[GLLUG] I had an idea, now, How to Find a good developer?

Wed Feb 4 04:24:11 EST 2015

Actually, this is the same reason why HR departments are notoriously bad at
hiring for anything but the lowest-level IT positions.  Without a basic
understanding of the field, you can't really make any reliable judgment
calls on the individual you are looking at.

On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 4:20 AM, Richard Houser <rick at divinesymphony.net>
wrote:

> > I'd like to call something out that I've noticed. I didn't see a single
> answer to the OP's question:
>
> > I had an idea, now, How to Find a good developer?
>
> As Clay mentioned, the idea was not sufficiently developed anywhere near
> enough to be looking for a developer.  Now, add in the part where a good
> developer is almost impossible for a total layman to tell from a bad
> developer at this stage, and you have a recipe for disaster.  An
> good/ethical developer would not accept a project in this stage and many
> would ignore you completely as a waste of time, but there are plenty of
> unethical people that would just take your money and burn through it
> without nothing productive to show.
>
> The first steps involve education and then further development of the idea
> into a requirements.  Once you have reasonable requirements, you can
> consider looking for a developer.  Even then, without enough additional
> education to help you identify the good developers from the bad, you will
> have to blindly trust someone else to do that for you.  A layman is just
> not capable of doing that on his own.  You might be able to identify
> developers that worked on successful projects, but you won't know enough to
> determine if the work was done efficiently, if the underlying code is a
> steaming pile, etc.  Lots of projects do manage to work despite the
> development team if you throw enough resources at it.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 9:50 PM, Dave Crampton <dave.crampton at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I'd like to call something out that I've noticed. I didn't see a single
>> answer to the OP's question:
>>
>> I had an idea, now, How to Find a good developer?
>>
>> I saw plenty of "here's why you don't want to do what you want to do." Is
>> the attitude the same at in-person meetings?
>>
>> --
>> Sent from my mobile device, please excuse typos and brevity.
>>
>> On Feb 3, 2015, at 9:11 PM, Richard Houser <rick at divinesymphony.net>
>> wrote:
>>
>> You don't really need wads of cash.  Some of the best software projects
>> have been done on shoestring budgets.  You only need wads of cash to get
>> someone else to do all the work for you.  You have to bring something to
>> the table, and if you don't have the skills, that means you are Mr.
>> Moneybags.  If you have the time, discipline, and inclination, you can
>> certainly teach yourself most of the necessary skills.  Reading the license
>> agreements is a simple example.  OSS licenses are specifically written in
>> plain language so you don't need to hire a lawyer to understand them.  If
>> you are willing to devote a couple years to developing the appropriate
>> skills, you could probably do 90-95% yourself with open source.  It may
>> very well be ugly under the covers, but you could have something working
>> for a very low cost.  It wouldn't even need to be an expensive education:
>> (ex. http://ocw.mit.edu/).  Getting a basic CS education would also help
>> you identify a good developer, btw.  There are LOTs of bad ones, and you
>> usually need an engineer and/or experienced software developer to spot the
>> difference before it's too late.
>>
>> For my part, I'm slowly developing the skills and a small prototyping lab
>> to build my first few attempts at potentially commercial projects (several
>> years in).  Pure software guys have it easy.....
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 3, 2015 at 8:25 PM, Peter Christenson <pac1.mi at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> All,
>>> Thank you all for your thoughts and opinions. They have been very
>>> helpful in in my thoughts about moving forward.
>>>
>>> As a recap, the pointers I have learned that will help my idea to come
>>> to life, are that, an NDA may be needed to protect myself from having the
>>> idea stolen, however idea's can not be patented, and no one really wants
>>> the idea, only the outcome.  I need to research the market for similar
>>> things, and find out what will make mine different. I Will need stacks of
>>> cash, and then more stacks after that.  I should learn how to write formal
>>> requirement documents or hire someone to do it for me. I need to research
>>> the licenses of each piece of software, and possibly consult a lawyer. I
>>> should hire the best developer I can to build a good team of  developers I
>>> can because they cost less than cheaper developers.  If I can't communicate
>>> what I want, I will get a beautiful system that doesn't do what I want. And
>>> last but not least. I need stacks of money ;-) I hope I haven't missed
>>> anything.
>>>
>>> So... when trying to find a developer what should I be looking for, that
>>> will  qualify them as a good one, when I'm not one?
>>> On Feb 3, 2015 1:11 AM, "Thomas Hruska" <thruska at cubiclesoft.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> On 2/2/2015 1:04 PM, Peter Christenson wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hi Patrick and Chick, Thanks for the fast response.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  however I will share that it is a meal planning and shopping list tool
>>>>> that
>>>>> would be available via browser as well as mobile app and maybe even a
>>>>> desktop app.  with the goal of helping the end users, without adding
>>>>> more
>>>>> complexity to their lives.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Oops.  Missed this.  Still pretty broad and it's the sort of thing
>>>> that's been done a zillion times.  You'll have a lot of competition in the
>>>> space.  Google Docs is probably your biggest competitor.  Google is not
>>>> worth taking on.
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Thomas Hruska
>>>> CubicleSoft President
>>>>
>>>> I've got great, time saving software that you will find useful.
>>>>
>>>> http://cubiclesoft.com/
>>>>
>>>
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>>>
>>>
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