How to choose a programmer with an adequate price per hour?

Question

Freelance

I understand that the work of a programmer is creative work and KPI cannot be measured.

spoiler

Фрилансеры бывают разные, есть начинающие с завышенной самооценкой, а есть опытные, которые без затруднений напишут функцию за минимальное время и за адекватную плату. Не опытный может биться над функцией 10 часов * 10$, а опытный напишет за 0,5 часа *50$. Хуже всего, если не опытный, с завышенной самооценкой выкатит ценник в 50$ и будет рассказывать что там все сложно.

In general, the question is:
Is it possible to evaluate the work of a programmer for a specific function, a specific script?
For example:
there is a MYSQL database of 100+ tables, an average of 10 columns, there are table connections, the YII2 framework
has a clear technical specification, where all the logic of work is written.
How much will it cost to create a page with a simple table output?
And if you add a form, and if you add a function...?
The output of a simple table on the page for a beginner and an experienced one will take approximately the same time, and the price for the work is different.
Maybe there is some indicator that would distinguish the complexity of execution?
Or one way out?
Give the simplest functions to young people, and complex ones to professionals?

Answer 1

You know, it's a market.
Imagine, God forbid, you have a trial, and you need to hire a lawyer. One costs 1000 rubles. per hour, another - 15,000 rubles. at one o'clock. How to evaluate the work of a lawyer?
In general, a freelance programmer (like a lawyer) should have experience in solving similar problems in the past and, best of all, letters of recommendation / coordinates from previous employers so that they can ask about the quality of his work.

Answer 2

decide, functions or tasks?
You won’t believe it, but specifically this task with 100+ tables will take no more than an hour, (10 minutes to launch the project, 10 to install the base, migrations, and 15 to automatically create all the tables and crowds using the template).
You will get the ability to edit, view table, create.
What if you don’t have Jquery there, but React?
What if you need to substitute not just the number of the linked table, but a drop-down list with Ajax loading from the server?
Or all work should take place in one window with modal windows.
So for programmers, when they name the price, they are guided by the rule - what if? And they use the price fork for themselves. Sometimes calling more. The best way to work productively with a programmer is to pay for his work by the hour. Then the whole problem of inconsistencies between the programmer's time and TK is the manager's problem.

Answer 3

There is only one way to more or less adequately assess the labor costs and, as a result, the cost of any work - to have a specialist in this field on staff. In the absence of this, in choosing a freelancer, you should not at all focus on the price indicator, only on reviews, as well as the quantity and quality of work in the portfolio. And then I relatively recently watched with my own eyes how, trying to save 15,000 rubles, the customer lost 150,000.

Answer 4

You give a paid test task, see the result, based on the programmer's rating on a scale from one to ten, you give him a price

Answer 5

Dmitry, of course I will disappoint you. In our TP, the support can answer for a day, just sorting through someone's shit code and, as a result, spit on the ticket and close it with Lavrov's words "b * b * b * I." At the request of the client, he can already create a 100% working layout of the project from blanks in 10 minutes.
How do we pay for his work in the first and second cases?
The answer is on the surface: salary.
Hence the conclusion: do not invite freelancers to work, but conclude a contract for the creation / maintenance / maintenance of your project. Now there are enough technically literate small companies that take up the service and honestly do their job. Their regulations: payment after completion, or with a minimum prepayment. You describe the level of complexity in the TOR or, together with you, a company specialist draws up a TOR (terms of reference) and deadlines. Acceptance by act. If you are not satisfied with their work - do not sign the act and that's it.
Why do you feed mediocrity and "thickly smart specialists" with incomprehensible self-esteem and performance. We invite everyone to our service, but only a few pass "after graduation". And our interview is simple, we don’t look at the portfolio (often reduced to templates), we don’t look at education (bought from the metro). We give the terminal, observe the work and evaluate the final result.

Answer 6

Nothing forms the final cost so well as a detailed and final technical task.
If the terms of reference are thoughtful and final (with all 'ifs'), you will receive more offers from self-respecting programmers, who will indicate to you the average price tag for the hospital within the specified task ...
Tighten up once and think everything over now, it will cost you 2, 3, or maybe all 10 times cheaper and less nerves spent later ...

Answer 7

dear author, you have received an adequate proposal for your task.
to get an offer with a fix, you must have TK so that the programmer can calculate what work he needs to do, multiply the hourly rate by the number of hours, multiply by the coefficient of unforeseen tasks, if any, at the start of the transaction, then offer you a price tag for the service. Not a single experienced performer will deceive himself, and for a task that looks like a fixed price, he will always guarantee more hours than he needs.
in your case, there is no task in the topic that could be measured in man-hours, so you received an adequate offer from the developer.
and judging by your reaction, it is very risky to deal with you, instead of forming a technical task, you threw the topic out for chatter so that experts would confirm the correctness of your opinion. Alas, you are wrong here.

Answer 8

Judging by the question, you have no experience in setting tasks for software development at all.
This means that you want to get a Mercedes for the cost of a Zaporozhets, but you do not want to get a Zaporozhets for the cost of a Mercedes.
You do not know that in order to buy a car you need to go to a car dealership and buy yourself a Kia or Ford that will satisfy you in terms of quality / price and the cost of subsequent maintenance.
Since there is no experience, you cannot estimate the labor costs, and you suggest that the specialist himself do this.
It's the same as if you offered someone to snort your cocaine that you bought until it runs out.
One specialist will consume it at a rate of 1 gram per day, another 1 gram per week, but the essence will not change - just one day the cocaine will end, and you will cease to be an employer in the software industry.
In the sense that you will still look for specialists, but you will no longer have cocaine.
And then the Blessed Virgin will take pity on you, and an angel will fly to you, who will comfort you when you read the book "Programming for Dummies".

Answer 9

When the number of works is not large, it is strange to have several performers. For before the programmer picks up the pace, it will take a lot of time to get acquainted with the architecture. Even for super pros, this is not a short time. Although some tasks can be done in a modular way without even knowing for which project, but these are already nuances.
Trial and error method. You can look at reviews. You can hire a good and expensive specialist as a consultant, he will spend an hour a day and give you advice on what should cost and how much. Which of your employees is worth their money, and which is not. In any case, there are many approaches and they all depend on the size of the project, or rather on the number of works. Do I need to finish something sometimes or is it a constant work of 10 hands. Here everything will be fundamentally different.
You can hire 1 specialist and 10 beginners and he will teach them, as a result you will get an inexpensive but high-quality team. But do you need such a number of employees?

Answer 10

Imagine a house that needs to be built for a certain cost by a certain date,
construction company A can conclude a contract with you after completing its previous house, switch to your house in the middle of the term, transferring all forces, and working in three shifts and complete by the deadline.
Company B may start immediately but not meet the deadline due to problems in the supply of materials, poor organization of construction processes.
Therefore, you will probably not take into account how much and how the company is developing, but on the quality that gives the output, its reputation.
Believe me, there are familiar masseurs who, after a 3-month course, raise the bass to the level of a specialist with experience.

Answer 11

You will always underpay for one and overpay for the other.
You need to have certain requirements for the result and see whether they are met or not. For example, the speed of work, interesting solutions, etc.
Ideally, you create a group with which you work based on the results of past work. And already within this group of adequate programmers, you are bargaining over who will do what. Of course, from time to time someone comes to this group and someone leaves it.
If the selection of programmers is always from the open market, then you will consistently underpay and overpay, as well as receive adequate material and slag. Like surfing, you always react to the current situation and maneuver inside the market.

Answer 12

contract -> salary + bonus is a better way out of the situation, in fact. There is a motivation to do it quickly and well, but on the other hand, the understanding that work not done = to be left without payment

Answer 13

I think you show your inadequacy with this question.
You can assign any cost to your project, just like other people can agree to it or not.
That. the market is not that you go to the store and buy any product at a price tag, either in a chain supermarket or on the market.
The point is, there is no point in people working with you if they can get more from others.
This adds up to the developer's price.
That. if you think that the price of an hour\month\year\life is not adequate, look further.
If you want something to be done - agree and work.
Hire two \ 10 \ 100, from them choose the best for you.
In general, I am shocked by such questions.

Answer 14

Try to find a programmer offline. Better than a hungry student. Offline, slightly different rules of the game, perhaps more familiar to you.

Answer 15

Options:
1. Conduct an interview, give a test task or project, evaluate.
2. If you cannot do step 1 yourself, then find someone who can do it for you.
3. According to the ratings/reviews of acquaintances, or public sites (exchanges).
There are no other ways.

Answer 16

No way - unless you already know this market yourself.
Trial and error method.