Hiring Virtual Workers Successfully: Get Your Work Done Effectively Plr Ebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 2
Chapter 1 Outsourcing Software 3
Creating a New Software Solution—the Components of a Software Project 4
Creating a New Version of Existing Software 5
Project Visibility 7
Project Size as a Determining Factor 8
Chapter 2 Blueprinting 9
The Vision Statement 10
The Requirements Document 11
The Product Specification 13
Sectioning the Requirements Document 16
Getting People Who Need to Read the Document to Actually Read It 22
Writing Tips 23
Reflecting Changes in Requirements 24
Documenting Requests for Enhancements 25
Outsourcing Your Requirements Document and Materials 25
Chapter 3 The Best Outsourcer 27
Choosing a Service Provider 31
Chapter 4 The Best Outsourcing Sites 33
General Principles For Using Online Services 33
www.elance.com – Old School Outsourcing 39
www.guru.com – Covering Every Base 39
www.vWorker.com – Focusing On The Code 40
Chapter 5 Project Management 42
The Four Stages of a Project 42

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Chapter 1
Outsourcing Software

You have a need.

If you didn’t have a need, you wouldn’t be considering a software development project. (Well, perhaps you just enjoy developing software and hoping that a need for it pops up sometime. That’s a hobbyist approach to software, and there’s nothing wrong with that, but it isn’t how most people approach this kind of work.)

It seems like a simple process: you have your need, you describe the need to someone else, that person writes a software package that fills your need, everyone is happy. Unfortunately, it very rarely works that way!

You have a need—but you might not know what that need is yet.

It’s ironic but true—just because you have a need doesn’t mean that you accurately understand it. It is common for businesses to think they need one thing when in fact they need something very different. It is also common for a business to know that it has a need—usually a problem that needs to be solved—but to have no idea of how that need can be met.

Jones Metalworking has a computer-automated production process that automatically cranks out stainless-steel widgets. They also have a website that automatically takes orders online and produces a daily listing of what needs to be produced.

Jones Metalworking’s management might think, “We need to hire someone to type the sales list into the production computer.” Or they might think, “We need a software package that handles both orders and production in one integrated system.” However, their actual need is for some type of “bridge” that will take the sales list and connect it with the production process, so that everything that is ordered will be produced. This could be a person, or this could be software, or it could be something entirely different—but their actual need is for the connection of these two business processes, not for more staff or a different software package.