Your Freelance Developer Cannot Keep Up

The alternative to a stretched freelancer is a development team. A team has enough people to keep work moving when one of them is busy, away or ill, and it brings skills one person rarely has all at once: analysis, database design, development and testing. Your system is taken over through a planned handover, ideally with your freelancer’s cooperation, so nothing is lost in the move.

Signs this is your problem

• Replies take days and changes take months.
• You hesitate to ask for things because you know they are busy.
• Work happens only in the evenings and at weekends.
• A large project has been “coming soon” for a year.
• You have no idea what would happen if they stopped.

Why good freelancers become bottlenecks

This is usually nobody’s fault. A freelancer who does good work gets more clients. Each one has emergencies. A moonlighter has a day job that comes first. There are only so many hours, and yours are shared.

• Small requests wait for weeks.
• Urgent problems depend on whether they happen to be free.
• Larger projects never start, because there is never a clear month.
• Nothing is written down, because there is no time.
• If they become ill or take a full-time job, you have no cover at all.

What a team gives you that one person cannot

• Cover. More than one person knows your system.
• Capacity. A big job can have several people on it at once.
• Range. Someone who is good at databases, someone who is good at screens, someone whose job is to test.
• Process. Requests are tracked, changes are tested before they go live, and the code is kept safely.
• Continuity. People can change and your system is still supported.

Making the move without burning the bridge

The best handovers are friendly. Many freelancers are relieved to pass on a client they can no longer serve well, and their knowledge of your system is valuable. We ask them for the code, the access details and a walk-through, and we are glad to keep them involved for questions if you both wish.

If the relationship has already broken down, the system can still be taken over. See what to do when your programmer quits or disappears.

How Keene Systems handles it

1. We talk about what you need and what is not getting done. Lance Keene takes the first call.
2. We arrange a handover with your current developer. Code, access and a walk-through of the system.
3. We assess and document the system. So the knowledge is yours.
4. We clear the backlog and plan what comes next. With a team behind it.

The next step is a short, no-pressure conversation. Book a call with Lance Keene or use the form on this page.