How to start cooperation
Communication and
transmission of information is important, so I am writing this 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 the cooperation works and how I operate.
Since I normally work remotely, I also arrange cooperation remotely.
E-mail is an excellent way to get basic information and details.
We will use a phone or video call to clarify questions and ambiguities.
A personal meeting can thus be postponed until later and spent over lunch, or as a personal consultation while walking in nature.
Project Queries
- Who is leading the project?
- How is the project managed? Are you following some methodology?
- Do you have an application for task management?
- 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?
- Does documentation exist?
- Who can I contact with 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?
If you need to program an application in the PHP framework Nette or Symfony, that runs on your own server, then you are my typical customer.
About you
- Where are you from? What country are you from?
- Are you self-employed or a business, and how big?
- Billing details.
- What is your business?
- Personal interests?
- What do you need help with?
- What can you do?
- What do you want to do?
- What are you looking for?
- What do you offer?
About Me
Here is information about me, Linkedin Josef Jebavý, my IT services offer as a standard package .
My reference, recommendation navolnenoze.cz, recommendation webtrh.cz.
I work during the day and sleep at night. (timezone Europe/Prague)
I live in the Czech Republic in the Krkonoše Mountains, and I travel a lot. I work remotely.
My customers are mostly from the Czech Republic, or Slovakia, the EU and the USA.
Formality
If you require the signing of a contract, send a sample in advance. Yes, I sign NDAs (non-disclosure agreements). Please send the contract at the beginning of the communication.
Contract for a precisely defined work
I sign a contract for precisely defined work only when:- A detailed analysis exists.
- 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 work on the project starts, I can do 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 they have received what they require and verify if it has a benefit
- And especially such a way of software development leads to mutual satisfaction
How to get started
It is ideal if there is someone who knows the project at least a little bit.
For new projects, expect requirements analysis and application architecture design.
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 reply to emails. I pick up the phone.)
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 be provided by the tool GitLab including keeping time estimates and detailed time tracking.
On-site cooperation
If you need me to commute to your offices — or rather, to commute by bike — it is possible. I have an apartment in Prague, and therefore also a base in Prague, so I am able to commute to offices in Prague. I can work partly from home or remotely, and when I am in Prague, I can work from the client's offices.
In order for me to commute to your offices and work effectively, the following equipment is needed:
- Robust adjustable office chair
- Positioning desk
- Two external monitors
- Bike room
- Showers
If you want to provide some advantage of working from the company offices, I always appreciate a canteen with a company chef.
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 restore what worked in the past with a time budget of 1 hour for analysis and 1 hour 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 and screen sharing.
Pricing
I usually charge by the hour. For projects unknown to me, this is the only viable option, because there is nothing to base an estimate on and it would usually be mere guessing. Therefore, I give fixed prices only for small, one-off, precisely defined tasks, for example.
- 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 expensive?" 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 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 broad knowledge, I am able to cover 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.
An advance payment of approx. 50% for predefined larger tasks, with the rest paid upon presentation of the work, after which I hand the finished work over.
Invoices are due within 7 days.
In regular cooperation, I invoice the work done after the end of the month.
Start of cooperation begins with the payment of a deposit.
Cancellation of ordered work: if the work has not started, 50% of the amount can be returned.
The remaining money for pre-ordered time that is not used within four months of payment is forfeited 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 daytime hours, and work on weekends and holidays carry a 100% surcharge.
What will I get for the initial payment?
Before starting cooperation, I will evaluate whether the project is interesting for me and whether I am able to help you. Further work is paid. The initial payment is used to pay for the first work.
Initial payment is used primarily for works such as:
- Getting to know HW
- Introduction to the project.
- Consultations by email, phone or video call.
- Technical analysis of requirements and writing.
- Design architecture of the solution.
- Creating test code.
- Finding critical points in the project.
- Subsequently, I will be able to comment on the complexity of the implementation.
- Proposal of other procedures to solve the customer's needs - cheaper/more efficiently.
- Completing minor tasks.
Amount of initial payment
You can choose the length of the first payment, for example:- Quick consultation - 1 hour
- Longer consultation - 2 hours
- Starting work on a smaller project and small task - 1 manday
- Starting work on a medium and larger project - 2 mandays
- Starting work on a HW/electronics project - 3 mandays

