Going IT Alone: The Handbook for Freelance and Contract Software Developers

by Leon Brown

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 Going the self employed route in software development offers many opportunities to develop awareness and skills to enhance your career. Whether you are a student currently studying software development or a veteran software developer already in the industry, Going IT Alone provides you with insights you need to avoid the pitfalls of self employment and to succeed with software projects that are profitable and sustainable. No matter whether you are a student or an industry veteran, self employment adds a new dimension of opportunities to “learn and earn”, whether it be on a full-time or part-time basis. Develop the business acumen and understanding of the link between software patterns and business strategy that you need to become a successful and profitable independent software developer. Discover how to apply your software development skills to entrepreneurship. Decide whether you just want to earn or aspire to build the next Facebook. Supported by real world case studies and input from industry experts, the book looks at the business topics you need to understand to become an independent software developer. From the initial steps of identifying how you can make a profit with your software development skills, through to making your first sale and managing your projects, you will learn how to manage each of the major steps involved in becoming a self employed software developer – whether you decide to go freelance, take up contracting or develop your own product. Written specifically for software and web developers, the book identifies how business issues have a direct impact on code patterns used in software projects. Learn how to build your code to support your business model and with safety features to protect against potential threats that may emerge from the changing business environment. This book is a detailed guide to self employment for software and web developers , covering major topics from identifying your target market and business model, through to managing your time, finances and client behavior.

376 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2016

Reviews

[Carlos Ramos · Rating 3 out of 5]

It contains good information on the several aspects of developing a software project that can be used.

It serves as a base if you are just starting out. If you have some experience being a freelancer, however, it has not much usable information.

[vijayan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Many repeated contents and it's not only teach you freelance but filled the pages with architectures, design patterns. In my opinion most of the freelancers already knew 70-80% of the topics covered in this book. The last two chapters is very lengthy these two chapters won't need to be such a lengthy one. The things I like about this book is estimate the time and price for the projects. Author gave some nice tips and ideas.

[Mik Vargas · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's a good book when no having an idea of how being a freelancer is. I think the author should be more specific on the chapter about how to estimate a project. On the other hand I think that software methodologies should just be mentioned without further explanation. Finally, it would be great to have a complete example on project management.