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Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

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Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#11

Post by gerardojbaez »

aristofun wrote: post #2

Modern web design is better commoditized than software development. For example, you need to paint typical pictures for every new blog post, press release etc. But you're expected to build a blogging software only once, and any fixes/bugs are unexpected in scope and complexity. Unless you take advantage of your customer (nobody else can fix that complex system that you left him with) - it doesn't look sustainable to…

Valid point! But don't you think there could be instances where this could be useful for both ends, the freelancer and the customer?

There are instances where the customer already know what he wants, could be typical maintenance, bug fixing, etc... those things can be added to a task queue, details are agreed and work is performed, without preparing quotes every time for each task

For example, I would only use something like this if I can automate as much as possible using CI/CD, etc

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#12

Post by muzani »

gerardojbaez wrote: post #7
mindwork wrote: post #4

Isn't it called consultant/consultancy?

Isn't consultancy more of providing guidance and advice about specific subjects?

Yes, and senior is supposed to be the highest rank of IC. But at some point, people gave this advice to call yourself a consultant instead of a freelancer... and it worked. So we have to live with this new term, and so do actual consultants.

I prefer contractor because it doesn't have the same stigma as freelancer, and is still accurate about their relationship.

My wife is from civil/construction engineering and she thinks terms like developer, engineer, and architect are all BS when software people use them. But idk, eventually we need terms for what we do.

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#13

Post by muzani »

gerardojbaez wrote: post #10
muzani wrote: post #6

nice try, soham

I see your point, but it's not the intention here :)

It's a joke obviously, but the deeper point is context is extremely important. In the pre-AI days, we'd budget 3 months for someone to get the context of the codebase and the product. These days, it's still 2-4 weeks. You can have someone extremely skilled spread out on multiple projects and they'd do a terrible job. Whatever low hanging fruit is all taken up by AI.

The exception I've seen so far is something like devops or infra. Where the person has done their job whenever nothing goes wrong. People are happy to pay monthly for nothing going wrong.

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#14

Post by aristofun »

gerardojbaez wrote: post #11
aristofun wrote: post #2

Modern web design is better commoditized than software development. For example, you need to paint typical pictures for every new blog post, press release etc. But you're expected to build a blogging software only once, and any fixes/bugs are unexpected in scope and complexity. Unless you take advantage of your customer (nobody else can fix that complex system that you left him with) - it doesn't look sustainable to…

Valid point! But don't you think there could be instances where this could be useful for both ends, the freelancer and the customer? There are instances where the customer already know what he wants, could be typical maintenance, bug fixing, etc... those things can be added to a task queue, details are agreed and work is performed, without preparing quotes every time for each task For example, I would only use someth…

But having predictable maintenance and fixing is counter the whole point of software engineering.

If you can predict how much and what issues need to be solved - why haven’t you already automated it??

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#16

Post by mindwork »

muzani wrote: post #12
gerardojbaez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't consultancy more of providing guidance and advice about specific subjects?

Yes, and senior is supposed to be the highest rank of IC. But at some point, people gave this advice to call yourself a consultant instead of a freelancer... and it worked. So we have to live with this new term, and so do actual consultants. I prefer contractor because it doesn't have the same stigma as freelancer, and is still accurate about their relationship. My wife is from civil/construction engineering and she…

I started to frown upon people calling themselves developers. This is the term I used a long time ago and now I use Software Engineer.

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#17

Post by gerardojbaez »

mindwork wrote: post #16
muzani wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, and senior is supposed to be the highest rank of IC. But at some point, people gave this advice to call yourself a consultant instead of a freelancer... and it worked. So we have to live with this new term, and so do actual consultants. I prefer contractor because it doesn't have the same stigma as freelancer, and is still accurate about their relationship. My wife is from civil/construction engineering and she…

I started to frown upon people calling themselves developers. This is the term I used a long time ago and now I use Software Engineer.

I’m curious, what’s your opinion on people using the term Engineer even though they don’t have a formal Engineering degree, but do have experience?

Re: Ask HN: Developer-as-a-Service?

#18

Post by gerardojbaez »

muzani wrote: post #12
gerardojbaez wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't consultancy more of providing guidance and advice about specific subjects?

Yes, and senior is supposed to be the highest rank of IC. But at some point, people gave this advice to call yourself a consultant instead of a freelancer... and it worked. So we have to live with this new term, and so do actual consultants. I prefer contractor because it doesn't have the same stigma as freelancer, and is still accurate about their relationship. My wife is from civil/construction engineering and she…

Well, if we aren’t developing (creating and bringing to life new software solutions), engineering (designing and building software systems), or architecting (planning and structuring the overall framework of software), what are we doing then?

Now that you mention it, I prefer the term consultant over freelancer

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