[LRUG] Freelancers pairing with existing developers on short term projects - this common?

[Chris Adams]

Hi there,

Is it unheard of for more experienced freelancers to be brought on for
a few days to pair with less experienced in-house developers, working
together to implement features, and transfer knowledge, instead of
sending the less experienced developer off for sheep-dip style rails
bootcamp training sessions?

I ask because I'm working in a very small team working on a rails
based web app as the front end developer and community manager, with
an embarrassingly small budget, and I'm looking for a more experienced
developer to pair with for the next phase of development which is
beyond my own skillset.

I'm have enough experience with Rails to be happy implementing fairly
simple features on apps, or using gems like hominid and paperclip, and
I know enough on a command line to be fairly comfortable setting up
linux virtual machines for running rails apps, but after losing
depressing amounts of time hunting bugs introduced by stupid coding
mistakes that would be caught by a second pair of eyes when pairing,
or a well thought out test suite, I know that trying to maintain and
develop a rails app further by myself is folly.

In cases like this, would be the most cost-effective way to improve
the quality of the code in the app, to allow for more sustainable
development over the coming months?

Thanks

C



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Chris Adams
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