Finding and working with web developers is mostly the same as dealing with web designers. Just as discussed in detail above, you can find developers by asking around and by posting job ads on freelance sites. You should also always ask for references from previous jobs, view previous work, and always get a written agreement.
It's critical to spend the time to find the right person, and you will usually get what you pay for with experienced, skilled developers charging more on an hourly basis, but ultimately doing better work more efficiently with fewer problems. Developers compared to designers, are more likely to use estimates as development can be very open-ended, and expect to pay a non-refundable deposit.
Briefing a developer first involves letting them know basic information like what sort of site or app you are building, what platform you would like to use for your blog, what hosting you might have, and so on. The most critical aspect of briefing a developer is to make sure you've thought through everything you want the site to do and included it in the brief. For a straight blog or theme build, this might not be too difficult as most of the details will be shown in the design they are building.
For larger projects, try to imagine using the app you are getting built and think about what you would do and what you would expect to see and happen. By mentally walking through the site, you are effectively thinking of user scenarios, which are descriptions of how the system behaves.
Giving a whole sequence of user scenarios is in fact one way of briefing a developer. So for a membership site you might have one scenario for sign-up, one for adjusting a membership, and another for an administrative user logging in and editing a member's details. User scenarios work well as they force you to actually think through what a person needs to do things. This will help tease out details you might otherwise forget if just trying to think out all the details.
A good developer will be able to guide you through the briefing process, gathering the information they need and piecing together a plan for the build. Different developers like to be briefed in different ways, so ask your developer what they expect to receive to get started.
At the end of any development you should make sure that you have a copy of any theme or plugin files, and access to the full codebase for any other development work. Generally, getting files is not a big deal as they are usually all on your server anyway.
Freelance rates for development range from as low as US$30 per hour up to US$200 per hour. Moreover, a good developer will be much better than a bad one for big jobs, not necessarily in terms of speed, but in terms of building a bug-free, working product that is easy to develop further in the future. With development, it's really key to find someone you trust by checking with past clients, speaking to the developer, and if at all possible, working on small jobs first before moving to larger ones.
If you know a good developer who isn't available for freelance work, it's not a bad idea to ask them to help you select a developer for your project. Code quality is naturally best understood by other coders and they may be able to help differentiate between an average programmer and an excellent one.
Whether small or large, you should always conduct thorough testing on anything you get built. This should involve two types of testing. The first is testing functionality: going over the entire site from top to bottom, clicking on everything, typing into text boxes, filling out forms, acting like a user, and generally seeing if you can find any holes in the system. The second type of testing is compatibility testing: trying the site on different computers, browsers, and operating systems.
It's also a good idea to ask other people to test out the site or app to get different perspectives. Sometimes people who don't know much about the project give the best feedback as they aren't constrained by plans and background thinking, instead just giving their fresh thoughts. Make sure that your final payments are made after testing and bug fixing is completed to ensure you have a working product at the end of the job.
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Note: This article was sent to us by: Sharon Reed at 02152011
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