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Independent Programmers: What price tag do you put on your sanity?
mpullin
Posts: 949
I just got contacted by a former employer of mine and asked me to come in and make some changes to a system that I coded several months ago. He said he had contacted an independent programmer who asked for $2000 "just to look at the code." Now, I've never had to do independent programming for a living, but this seems rather unreasonable. That being said, we all know there is some pretty bad code out there.
What would you charge someone to look at and modify/fix control system code that you had nothing to do with? How many hours would you say it takes to read and comprehend to average programmer's code? Would you charge by the hour, by the line, some flat rate, or what? And what would happen if the code were just so bad that you couldn't make sense of it or accomplish anything without a total rewrite?
What would you charge someone to look at and modify/fix control system code that you had nothing to do with? How many hours would you say it takes to read and comprehend to average programmer's code? Would you charge by the hour, by the line, some flat rate, or what? And what would happen if the code were just so bad that you couldn't make sense of it or accomplish anything without a total rewrite?
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I will 'look at' code for nothing. Anything beyond that is for pay.
I suppose it depends upon what 'look at' means.
If it means look it over and give me an estimate of what it will take to fix, I don't charge for the look at time.
I can generally size up a project pretty quickly by examining the code. If the code is fairly neat and organized and well-commented, making alterations won't cost much.
if it's all higgledee-piggledee, my PIA fee goes up accordingly.
On the other hand, if the employer was an idiot, I make sure I charge enough so that it is well worth my time. Long story short, a former employer phased me out as a contractor and replaced me with an under qualified person because they were cheaper. He then asked me to train the guy, which I did for a much higher rate. A few months later, they got a big job and he asked me to supervise/lead the install. I did it at very generous flat rates per piece of equipment. I knew that even if EVERYTHING went wrong, I would more than cover my time. I also knew that I wasn't going to get any more work (unless another very large job came along which was doubtful). The best example of the limited knowledge of the replacement guy and the owner is that one of the flat rates was $100 per switch I installed and configured. (they auto-configured upon being plugged in
Which leads me to another anecdote. My uncle works at an asphalt plant as a supervisor. One day they had a problem with the plant and nothing could be made. They called in a service guy, and the guy walked in, looked at a couple things, tightened a couple screws and replaced a fuse. He then proceeded to write a bill for $2000.00. My uncle looked at him and asked, "Your charging me $2000 to tight a few screws and replace a fuse and it only took you 10 minutes?!?" The guy looked at him and said, "You are not paying me $2000 to tighten a few screws and replace a fuse, you are paying me $2000 to know which screws to tighten and which fuse to replace."
With all of that said, $2000 to just look at code tells me that the programmer is not interested in doing the work, but if the money is right, he/she could be persuaded.
Jeff
Exactly right. I have been in those situations before. I love it when they call back!
I generally will not give a fixed price for working on someone else's code. I've learned my lesson there, but if it is a good customer that gives me lots of business and pays on time I will sometimes make an exception.