
The Software Contractors Guild - gnarbarian
I am considering starting an organization for a technical writing class at my university. Please weigh in if you guys think this would be useful.<p>The Software Contractors Guild Is a network of experienced professionals who help software contractors meet, learn, organize, and succeed in business. SCG can help contractors hone their project skills with presentations and discussions on structuring projects, proven  development methodologies, industry trends, and new technologies.  SFG will also be a resource for conveniently providing vetted technical documents that go hand in hand with different development methodologies. SCG can also be a resource for companies who are looking for people to help with manpower on larger contracts.<p>Because nobody can be experts on everything, small teams, freelancers, and even larger firms will always need help in some areas.  To help people make the right decisions and cover all the bases SFG will include experts from a broad range of domains including contracts, devops, network administration, project management, design&#x2F;UX,  and programming.  This can help contractors fill the experience gaps in their projects with both advice and even people to actively help out and bill on projects when necessary.<p>Beyond the standard local networking, meet ups, and presentations. I think the most valuable thing SCG could provide is solid contractual documents. Things like vetted contracts, Software Requirement Specification  templates, and spreadsheets to help with estimation. People who are starting out in the industry always lack these tools. Having a set of them ready to go along with project lifecycle milestones helps keep the project on track and prevents miscommunication.<p>What do you guys think?
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gnarbarian
By the way, I have been a professional contractor for around 10 years building
webapps for both tiny organizations and the Federal Government. Whenever I've
done any freelancing I've had a hard time on the contractual side of things
because it is generally out of my wheelhouse. Once, this led to me to getting
royally screwed over by a client and a poor designer. In retrospect, having a
resource like the SCG would have gone a long way to preventing that negative
experience.

This is the last course I need to complete my Computer Science degree and I
figured it would be a good project that would mesh well with my job. Thanks
for the upvotes and comments!

