With the gradual deepening of informatization, whether it is enterprises, governments or individuals, the dependence on software has reached an indispensable level. Now more and more people realize the important role of software in day-to-day business management, so outsourced software projects are also growing. But along with it, there are more and more software companies and software teams undertaking outsourcing, including many individual SOHOs also joining the ranks of the competition for undertaking software, so now the competition for software projects is also fierce. There are still many people who don’t even know where to go for projects, and always complain that there is no project to do; some people have good programming skills, but they don’t know anything about negotiating projects with customers, and they can’t get the projects they should get. Although I have received the project, I found that there are many problems that I have never encountered during the implementation of development. As a software developer who has been engaged in outsourcing project orders for many years, I would like to talk about my experience from the following aspects, hoping to be helpful to everyone.
The first point, where to pick up the project
The software team or SOHO is most concerned about where to find projects to do, that is, where to find customers with outsourcing needs. For ordinary people, making friends and then introducing them through acquaintances is still the first way to receive projects, but this requires your friends or acquaintances to have a more important management position in the enterprise or company. For those who can only bury their heads every day This is obviously not realistic for programmers who write code. So people can't wait for the project to come to you, but take the initiative to find the project. Now there are many software outsourcing websites on the Internet, where you can find a lot of software outsourcing information. For example , there is a lot of software outsourcing information on the Software Business Network ( http://www.bizsofts.com ). However, although there are many projects outsourced here every day, the competition is also fierce. Generally, there will be countless competitors within a day after an outsourcing information is sent, so it is very important to get in touch with customers at the first time. Because customers are generally preconceived, generally speaking, if the first person to talk about a project is satisfied, he will no longer consider other competitors, so you should always go to the website to see what is the latest. project, and immediately get in direct contact with the project developer. Others such as Software Outsourcing Network, Wiki.com, China Software Network, and CSDN's outsourcing channel also have a lot of outsourcing information, you can go and see for yourself.
The second point, how to talk to customers about their needs
The most important step in taking on the project is to discuss the needs with the client. The customer's demand for software is the fundamental of project planning and implementation, so when discussing the demand with the customer, be sure to let the user explain all the ideas as clearly as possible, and list all the requirements. At this time, you should not be afraid to "seduce" the potential needs of customers and increase the workload of design and development. Instead, it should be straightforward and clear to ask the client to list the requirements of the project one by one. At this time, the organization, induction, and analysis are thrown aside first, and the most original and complete requirements of the user are accurately recorded with pen and paper. If the project is launched in a hurry when you do not fully understand the needs of the customer, unexpected changes will occur at any time, ranging from delaying the project or exceeding the budget, or completely destroying the original software. Again. Therefore, we should deeply understand and excavate customer needs before implementing the project, and repeatedly discuss some unclear requirements with the contracting party. For the change of requirements during the implementation of the project, we should stipulate the handling methods and form the final requirements of the project. In the requirements analysis stage, the contractor first carefully analyzes the requirements of the contractor, and then collects the complete requirements of customers through business modeling, talks, questionnaires, requirements meetings, etc., and forms documents, which are then discussed, reviewed, and revised by customers. repeated process. One thing to note is that even if the two parties have a good relationship, they must be detailed and thoughtful when discussing requirements, accurate to every software function that can no longer be divided.
The third point, how to quote reasonably
After fully understanding the customer's needs, the next step is to determine a reasonable quotation. The contractor should try to understand the exact meaning of the customer from the conversation with the customer, think about what kind of software the customer wants, how complicated the project is, how high the customer's requirements are, and what the customer's character is. The price range, etc., these factors are closely related to the quotation of software projects. In many cases, the customer already has a price bottom line before discussing the project with the contractor. If the cost to be invested exceeds the client's budget, the client will stop talking to you about the project, and he will turn to other software teams to negotiate. Therefore, in the process of negotiating projects with customers, we should quickly think about the real meaning of customer needs. Through some conversion and flexibility, we can compare the customer's technical requirements with the acceptable price of our own team's technical strength, so as to draw a two-way agreement. acceptable offer. In negotiating with clients, flexibility is one of the keys to success. Of course, not all customers can be satisfied through flexibility. When the customer does not agree with the project cost, you must be calm, explain to the customer sincerely, and refine the customer's needs into technical requirements for him to analyze and let him agree. The reasonableness of your offer. Even if the customer does not know much about programming technology, but after your careful analysis, they will agree with your offer.
Fourth point, how to organize the team
Since the needs of customers are different, the projects are also varied. There are website design projects and software design projects, and the programming languages required to be used are also varied. Even in a project, such as a website production project, there is a division of labor between the front-end art design and the background program writing. If all these tasks are left to one person, it will never be completed. Even with a small team, there is no guarantee that all the talent will be available. Therefore, it is best to initially design the project by yourself, then find a partner to develop it together, and master the overall progress of the entire project by yourself. If you don't have a good partner around you, you can find a lot of partners online that you can work with. Here we recommend software technology QQ groups from all over the world. You can find programming experts in all aspects in the group to divide the work and work on the project. (Beijing 43,966,886 Shanghai 22,267,033 Shenzhen 43,353,614 Guangzhou 44,071,675 Zhuhai 43,275,805 Hangzhou 43,276,029 Fuzhou 43,309,190 Nanjing 43,319,646 Wuhan 43,319,996 Chengdu 42,961,245 Chongqing 43,320,370 Shenyang 42,408,057 Dalian 43,321,811 Nanchang 43,321,932 Changsha 43,323,026 Jinan 43,353,895 Tianjin 43,353,727 Xi'an 43,353,817 Haikou 43,967,437 Kunming 41,193,579 Shijiazhuang 17,940,180 Hefei 41,418,679 Nanning 16,537,410 Harbin 43,965,078 Suzhou 43965528 Changchun 43965640 Ningbo 43966041 Taiyuan 43966123 Qingdao 3630711 Guiyang 43966364)
Since the needs of customers are different, the projects are also varied. There are website design projects and software design projects, and the programming languages required to be used are also varied. Even in a project, such as a website production project, there is a division of labor between the front-end art design and the background program writing. If all these tasks are left to one person, it will never be completed. Even with a small team, there is no guarantee that all the talent will be available. Therefore, it is best to initially design the project by yourself, then find a partner to develop it together, and master the overall progress of the entire project by yourself. If you don't have a good partner around you, you can find a lot of partners online that you can work with. Here we recommend software technology QQ groups from all over the world. You can find programming experts in all aspects in the group to divide the work and work on the project. (Beijing 43,966,886 Shanghai 22,267,033 Shenzhen 43,353,614 Guangzhou 44,071,675 Zhuhai 43,275,805 Hangzhou 43,276,029 Fuzhou 43,309,190 Nanjing 43,319,646 Wuhan 43,319,996 Chengdu 42,961,245 Chongqing 43,320,370 Shenyang 42,408,057 Dalian 43,321,811 Nanchang 43,321,932 Changsha 43,323,026 Jinan 43,353,895 Tianjin 43,353,727 Xi'an 43,353,817 Haikou 43,967,437 Kunming 41,193,579 Shijiazhuang 17,940,180 Hefei 41,418,679 Nanning 16,537,410 Harbin 43,965,078 Suzhou 43965528 Changchun 43965640 Ningbo 43966041 Taiyuan 43966123 Qingdao 3630711 Guiyang 43966364)
The fifth point, how to receive the project payment
This is the last and hardest part of the whole project. No matter how good your project is, if you don't get paid, all your previous efforts will be zero. If the project is to be successfully funded, this should be noted from the negotiation stage before the project even begins. First of all, it is necessary to determine whether the other party is genuinely outsourcing the project. Here are a few experiences to share with you: If you see a project that says "please provide a complete solution and a successful case and send it to a so-and-so mailbox", this should just be a design scheme, and send a few to you The company or team's promotion advertisement and quotation can be given to him. Some customers want to design a document design scheme from the source code when they open their mouths. This kind of person is too purposeful. If you really give it to him, he will ignore you again. There are also outsourcers who refuse to introduce themselves, refuse to tell who they are, how they are called, how to contact them, what company they are, what business they do, and there is no need to talk to such customers who do not even have the most basic integrity. go down. The second is to judge whether the other party has sufficient funds and strength, and whether the project requirements are reasonable (technology, cycle, etc.). This can be consciously verified in the negotiation of demand. If the other party has a large project but always emphasizes that the project is very simple, it should be because they do not want to pay the full project payment; It is to ask for the full payment after the project is completed, which should be a lack of sincere payment. There are also projects that take 30 days to complete but only give a few days of development time. This kind of project outsourcing party is also very doubtful. For the software team or individual SOHO family, since it is not a company, the other party will not have a high degree of trust in us, so the contract method must be adopted for large projects, so that problems can be solved easily. In the contract, it is best to clearly stipulate that the payment will be made in stages, which will help spread the risk. For example, it is generally required to pay 30% of the deposit after the contract is completed, 50% of the project payment after the customer's verification is completed after the project is halfway through, and the full payment is paid after all the projects are completed and delivered. Doing so is also better for the client to control the progress of the project, so the other party is also easier to recognize and accept. In the actual outsourcing activities, I also found that some NPC projects could not be done, and small projects were unwilling to do because of lack of money, and in the end, no projects could be undertaken. Therefore, you should lower your expectations at the beginning, start with some small projects with a few hundred yuan, and then take on some large projects after you have a certain experience, so that you can make continuous progress by seeing it step by step; In addition, you usually have to sort out the projects you have done before as a case so that you can view them at any time. It turns out that sometimes the best way to convince a client to choose you is to show him a project you've done before. The above briefly talked about several key points that should be paid attention to when undertaking software projects. In fact, there are still many problems that have not been covered due to the limited length of the article. In short, as long as you keep summarizing the experience and lessons in the practice of outsourcing, you can gain a leading position in the fierce outsourcing competition.