How I manage orders

I am very flexible in the way and timing of my work, and, whatever needs you or your company have, I believe I can manage it. In fact, I can manage a project or a contract in any of the following ways:

• Closed order: we jointly define your needs, we discuss them thoroughly; after I submit an estimate, on which we agree. Within the agreed time I give you a working program, reasonably free of defects (it is impossible to ensure software absolutely free of defects, people telling you they can do it, are either liars, or incompetents) that performs the functionality you need. Any variation to the specifications agreed upon after acceptance of the quotation is contracted and evaluated separately.
• Open order: if the ultimate goals of your project are not clear to you, and you want to be free to change your mind at any time during developement, and to request changes, it is better to agree on an open contract. It is apparent that in this case it is impossible to assess accurately an offer, I can give you a good estimate of the time needed according to your initial requests.
• Continuous collaboration: let's suppose you need a good software designer and programmer, one that, if the need arises, is able to put his hand to many things, but you do not want or can not hire someone full time. In such a case we can agree on a number of hours per day, per week, per month, during which I am available for your needs.
• Any other solution mixing in any way all of the above, or even quite different: as already mentioned, I am extremely flexible and open to suggestions, of course if they make sense.

The open form of contract may seem, at first sight, the more risky for the buyer, but from my experience I know that, on balance, I have always earned more on one hour of a quoted project than on one hour paid after completion.

Supply Conditions

About the ownership of the software supplied by me:

• Usually, a program is released in executable and installable form, with a user license: its property is kept to the original developer, wheter he be a person, a company or an institution, the end user buys or acquires the right to install it on a certain number of computers, which can be unlimited, and can use it for some time, that can be forever. Unless otherwise agreed, this is the norm for me too.
• Upon request, I can grant to the end user all the rights and copyrights on the program, and I can provide the source code too. In this way, the customer rests assured that he will have the ability to manage and maintain the software regardless of my availability at any given time. However, even in this case the software remains my property, in the sense that I am the intellectual owner of the code as I created it. The customer has the right to manage the source code that I provided for normal maintenance, and can make changes to it as needed, but he shall not reuse any part of it for any different purposes, and above all, he shall not use it to write other programs without my written permission. For my part, even if I had signed an exclusive contract or a covenant not to compete, while remaining faithful to the signed pacts I shall keep the right to reuse any portion of the software written by me to produce other programs not bound by these terms.
• Any library or software components, providing base services, not specifically written for the contracted program, are provided in binary format for the sole purpose of enabling the customer to recompile the program; they still remain my sole property, and the customer shall not resell or make any use other than the one just described, unless he has my written permission.
• Any software library or components written specifically for the contracted program, as they are part of the contracted software, are sold in binary form or source code depending on the written agreement for the main program.

Implementing

Usually, I work at my site on my own machines, using my development tools, and acting as I believe the most efficient way to reach the goal.

Sometimes my client does not like me to bring home all its secrets; of course, even if no confidentiality agreement was signed, I still consider myself bound by the minimum standard of professional correctness; it is equally obvious that I have no problem, I never had, to sign a confidentiality agreement (which obviously must be mutual), but I understand there are cases when a company does not like that its software, its libraries, its development tools, are copied to a foreign computer who knows where and to whom. Or, it could be that the development tools purchased by my client can not be legally installed or copied on my machine, and I have no intention of buying it because it is too much expensive or because I know I will never use it again.

In these cases, there is no problem for me to work at the headquarters of my client for as long as necessary. Just as there are no problems to work on my machine at the customer site, when necessary or even advisable to maintain close contact with the customer, his staff, his operating environment, and his clients.

In this respect too, for my part I propose maximum flexibility.