How start cooperation

Communication and transmission of information is important, so I write text.
To deal effectively with my and your time, I wrote down some information divided into thematic points about how to start working with me, how it works and how I perform.

Since I work normally remote, I also arrange cooperation remotely. E-mail is an excellent way to get basic information and details. We will use phone or video call for clarify questions and ambiguities.
Personal meeting can be postponed until later and spend it during lunch or already personal consultation while walking in nature.

Project Queries

Who is leading the project?
How is the project managed? Are you following samoe methotology?
Do you have a management application for task?
How do you handle project versioning?
How is the project tested?
Do you have a test/development environment?
How many other people are working on the project? What is their role?
Is the documentation exist?
Who can I ask for questions?
What technologies are used? And in what versions?
How are you in a hurry?
What do you prefer: Price vs. quality vs. speed?
An idea of a financial budget?
Are you able to work remotely?

About you

Where are you from? What country are you from?
Are you a self-employed or a business, how big?
Billing details.
What is your business?
Personal interests?
What do you want to help?
What can you do?
What do you want to do?
What are you looking for?
What do you offer?

About Me

Here are information about me, Linkedin Josef Jebavý, my IT services offer as a standard package .

My reference, recommendation navolnenoze.cz, recommendation webtrh.cz.

I work in day and sleep at night. (timezone Europe/Prague)
I live in the Czech Republic in the Mountains name's Krkonoše, I travel a lot. I work remotely. My customers are mostly from the Czech Republic or Slovakia, EU, USA.

Formality

If you require the signing of a contract, send a sample in advance. Yes, I am signing a NDA (Non-disclosure agreement) agreement. Please send the contract at the beginning of the communication.

Contract for a precisely defined work

I sign the contract for a precisely defined work only:

Detailed analysis Exist.
The application architecture is designed.
Technologies are selected.
I have verified the technologies used or will test them as part of the analysis.
The project must be based on or be similar to the projects I have already implemented.

These steps, which need to be done before you start working on the project, I can do it for you myself. They are not a commitment to the implementation of the project and, on the contrary, they allow better estimation of the possibilities and complexity of implementation and preparation for cooperation.

Agile development

I prefer Agile development, because it is for the customer:

More flexible
More efficient
Often cheaper
Requirements can be changed during implementation
The customer always knows what they are working on
The customer does not have to wait for the result, but continuously receives the results of the work
The customer can evaluate earlier if he has received what he requires and verify if it has a benefit
And especially such a way of software development leads to mutual satisfaction

How to get started

Ideal if there is someone who knows the project at least a little bit.

For new projects, must be analyzing the requirements and designing the application architecture.

For existing projects, you must consider, that the project will need more time for:

Get Information
Documentation
Start the development environment and application
Project cleanup
Backup (server/application)
Log collection, filtering, and checking
Update: OS server, application libraries

On an existing project, it is ideal to start with smaller, clearly defined tasks.
Subsequently, it is necessary to catch up with the technological debt and move the project forward.

During long-term cooperation

During the cooperation you can expect:

Suggestions for improvement
Technology updates and upgrades
Communication (I'm reply to emails. I'm picking up the phones)

I expect for effective work:

Source code is versioned ( GIT )
Documentation management
Use the task management tool
Test environment
To deploy the application and resolve operational issues, the application should run on a VPS with root access

Points 1 to 3 can provide the tool GitLab including keep time estimates and detailed time tracking.

Troubleshooting

I solve problems as follows:

Getting information.
Typically, I'm able to troubleshoot technologies I know. However, I cannot guarantee that I will be able to solve the problem on an unknown installation of a server or custom software.
Payment of the deposit 2 hours.
I am typically able to solve, what worked in the past, and get into work with a time budget of 1hour for analysis and 1hour for solving the problem.
If the solution becomes more complicated in the process, I'll let you know and we'll work out the next step.
All time spent on the issue is paid.

Communication

Communication is an important part of the job. Without communication, it is not possible to create an assignment and complete a project. Communication and consultations are paid. Write a summary of the communication.

Primary communication technology: email or ticketing system, where the customer enters new requirements.
Chat - for fast communication.
Emergency or pre-arranged meetings: phone.
Jitsi for video conferencing a sharing screen.

Pricing

I usually charge work from hour. For projects unknown to me, this is the only viable option for me, because the estimates for projects unknown to me have nothing to choose from. Therefore, I do not appreciate only one-time work with server administration.

Servers - precisely defined, repeatable tasks can be priced fixed.
Small adjustments, typically finding the state of something - a fixed-paid analysis, then suggest a solution and price.
Software development: I make estimates of the details. Others by hour.
One-off workshops without preparation: man-day
Prepared training for a group of people: fixed (tailor-made training for an additional fee)

"Am I dear?" Yes, I am no longer a beginner, so my hourly rate is not small. And thanks to this and my theoretical knowledge and years of experience, I am able to save you your time, the time of employees and programmers and thus money. Thanks to that, I am also able to deliver work faster. Work that is of higher quality, which means that software, for example, is safer and will be able to be further developed. Thanks to my extensive knowledge, I am able to stand up for the expertise of other specialists as well, so you don't have to work hard to find other IT experts.

Payments

I invoice continuously. More often at the beginning, typically after completing a subtask. 50% advance payment for predefined larger tasks and the rest of the work and the final work handover.
Invoice maturity of 7 days.
In regular cooperation I invoice work after the end of the month.

Start of cooperation begins with the payment of a deposit.

Cancellation of work: in case of work not start, 50% of the amount can be returned.

The remaining money for the pre-ordered time, which will not be used within four months of payment, is lose without claim.

I typically deliver smaller tasks within 14 days. If the implementation is in a hurry, it is possible to increase the priority of task handling for a 50% surcharge. Urgent help, work outside the time of day, work on weekends and holidays 100% surcharge.