HOW TO: Hire a Designer or Developer. This post originally appeared on the American Express OPEN Forum, where Mashable regularly contributes articles about leveraging social media and technology in small business.
Hiring designers or developers can be one of the most difficult things for non-technical business people to do. In many cases, it may be necessary, of course, to hire someone to create your website, build custom systems, or design your sales collateral — all the more necessary if you aren't a designer or developers yourself. But how can small business owners hire someone that's right for the job if they don't really understand what goes into that job in the first place? How can you do your due diligence even when you don't completely grasp the type of thing you might be hiring someone to do? Here are four tips that will help you hire a designer or developer and make sure you're getting what you paid for. How to Communicate Your Software Needs to a Developer. Brett Miller is the president of Custom Software by Preston (CSP).
For more than 10 years, CSP has impressed clients with highly effective software solutions and teams of multi-talented software engineers. It might seem obvious, but effectively communicating your project needs to software developers is more than just important. It could actually mean the difference between a project that achieves its objectives and one that does not. Having an idea in mind and being able to discuss it intelligently isn’t always enough to efficiently communicate all the critical nuances and required details. I strongly recommend that clients produce a requirements document to facilitate agreement among stakeholders, and in turn, to communicate that information to members of the development team. Clean Code: A Handbook of Agile Software Craftsmanship (9780132350884): Robert C. Martin.