I was googling around to see what folks are charging for the range of services software devs offer. Although some humorous sites (a must read) are amongst the top results returned, how to price one’s services is of course a serious question.
One categorisation of services could be as follows:
- consultancy
- training
- software development
- support
- ad-hoc
- packages
For me the list runs from most difficult to easiest, and I charge accordingly. Consultancy general involves technology recommendations, project specification, business analysis, etc, and the kind of input you can give after say 10 years experience is considerably different to what you might have offered after 5.
Next is training, and the reason I’ve put that higher than run-of-the-mill development is that preparation is involved. For a 1/2 day or 3 day course considerable prep work is involved. Subject matter can cover any software or platform you’re an expert on, but ideally you want to be teaching something that you built that you know better than anyone else.
In third position is regular software development; the more I do of this the more I see it as generic implementation – a commodity, and therefore chargeable at a lower rate. Given a skilled team, … Read the rest
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