Procedures

I once read an article by Kent Beck on conversational development—roughly, the idea that the process of development should be thought of not in terms of handing off a fixed specification but rather as an ongoing conversation between developer and client, with the developer producing new versions quickly, and the client providing constant feedback so that the most important things always get done first. I thought that was exactly right.

I think it's good to meet occasionally to discuss things, but mostly I like to work from home and communicate by phone, or, better, by email.

Speaking of email, for attachments, and in fact for any documents I produce, I like to use non-proprietary formats, especially plain text and HTML.

Just like any other programmer, I often use bits and pieces of old code to make new things. If you don't want me to reuse the code that I write for you, you will need to say something. On the other hand, I don't normally resell entire programs. If, by chance, you hire me to write something that could be resold, we will need to figure out who can resell it.

I don't guarantee that I will be reachable, so if we're working on something that requires real-time support, you will need somebody in house to support it.