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What To Ask A Coder Prior To A Project

by Zanti
4 replies
I'm doing some advance research for a new product I'm considering in a new area for me, software development.

I'm wondering what kind of questions I should pose and a ball park fee range I should be aware of to discuss this with a coder.

I posted here instead of the main forum, since I want to find out the information direct from those who do this type of work.

The software I'm looking to have created is a mind mapping software for the legal market, incorporating some unique features for this industry and it has to be cross platform, Windows/Linux/Mac OS X.

The currently available mind mapping software is lacking in certain features for what I need for this market, but the software would be based on MindNode Pro and FreePlane. (Can't really go into some of the specific features I'm looking for, for obvious reasons. I can say that the product has to be simple to use with a short learning curve.)

I'm a few months out from actually contacting a coder to create this software.

In summary what I'm seeking is:

What type of questions should be posed to the coder;
(I'm aware of some of the basic questions, experience, samples, etc.)

Cost range for a project of this type.
(No, I'm not looking to spend $10K, looking at the low to moderate range for cost. Low being under $500, moderate being under $1,500. I have no idea if this is realistic or not.)

Would this be an easy project or a very difficult one.

Any additional information I should pay attention to or be aware of.

So coders, please share with me the inside secrets of what you would ask of a coder you would have doing a project for you.

Thanks for your help.

Brian (Z)
#coder #prior #project
  • Profile picture of the author wayfarer
    Samples of previous projects should be #1. Any programmer worth his or her salt should be able to give examples and explain in depth why things worked the way they did on past projects. They should be able to give examples of past uses of technology and how they would be applied on a the prospective project.

    This seems rather obvious, but it's easy to fall into the trap of hiring someone based only on what they charge, which could mean you're paying someone to learn on the job.

    The other thing I would suggest is to write a very clear and concise requirements document. Then ask them to review the requirements item by item, to make sure they understand exactly what you're after. The more clear your requirements are, the easier it will be to understand, and the more comfortable coders will be bidding on your project.
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    • Profile picture of the author Adam Struve
      Actual source code examples of their work. I check to see if they are standards compliant and if their code is clean and commented well. Saves a lot of headaches down the road if you need another freelancer to pick up where the first one left off or to add new features.
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  • Profile picture of the author caesargus
    I would agree that code samples would be ideal, so that you can inspect their code, but if you're not sure what you're looking at, then it doesn't make much sense does it?

    I would find out if they use any frameworks to help build the software that they are using. I would also see if they could leverage any existing open source projects that are available, since this may give you a bit of a head start.
    - Freemind is an open source java project I believe
    Main Page - FreeMind
    - If you go with the open source approach, I would see if they can understand the code that is within the project, since there are a variety of frameworks and what not, and it might be better if they were already somewhat familiar with the structure of the code (not necessarily the code itself, but how the framework itself works).

    A requirements document is nice, but a prototype is better. I would suggest going to a graphic designer, and getting some screen shots laid out first, so that your developer has a target of what he is shooting for. He can poke holes in the design, and make various improvements on the flow and what not, making it easier for the end user to use. Also having a prototype is nice, for presentations, when you go to a sales presentation, you have something already to go, and the ideal situation, would be that the application would follow the prototype's design.

    Also, I would suggest in getting timelines on how long it would take individual modules - and get progress updates, so you are at least in the loop. In agile software development, the business owner (you) works with the developer, and you work in "sprints" so that you have frequent releases over gigantic release processes, which makes things harder to test.

    Good luck with your project!
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    • Profile picture of the author Zanti
      Wow, thanks so much.

      No I don't know coding but all of your responses have given me a great beginning education moving into an area foreign to me.

      Yes, Free Plane is open source, it's an improvement over FreeMind. Because it is open source I thought, it seems correctly, that using that framework would make the project easier to develop.

      So, any ideas on what a ball park cost for such a project would be. I know it's hard to know without have all the details, but any thoughts on this would be helpful.

      Thanks, again.

      Z
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