[LRUG] [JOBS] Freelancer. And some reflections.
Ronny Ager-Wick
ronny at ager-wick.com
Mon Feb 27 07:25:08 PST 2017
That is a very accurate observation, Jon. I once worked in an open plan office
with a couple of super-developer who knew everything about their part of the
application, and with no documentation of any real value. In that company,
working with remotes would be impossible, unless it was arranged a completely
separate project.
I have experienced that working remotely, in Asia, can work very well. At
least it did in my case.
A few years ago while I was living in London, I hired subcontractors to work
with me on a big (for me) project. I assembled a team in the Philippines, some
of which I knew from before. I only hired really good senior developers who
were used to communicating and documenting properly. We used IRC and/or email
for discussing features or otherwise coordinate, and I did adjust my working
hours a bit to get more time zone overlap, but everything about every feature
was documented in Pivotal Tracker, and anything of interest for others was
commented in the code. The time difference was thus rarely an issue as we
could always see what had happened and who were doing which feature. We hardly
ever video of phone conference, as it would take so much of our time. Less
meetings, more work :)
After going live with the application, my team moved on to other projects and
I took over the maintenance. A few months later I moved to the Philippines, as
doing maintenance on a working application didn't require me to be on site
with the client, apart from monthly meetings, which I easily convinced them
could be done by phone instead. We used a London based company for hosting the
server, so the chance they ever needed me urgently was minimal. In any case,
if there ever was a software emergency that the hosting company couldn't fix,
they had my mobile number and the permission to use it 24/7 (never happened).
Doing maintenance for my London client while in the Philippines was actually
beneficial, as any bug or request or small feature they came up with during
the day, I did during my working day, having it ready by the start of their
next working day. More than once, they reported something late in the
afternoon, and by next morning it was fixed! If there was ever a show stopping
issue, I would ignore time of day and work on it until it was done, just like
I would if I was in London. Hence, the impact of me being in GMT+8 was nil, if
not positive.
Obviously, as one fixes things properly, over time the number of issues were
approaching zero, so they really couldn't care less where in the world I was.
I did this for more than 4 years, and only stopped because my client was
acquired by a huge company who wanted to use their own software.
That said, had I been in Asia when negotiating the contract with the client,
would I have got it? Probably not. Probably wouldn't even get to the
negotiation part. People are rightfully sceptical trusting someone they can't
be face to face with developing software that is critical for the company, not
to mention costing a lot of money. I could develop software anywhere with an
internet connection, but I can only sell locally. (This may be just a personal
limitation, but I think it applies to many others.)
Would it be possible to do this project if I wasn't in London during the
development? Possible, yes, but within time and budget? Doubt it. Having me as
a link between the non-technical client and the other developers was
absolutely crucial. I could talk to users and other stake holders to
understand what they were trying to achieve - which, to be honest, wasn't
always what they asked for in the first place, and then relay the digested
technical description of the features to the other developers in order to save
them time. I think could have worked with any senior developer anywhere in the
world as long as they would follow our documentation and communication
requirements.
I don't have any projects like this now, as I'm working with something else in
Norway at the moment, but my sub-contractors were essentially like Thomas
describes himself. Most worked full time, but it wouldn't be hard to
accommodate part time, especially if your definition of "part time" is
flexible (work hard when there is a need, then take a few weeks/months off to
compensate). Even the standard definition wouldn't be much trouble, as my sub
contractors occasionally took time off for family stuff.
However I have to mention, I was particularly interested in making it work. I
was actively looking for a way to work with the remote developers I knew
because they were really good and I was certain I could make it work. Without
that attitude, it's very easy to find reasons (valid or otherwise) why it
would not work. I think it's a lot about ignoring (or factoring in) the
disadvantages and emphasizing the advantages.
Also, referring to Geoff's email, I am one of those people who grew up on IRC
in the 90s. That could very well explain why I find working remotely, or with
remote developers so effortless - or even preferable.
Ronny
Shameless self-promotion:
I'd be happy to work with others in some capacity to set up/manage a remote
team in the future
On 2017-02-27 11:52, Jon Wood wrote:
> My feeling from what people have said so far is that reactions to remote work,
> working from a different timezone, and working part time all boil down to the
> same questions of how one works with somebody who isn't currently sitting next
> to you so you can walk over and ask them questions. The answer to that in my
> experience is to make sure everything is properly documented - with a
> co-located fulltime team you can get away with building something and assuming
> people will come and ask you if anything needs clarifying, that's much less
> true if the person who built the feature is now off work until Thursday.
>
> The nice thing is that once you have developed a culture of properly
> documenting everything and making sure all communication happens using mediums
> that can be searched you also deal with the other circumstances in which you
> find you can't just walk over to somebody. Holidays, maternity leave, people
> leaving the company. Situations in which you can't just ask somebody about
> their code aren't unique to companies with remote employees, they're just
> surfaced earlier and more frequently.
>
> On Mon, 27 Feb 2017 at 10:40 Patrick Gleeson <patrick at gojimo.co.uk
> <mailto:patrick at gojimo.co.uk>> wrote:
>
> Re the bit of the question about part-timers, I have to say that the
> various times I've been looking for a coder I've never even considered
> part-time developers. The reason being, I'm always hiring someone to be
> part of a team (even when it's a teeny tiny team). When a team of coders
> works together it's a very involved, collaborative process. You can make
> it work if people are remote, as long as you have good communication
> hygiene, but having someone who's not available 2 days a week? That really
> messes with the dynamic, both on a practical level ("WhyTF did they do it
> like this?" / "Dunno, and we can only ask them when they're back in on
> Thursday, so you'd better not touch that class until then."), and more
> importantly on a psychological one: people are tribal, and if you're not
> fully in the tribe you're an outsider.
>
> Of course, if the whole team worked part-time, with the same days off,
> you'd sidestep that. But even if the feel-good factor offset some of the
> lost hours, your output will still drop, and I've never worked for a
> company that wasn't in a desperate hurry to get stuff done....
>
> On 27 February 2017 at 10:23, Thomas Buckley-Houston <tom at tombh.co.uk
> <mailto:tom at tombh.co.uk>> wrote:
>
> Wow Evgeny, I really appreciate the feedback. It gives me a much more
> digestible perspective than, "no, sorry, not at the moment" (which is
> of course a legitimate response itself).
>
> I should have mentioned though that all the places I'm applying
> clearly express remote focuses or remote friendliness. So I totally
> understand your preference for face to face, it's a basic human medium
> we've evolved over millions of years. And I love your;
>
> > I need a person who will look at the company and figure out how to prevent half the tickets from appearing.
>
> Also perhaps I could make clearer that I'm not just looking for short
> term contracts. I'd love a permanent part time role, I just have no
> need for the kind of money full time involves.
>
> Anyway, like I said, this is such a first-world problem. But still I
> very much appreciate the feedback.
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> --
>
> *Patrick Gleeson*
>
> Senior Ruby Developer
>
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