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On the one hand, I totally agree. On the other, the project as described is well within reach of a small team (1-5 people) of programmers that could pull it off

On the one hand, I totally agree. On the other, the project as described is well within reach of a small team (1-5 people) of programmers that could pull it off in 3-12 months for under $100k (maybe even closer to $10k-$20k). The way the guy was talking, it sounds like he had one of his employees who also happened to be studying CS whip up something that works while still paying base salary rates. If so, this means the owner got an insane deal by paying a full time programmer worth maybe $100k-$200k at a $30k rate. In the end, I think you're right. The guy probably got an insane deal because he convinced one of his employees to do free labor. I do wish projects like that weren't so expensive. I'll also point out that for a savvy owner who has some technical experience, this is also a very feasible (relatively cheap) project.

tqwhite 4y ago
If I was buying this solution and you told me you would do it for $20k, I would not consider your proposal for one more minute. I have written things like this. A decently robust solution takes a lot more than that. If you are doing a burdened rate of $100/hour, that's 200 hours, five person weeks. That's barely enough time to get a working MVP, let alone test thoroughly and deploy. Let alone implement management tools to input the orders and the screens for the workers to access and update, let alone the reporting and archiving. Let alone maintenance and support. And, if you are paying $100/hour burdened, you are hiring people for $50/hour or less. Either you are hiring newbies, in that case, who is doing the design, or you found somebody desperate and are taking advantage. Which is to say, the assertion of 1-5, $10-20k makes me mad, too, as another form of devaluing the profession of software development. Nobody is "whipping up" something like this.
- abetusk 4y ago
  I should have specified in more detail, my apologies. The number, $10k-$20k was in hardware costs, separate from labor costs. So, potentially $10k-$20k in addition to whatever labor costs there are.

tqwhite 4y ago

If I was buying this solution and you told me you would do it for $20k, I would not consider your proposal for one more minute. I have written things like this. A decently robust solution takes a lot more than that. If you are doing a burdened rate of $100/hour, that's 200 hours, five person weeks. That's barely enough time to get a working MVP, let alone test thoroughly and deploy. Let alone implement management tools to input the orders and the screens for the workers to access and update, let alone the reporting and archiving. Let alone maintenance and support. And, if you are paying $100/hour burdened, you are hiring people for $50/hour or less. Either you are hiring newbies, in that case, who is doing the design, or you found somebody desperate and are taking advantage. Which is to say, the assertion of 1-5, $10-20k makes me mad, too, as another form of devaluing the profession of software development. Nobody is "whipping up" something like this.

abetusk 4y ago
I should have specified in more detail, my apologies. The number, $10k-$20k was in hardware costs, separate from labor costs. So, potentially $10k-$20k in addition to whatever labor costs there are.