Programming Without Support

[errantember]

So I'm in the process of becoming an independent contractor, and one of the major thing I'd like to do is web programming. My technical knowledge is a little stale, but I can catch up on that fairly quickly. The main reason I'm doing contract work, though, instead of full-time is that I want to have more control over my schedule. And there's one *big* issue with programming that doesn't fit well into that model, and that's support. I completely refuse to create an ever-increasing support burden on myself simply because I've done more work. I've worked in software for ten years, so I understand the necessity to have *someone* support the software, and I fully intend to write high-quality, well-tested software to reduce the support load, but unless there comes a day when I can say "This project is done forever," the entire exercise is a waste of time.

The easiest solution I see to this is to find a support organization that will work with me to take the software off my hands once it's done.

I'd like to hear from any software freelancers in the crowd as to how they deal with this.

Comments

support

[hobgadling.livejournal.com]

If you're doing drupal work, you can find a company like acquia to take the support after the initial work is done. You can also build it into your contracts and make sure your customers know that if they call you for support, they know they're going to be paying you something at the end of the month.

Re: support

[errantember.livejournal.com]

Excellent, thanks! That's exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for.