Freelancer or a Software House?

Let’s be honest - competitiveness in today’s software development scene is higher than ever and projects which could’ve been charitably described as “good enough” in the past - are no longer deemed as such.

User expectations, technological capabilities, and design standards - all of these are constantly evolving. While this is a good thing from a user's perspective, it also greatly blows up the project's proportions. The average project’s scope is gradually becoming too much to handle for a single individual - even a very dedicated and talented one. And that is without taking into account everything else that comes along with launching a project (from the technical point of view) - testing, maintenance, performance improvements, and possible future changes or upgrades.

Initial costs are not everything

When choosing a contractor it’s very important to think of the project in terms of its longevity - the longer its duration/the more extensive the project is - the bigger the chance for costs to blow out of proportion due to unforeseen circumstances. Creating an accurate assessment is by no means an easy task, even if your project contains no unknowns.

Let's be real though - if your project was just an easy, routine task - you wouldn’t probably be looking for a contractor in the first place. Innovations drive the market, and every innovation is an “unknown”.

Some companies - for example, Direktpoint - purposefully strive to select only the most interesting projects, instead of the most profitable short-term ones. Once completed - these serve as an advertisement for our services - “Look at what we can achieve!”

Creating a solid foundation for your project will make it infinitely easier to maintain or upgrade it. If you need to contact your contractor every time you want to make a simple update to your system - the amount spent on the project overall will quickly overtake an initial quote.

If your project relies on a specific technology, finding an available specialist can be problematic. Even more so if you’d prefer someone with experience. Agencies on the other hand usually have a larger portfolio of successfully completed projects - which increases your chance of finding one that is similar to yours.

With all that in mind - let’s look at the pros and cons of software houses in comparison to freelancers.

Time spent:

Software house:

Pros:

• The bigger the scope of a project, the more of a collaborative process it is, requiring expertise in numerous fields. Specialists can combine their work faster in comparison to a single freelancer - who might be proficient in certain tasks, but lacking in others.
• Having multiple specialists work on a single project ensures that no single absence can stop the production altogether. Not everyone is easily replaceable, but that’s something the agency has to deal with on its own - leaving the client with one less worry.

Cons:

• Communication between project managers and clients, and further - between PMs and their developers takes time. Let’s not fool ourselves - nobody is perfect, and even seasoned PMs might not relay every conceivable detail to their developers precisely as stated by the client. The fewer people involved, the bigger chance of the correct information being transmitted - to a point. If a certain task requires the usage of a specific technology the client might not even know what information needs to be relayed, or how to deliver it.

Freelancer:

Pros:

• Spends time exclusively on a given project - in contrast to software agencies which usually take on multiple projects at once. Although it is worth noting that depending on the context, this might also be an issue.

Cons:

• If a project's scope is not well determined and turns out to be too much for a single individual, the whole process might need to be repeated (including the search for a new freelancer).
• Finding a well-rounded individual with a broad range of skills, who just happens to be available at the moment might be problematic. Finding (and coordinating) multiple freelancers adds a factor to the difficulty level directly correlating with every person required.

Availability:

Software house:

Pros:

• Having multiple specialists in concurrent fields makes it easy to replace unavailable individuals, and plan their absences.

Cons:

• Software houses usually take on multiple projects at once - and if one of those demands urgent attention, it might bump further down the queue...

Freelancer:

Pros:

• If your project has a small and limited scope and does not require advanced knowledge in particular areas - a freelancer might be easier to find and quicker to work with.

Cons:

• Accidents happen - if for whatever reason your contractor cannot perform their task at a moment's notice your choice is either to wait for him to become available or start looking for a new one. The first option is bad - you are wasting resources and losing potential clients, but the second is even worse - you might have to start the whole project over, including time spent looking for an appropriate individual, and explaining your vision to them.

Quality of work:

Software house:

Pros:

• Having specialists work in their chosen field of expertise increases the quality of their work - they already know what needs extra attention, which areas can be problematic, and how to respond to those issues.
• Two heads are better than one. Multiple heads - even more so. Details can often be overlooked by a single individual, the chance of which decreases significantly with every person added to the process.
• Dedicated testers. Having workers who can spend as much time as needed on testing ensures a more detailed level of testing. Manual testers who are not part-time developers also tend to notice different types of bugs, something which might not be obvious to the developers.

Cons:

• Complex projects that require many interdependent, highly specialized components and the participation of many team members are prone to uneven distribution of the quality of the performed work. Such projects require an experienced manager and constant supervision. It does not have to be a disadvantage: If a good agency is chosen, the risk is addressed to the agency and the client does not have to worry about it.

Freelancer:

Pros:

• Quality of work differs greatly depending on the scope of the project. In general bigger projects = more opportunities for mistakes. However, if the project is limited in scope and described well enough - that's when freelancers shine.

Cons:

• It's easier for a single individual to omit a simple mistake, which would otherwise be caught by a dedicated tester or a colleague.

Service and maintenance:

Software house:

Pros:

• Most software agencies already include service clauses in their contract - those which do often have the process perfected to a tee. Rules regarding adequate communication with clients and regular checkups are in place.

Cons:

• Having multiple automatic notifications and redundancy systems may lead to carelessness. Automatic notifications are a great tool, but only if there is someone to use it - notice the error and launch an investigation.

Freelancer:

Pros:

• Freelancers live and die on their reputation - therefore most will do their best to provide as good of a service as possible. If properly scheduled this is mostly not going to be a problem, however in case of urgent tasks - it might be problematic. If your website is down at a specific crucial moment - and your freelancer happens to be in the middle of an exam - you have no choice but to wait.

Cons:

• Can become suddenly unavailable - which is slightly problematic if the person can be easily replaced, but can become a project stopper if this individual is crucial to the project's development.

Price:

Software house:

Pros:

• Well-established payment system which allows for some flexibility in terms of payment schedules.
• A professional agreement, with specific dates to keep and well-described consequences of not delivering on time.

Cons:

• All those professional specialists don’t come cheap. Agencies also have to take care of operating costs such as an office, up-to-date software, effective hardware, licenses, paid absences, etc.

Freelancer:

Pros:

• May not require a full-time salary. Individuals might agree to get paid on a per-project basis if the project's scope is concise and well-defined. In this case, a freelancer might be a far better fit - they can (and usually will if required) work overtime and in their preferred time slots.

Cons:

• More time-sensitive in terms of a payment schedule.

In conclusion:

Both freelancers and software houses have their pros and cons. If what your company needs is a stable and reliable service or any project which requires long-term collaboration between developers - your choice should be a software house. For smaller one-off projects with detailed boundaries - go for a freelancer.

At this point in the article, it should be obvious to any reader that before you even think of looking for a contractor - be it a freelancer or an agency - it is essential to precisely define the scope of your project. Taking the appropriate time and effort to do that will without a doubt lower your potential expenses.

All this leads inevitably to the question: how does one effectively define the scope of a project?