I'll admit, I want to save a buck just as much as the next guy. But before you pick the cheapest alternative for your IT labor, do your research. I work at a software consulting firm that specializes in fixing code others messed up horribly.

Unfortunatly, some penny pinchers will pick the cheapest development firm available that week. They will then proceed to switch firms occasionally just because they find a cheapper deal or because they aren't happy with the progress. There is overhead involved in becoming aquainted with the code. Each new firm needs to become familiar with the code base before they can get to a state where everything flows efficiently.

We [my coworkers and I] have become very skilled at diving into code, fixing it and getting out. Usually because the client has a very limited budget and whats it done now. But this means that over time the code becomes hacked together just to get it to stand on its own two feet.

Moral of the Story

Pick 1 (ONE) good firm and stick with them. Be prepared to pay good money for good code. If you skimp on the bill you will find yourself investing later to have it fixed. American firms start at $30 and climb to over $150 per hour. Indian firms generally start at $5 per hour. Just keep in mind you may end up paying an Indian firm 80 hrs to develop something and then pay an American firm 20 hrs to fix it. The American firm could have done it right for 50.

Tip of the Day

Name your variables!! Below is a patch of code from phpfox pro; which has licenses starting at $39.95 per month. It is the most hideous code base I have ever seen. That is my rant for the day

	
$TXT = array();
$SLT = array();

$TXT[12] = file("".$VAR[5]."/inc/txt/country.txt");
$TXT[14] = "";
foreach ($TXT[12] as $TXT[13])
{
    $TXT[13] = trim($TXT[13]);
    $SLT[4] = "";
    if (isset($_GET['location'])) { if (str_replace("_"," ",$_GET['location']) == $TXT[13]) { $SLT[4] = " selected"; } }
    $TXT[14] .= "\t\t  ".$TXT[13]."\n";		
}
                
$TXT[22] = "";
for ($TXT[21] = 16; $TXT[21] <= 100; $TXT[21]++) 
{
    $TXT[22] .= "\t\t  ".$TXT[21]."\n";
}