The Quality of Coding

[Michael Boutros]

Hello everyone, I have been lurking these forums for a while and decided today to finally make an account.

I have been coding PHP for about 5 years now, and one thing I have noticed is the amount of scam coders/designers. A few years ago, 1 or 2 portfolio items could get you a job, and the client would not hesitate to put a down payment. Nowadays, however, you need to have a large portfolio and several references.

Now, I know that a lot of people on these forums have been screwed over before, and I am curious as to what you did. Did you ever hire another coder of the internet? Made sure you talked to them over Skype first?

I have seen a decrease in the amount of trust some first-time clients have in their coders, even to the point where I make the first project for the client only have a 25% down-payment, or rarely, no down payment at all.

What do you guys think?

[jeremy]

i've been a freelance coder for about as long as you, but i haven't noticed that trend. usually one example of a semi-large project is enough credentials. i've never been asked to give references.

i usually work for a 50% down payment. with no down payment, then it's me who should be suspicious of them, not vice versa.

but, you can't bame people for being careful about picking php programmers. there are a lot of people who call themselves php programmers, but have no notion of security.

[Sam]

I think the problem is that some coders take projects that are out of their league, and because of that they can't finish the job properly.

[Tyler]

This is purely a guess, but I believe this could be attributed to mainly two things:

1. Poor Outsourcing Quality

Online outsourcing has become easier and easier over the years with online services such as Elance.com and Guru.com. Unfortunately, most of the freelancers are from poor countries trying to make a living who for some reason I don't know yet have very poor skills. They promise the world but end up giving little.

This makes people very wary when hiring in the future.

2. Popularity of the Internet

Just a wild guess here, but if you look back 10 years ago, 1996 and compare it to today at 2006, you'll notice how massive the Internet has grown. With this, the amount of programmers has grown significantly as well.

It used to be that programmers were quite dedicated. They worked for a company or were just programming-enthusiasts who were interested in working on their sites.

These days with the popularity of the internet being as it is, there are vastly more programmers now.. and the average quality level has decreased significantly. I think you also see people who know the main basics of PHP suddenly proclaim themselves as PHP programmers and start to freelance with little to no real knowledge of the language.

[Anthony]

It's not always about the knowledge of the language either, it's about the knowledge of semantics and problem solving.

After all, that's what programming is primarily used for...solving a problem with the aim to make the solution as easy to use and implement as possible.

[jacob]

I think Anthony is hitting the nail on the head. "knowledge of semantics and problem solving". I've been a professional developer since 2000. If anyone's read my blog, they'll know I've been working on continually improving my codebase and pushing my knowledge of programming. Any monkey can learn how to program (hell, I did, nuff said). Being a good analyst and problem solver is a different story.

The big thing I've noticed from a lot of people posting for help with programming is stuff that they simply have no clue how to problem solve through -- or more then likely, they're too lazy to. I myself won't answer programming questions when it's evident to me they're being downright lazy and not trying to figure out how to do something. If it's questions about coding or the language itself, I'll answer them if I can. The majority of the questions I see between the various forums I browse is that most of those people don't have a clue as to how to work their way thru a program and take the easy route of "please solve this problem for me: .... "

[babyboy808]

I think the problem is that some coders take projects that are out of their league, and because of that they can't finish the job properly.

A very good point Sam

[moojj]

I've been developing software and websites for several years now. I don't believe this is a new trend. I have found that it is a very difficult industry to get established in.

Luckily for me I ran a shareware company before moving into outsourcing. I built a respected userbase who trusted my work and jumped at the opportunity.

Once I exhausted my initial network I would get the occasional word-of-mouth sale. Although this is a very trustworthy way of gaining new clients (trustworthy for me and trustworthy for the business looking for development services) it was only a trickle compared to the previous work.

I decided to increase and diversify my portfolio by taking on some work through Rentacoder. There a I learnt a lot about selling myself to the client. They have a rediculous rule that you cannot link to any outside websites. This makes it very difficult when trying to convince a client that you are trust worthy and capable of completing the work on time. I noticed that a key understanding of, not only the development language itself, but also the project itself is vital in getting you the project.

I tend to focus moreso on local businesses these days. When outsourcing you are competing with countries from all over the world, there is less of an element of trust and (unless you run through a site like Rentacoder) both parties are not protected in the event that things go horribly wrong. For this reason I typically require a deposit of 30% on international projects, unfortunately this can often build to the distrust and often lose the project. Perhaps requesting a down payment in a third-party escrow service, I havn't really looked into this though.

[aloksingh]

I always code my sites myself and do not pay other people for doing it. I believe that if you want your job done good, then you must do it yourself.