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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

Ebook

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

Tytuł: 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
Autor: Leon Brown
Tytuł oryginału: 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
ISBN: 9781783001415, 9781783001415
Data wydania: 2016-12-05
Format: Ebook
Identyfikator pozycji: e_3bir
Wydawca: Packt Publishing

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