Going IT Alone: The Handbook for Freelance and Contract Software Developers. A detailed guide to self-employment for software and web developers - from identifying your target market, through to managing your time, finances, and client behavior Leon Brown

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• Going IT Alone: The Handbook for Freelance and Contract Software Developers
  • Going IT Alone: The Handbook for Freelance and Contract Software Developers
  • Credits
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgements
  • About the Reviewer
  • Preface
    • What this book covers
    • Who this book is for
    • Conventions
    • Reader feedback
    • Piracy
  • 1. Introducing Freelancing
    • The freelance lifestyle
    • Is freelancing for you?
    • Defining your motivations
      • Boosting employability
      • Learning new skills
      • Taking a break
      • Increasing financial security
      • Generating a side income
        • Case study: New Star Soccer
      • Freedom
      • Alternative to unemployment
      • Fun
    • Dont quit the day job
    • Legal entities
      • Sole trader
      • Partnership
      • Limited company
    • Home or away?
      • The home office
        • Advantages
        • Disadvantages
      • The real office
        • Advantages
        • Disadvantages
      • Renting desk space
      • Co-working spaces
      • Cafes
    • Summary
  • 2. Positioning Yourself in the Market
    • Market segments
    • Pricing yourself appropriately
      • Market specific influences
      • The equilibrium price segments and prices
    • Building quality for market segments
      • Meeting customer needs
    • Market research
      • Failing to plan is planning to fail
      • Cost to market
      • Cost of delivery
      • Calculate your profit margin
      • Time value
    • Summary
  • 3. Defining Your Business Model
    • Types of business model for software
    • Software Development as a Service (SDaaS)
      • Advantages
      • Disadvantages
      • Conclusion
    • Software as a Product (SaaP)
      • Advantages
      • Disadvantages
      • Conclusion
    • Software as a Service (SaaS)
      • Advantages
      • Disadvantages
      • Conclusion
    • Software Supporting a Service
      • Advantages
      • Disadvantages
      • Conclusion
    • Business Model Canvas
    • Components
      • Value proposition
      • Key partnerships
      • Key resources
      • Key activities
      • Customer relationships
      • Customer segments
      • Distribution channels
      • Cost structure
      • Revenue streams
    • Canvas
    • Problem tools
    • Product life cycle
      • Development
      • Introduction
      • Growth
      • Maturity and saturation
      • Decline
    • Five Forces Analysis
      • Rivalry among existing suppliers
      • Threat of substitute products or services
      • Threat of new entrants
      • Bargaining power of suppliers
      • Bargaining power of buyers
    • Seven Domains Assessment framework
      • Market domain/macro level market attractiveness
      • Market domain/micro level market sector benefits and attractiveness
      • Industry domain/macro level industry attractiveness
      • Industry domain/micro level sustainable advantage
      • Team domain mission, aspirations, and propensity for risk
      • Team domain ability to execute on the critical success factors
      • Connectedness up and down the value chain
    • The McKinsey 7S framework
      • Goals and shared values
      • Strategy
      • Skills
      • Structure
      • Style
      • Systems
      • Staff
    • Fitting everything together
    • The business descriptions
      • IXL Learning
      • Nextpoint
    • Comparison: McKinsey 7S framework
      • Goals and shared values
      • Strategy
      • Skills
      • Structure
      • Style
      • Systems
      • Staff
    • Comparison Business Model Canvas
      • IXL Learning
      • Nextpoint
    • Comparison: conclusion
      • IXL Learning
      • Nextpoint
    • Summary
  • 4. Creating a Brand
    • A brief definition of what branding is and isn't
    • Know your audience
    • Identify perceptions required for objectives
    • Specializing becoming a domain expert
    • Generalizing targeting a wider audience
      • Case study
    • Kick starting perceptions
      • Doing a good job
      • Limited time offers
      • Competitions
      • Rewarding customer loyalty
      • Strategic partnerships
      • Certifications
      • Influencers
        • Reliability
        • Personality
      • Media exposure
      • Content marketing
    • Who do they think you are?
    • Summary
  • 5. Networking, Marketing, and Sales
    • Understanding networking
    • Defining a networking strategy
    • Writing press releases
      • Know your audience
      • Be specific
      • Integrating your agenda
      • Make it easy to read
      • Tips for writing news stories
      • Enhancing the reach of your media coverage
    • Open project sources
      • Project sources
      • Being selective
        • Example 1
        • Example 2
    • The sales process
      • Stage 1: Establish the relationship
      • Stage 2: Recognizing the need
      • Stage 3: Proposing the Solution
      • Stage 4: Closing the sale
      • Stage 5: Delivery and evaluation
    • Summary
  • 6. An Introduction to Client Types
    • The ethical client
      • Characteristics
      • Progression options
    • The difficult client
      • Characteristics
      • Progression options
    • The trusting client
      • Characteristics
      • Progression suggestions
    • The nasty client
      • Characteristics
      • Progression suggestions
    • The price-conscious client
      • Characteristics
      • Progression suggestions
    • Summary
  • 7. Managing Clients
    • Points of contact
    • Performing risk assessment of the project
      • Measuring complexity
      • Key performance indicators
      • Defining client expectations
      • Analyzing implications
      • Defining an exit strategy
    • Analyzing the client
      • Commitment
      • Ethics and difficulty
      • Financial
      • Learning and execution
      • Consistency
      • Negotiation
    • Cash flow issues
      • Avoiding cash flow problems
    • Summary
  • 8. Negotiation
    • The Winning Formula
      • Timeframe
      • Budget
      • Depth
    • Strategic Negotiation Phases
      • Stage 1: Evaluate Priorities & Characteristics
      • Stage 2: Depth Reduction
      • Stage 3: Define Time scales
      • Stage 4: Terms of Delivery and Engagement
      • Stage 5: Price Identification
    • Summary
  • 9. Software Development Resources, Patterns and Strategies
    • Software problems: A recap
      • Portable code components
        • Pure HTML5 applications
        • Hybrid applications
      • Code translation
    • Rescued by object oriented programming
      • Maximising reusability, minimising duplication
      • Functional adaptability
      • Clarity of solution implementation
    • Strategic efficiency with MVC
      • MVC: Models
        • Adaptability strategy
        • Advantages
      • MVC: Views
        • Views in action
        • Advantages
      • MVC: Controllers
        • Controllers in action
        • Advantages
    • Strategic data management
      • User interface consistency with data binding
        • Database consistency
          • Relational database tools
          • NoSQL: Alternatives to relational databases
          • SQL and NoSQL: The best of both
          • RDMS with NoSQL
          • Offline databases vs online databases
    • API-oriented system architecture
      • Why create an API?
      • Delivering data
      • Developing a HTTP based API
      • API design
      • API security
    • Testing strategy
    • Security considerations
    • Version control
      • Concept glossary
    • Summary
  • 10. Software Development Methodology
    • Social factors of software development
    • Features for preventing problems
      • Formality
      • Flexibility
        • Working hours
        • Code patterns
        • Specification management
        • Skills deployment
        • Prototyping
      • Planning and analysis
        • Time requirements
        • Knowledge requirements
        • Budget
        • Changing requirements
        • Problem definition
        • Culture analysis
        • Technology evaluation
        • Risk analysis
        • Viability analysis
        • Milestone identification
        • Timescales
          • Understanding characteristics and learning styles of the client and their employees
          • Setting expectations and performance metrics
          • Resolving conflict
          • Avoiding involvement in client politics
          • Documenting agreements
          • Communicating ideas, agreements and opinions
    • Methodologies of interest
      • Waterfall model
        • Conclusion
      • Incremental model
        • Conclusion
      • Spiral model
        • Conclusion
      • Agile development
      • SSM: Soft Systems Methodology
        • Conclusion
    • Designing your methodology
      • Formal structure
      • Team communications policy
      • Planning
      • Testing
    • Summary
  • 11. Creating Quotes and Estimates
    • Maths to the rescue: The basics
      • Performance rating
      • Client rating
        • Example
      • Estimation
        • Example
      • Quotes
        • Example
    • Risk management
      • Counteracting risk
      • Calculating risk
    • Recovering unaccounted costs
      • Examples
    • Maintaining estimation accuracy
      • Average client ratings
        • Example
      • Selective client ratings
        • Example
      • Proportionate client ratings
        • Example
    • Summary
  • 12. Project Management
    • Client perceptions
    • Methods of communication
      • Meetings
      • Telephone
      • Conference calls
      • E-mail
      • Social media
      • Post
    • Allocating the right people
      • Who is capable of performing the task?
      • Who is ideal for the task?
      • Who is available?
      • What are the limiting factors?
    • Written agreements
    • Feature creep
    • Risk assessment
      • Project nature
      • Team politics
      • Expectations
      • Legalities
    • Defining a specification
      • Creating a specification document
      • Definitions
      • Summary
      • Requirements
      • System overview
      • Design
      • Timescales
      • Cost plan
    • Feedback
      • Meetings
      • Survey tools
      • Prototyping
      • Email
      • Conference calls
    • Release cycles
      • How often?
      • Feature order
      • The parking list
    • Summary
  • A. Appendix
    • Interview 1
    • Interview 2
    • Interview 3
    • Interview 4
    • Interview 5
    • Interview 6

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