helped most was being very clear about what was in the contract, and finding out what exactly was expected of me. The best advice I can offer is to discuss with any potential coders every point of the contract, and what's expected in the project. As further colloquial evidence that there are some good experiences on the freelance front, I have a further contract with the same buyer coming up. Apparantly, he was rather pleased with how the first project turned out.