Complete Your Next Software Project On
Time And On Budget

Small contracted projects, via Scriptlance or Rent-A-Coder do not have to be painful experiences, if you follow the 4 simple guidelines below:

1. Simple - The more complicated the project the more likely it will fail. It's as simple as that. Limit your project to the bare essentials for it to be a success. Einstein said: "Everything should be as simple as possible, but no simpler." Keep that maxim in mind and you will uncomplicated the project from the beginning.

2. Short timeline - The shorter the deadline the better. Allowing a developer to procrastinate will cause them to forget requirements, at best, and they may even forget your project all together. If they say it'll take 5 days but they need to work on this other project first, move on to the next developer.

3. Well defined - This goes along with #1. Keep a simple sharp focus without any clutter to the project. Make sure you mull over the project for a couple of days and brainstorm exactly what is needed. Develop mock screens, copy, and color schemes. Leave no stone unturned.

4. Well documented - Write down exactly what you want. Everything is fair game here. If you think that it's a given that XYZ feature needs to be in there and you don't need to write it down, it's guaranteed that you won't get that feature. If you are having a web site developed have mock screens made up for every page. Developers aren't mind readers and having well written requirements is one of the biggest joys to see when starting a project.

If you keep these 4 things in mind when getting your software developed you will have a relatively pain free project and then you can move on to the next one!


Steven Lohrenz addresses issues on traffic generation, copywriting, testing, lifestyle design and product development at his blog: http://www.stevenlohrenz.com