Hiring a Software Development Company or an Employee

In the modern world, many companies are upgrading their internal software or have the intention to create some type of software program. Many executives ask the question: should we hire someone internally or hire a specialist company to create us our solution? At first, hiring someone internally may seem to cost less compared to the project price quoted by a software development company. However, in the long run, the responsibilities, risks and time involved in hiring that employee can end up costing up to three to four times what it would to possess hired a software development company to begin with.

Let's begin by discussing the responsibilities involved with hiring a software developer. First, you need to consider the wage you would like to pay the developer. Software developers normally range in salary from $40,000.00 to $140,000.00 a year with regards to the market you are in and the experience the developer has. During some industries hiring the less expensive choice is practical, this route should be avoided here due to the fact that this individual will undoubtedly be solely responsible for the development within the company. Based on experience, a good developer with the skill set necessary in this scenario will definitely cost no less than $80,000.00 a year, or $40.00 per hour. For software development in Houston who is hiring the developer for a three month contract, at $40.00 per hour, your total cost will undoubtedly be somewhere around $20,000.00. Most developers are looking for a six month contract minimally, so realistically you'll have to commit $40,000.00 to the position. Should you be hiring the developer as a complete time employee, you then have to consider benefits such as for example insurance and retirement, which could increase this amount significantly.

Salary aside, the hiring process itself provides its own challenges. First, the manager really needs the experience to judge whether the developer is qualified for the work and worth the amount of money they are asking for. This means the manager has to take time to test potential candidates successfully and thoroughly in all respects of architecture and programming, because the candidate will be solely in charge of the development project at hand. In this industry, personality is really a small portion of the process as many developers cannot be judged on their personality; oftentimes, developers are introverted and this makes it hard for them to express their capabilities verbally. Instead, you need to focus on their expertise - but if the manager or company interviewing said developer does not have the IT experience to do so, the chance that the hire will fail to meet up with the company's expectations is fantastic. Once the hiring process is complete, the company must setup a management process for the developer.

My experience has taught me that all developers require structure, discipline and much more importantly a manager who gets the knowledge and experience to guide the project the developer is working on. With that in mind, a manager must take time to develop a life cycle for the project that ought to add a detailed functional specification of the project and a general understanding of the programming environment used to create the program. The results of not taking the time of creating an operating specification and getting the knowledge to lead the developer through the development life cycle will most likely be that the program is not intended to certain requirements and specifications of the business, nor being completed on schedule. I cannot express enough the significance of a manager having the functional and technical knowledge to control the developer. This doesn't mean the manager should be a programmer; actually, the manager doesn't have to know programming at all. They do, however, need a knowledge of the program development life cycle, requirement documentation and timelines with regards to the programming environment and the program application itself. With that knowledge, the manager will be able to supervise all areas of the project including testing. How software companies houston tx has to commit to hiring a developer could be enormous and the risks of not devoting the proper resources and management to a project and the hired developer are great.

The risks regarding management, or lack of, is one thing, but there are risks in hiring a developer beyond management. The most obvious risk may be the chance that employee or contractor will quit or leave the business for reasons uknown. Imagine you have a 3 month project that needs to be completed in a few months with no leeway in scheduling and the developer in charge of the project quits or gets sick after only one four weeks of development. At that point, the company must go through the procedure for hiring a new developer again, and re-invest enough time to review the infrastructure of the application form and environment of the software with the new hire. It's been my experience that a new developer can't just grab where a vintage developer left off. Why? It isn't just the developer's skills that become a secured asset to a company, but their knowledge of the application; when the developer leaves, their replacement must first learn the application and obtain acclimated to the previous developer's code before having the ability to actually work with it, that could take weeks depending on the complexity of the application form, the standard of the code and the associated documentation. Another risk of hiring a developer includes the company's expectation of their performance. No matter how thorough your hiring process is, oftentimes you won't know if a developer is good until she or he gets a job or task done. If a hiring mistake is discovered after the developer has completed a project for you personally, this could bring about not only having to redevelop the software but revisit the hiring process, both of which have the potential to cost a company greatly in more than just dollars.