Should a contract developer pay for their own components?

I’ve been off blogging on the official Embarcadero blog here: https://blogs.embarcadero.com/author/ianbarker/

I’ve also been either occasionally guesting or moderating the TCoffeeAndCode webinar series. You can see the latest video below and subscribe to the series here: https://embt.co/3uyNUkg

I really must learn to talk less and listen more.

Should a contract developer be expected to pay for their own components?

I just had slightly painful conversation with a customer who was questioning why they should pay for the purchase of a set of Delphi custom components in order for a contract programmer (not me) to carry out some work for them. The customer’s argument is “it’s like expecting a plumber to get you to buy their screwdriver”. The person chose a firebrand of an analogy there: notwithstanding the fact that in most Western cultures plumbers are horrendously expensive, have call-out fees and hourly rates which put some lawyers to shame and often expect you to sit with a water leak drowning out your house until they are available, it’s also very poor when this particular contractor being discussed is actually from what is often referred to as “a third-world” country.

Globalization is not homogeneous

This particular out-sourced software developer contractor is being paid an hourly rate that is less than the company’s least qualified office staff. The price of the components I was discussing with the company is the same whether the contractor is living in Silicon Valley or a tent in the Sahara desert. The wages of the contractor are reasonable for their culture and represent what he considers to be fair pay for fair work when compared to the cost of living in their home country. But the cost of the component set is almost beyond his reach financially. Welcome to the disparity of globalization. He’s ‘cheap’ in terms of labor costs but the components we are asking him to use have no cost-of-living benefit since they are made in the fluffy environs of a first-world company with corresponding taxation and labor charges of their own, so they set the price to cover those expenses and to make a profit fit for their average standard of living in their country, not the contractor’s more modest financial needs.

What answer can you give to a company who wants the contractor to pay for the third-party components?

The company need the contractor to use a specific set of components which he doesn’t have; which are not particularly common but are vital to the aim of the development and have no credible, cheaper alternative. They have a couple of choices: they can find a contractor already using the components and pay the more expensive going rate for their time, they can get the contractor to pay for them and reimburse him – which his cash-flow might not allow, or they can buy them for him.

Here’s my explanation to the non-technical gate-keeping manager

XXXXX [the Delphi contractor] uses his own RAD Studio Delphi license. I would expect all contractors to have that available as a minimum or I can’t really see how they could be Delphi programmers.

To use a non technical analogy: it’s like us owning a restaurant and hiring a top chef: the chef generally brings his own knives and a bunch of recipes – these are Delphi and the routines and techniques the programmer has learned – but the chef doesn’t usually bring the vegetables and meat to make the meals but if he did you’d probably have to pay him for them – this is like the component sets we choose or need to use.

Sometimes the chef brings in herbs and some beans he grew in his own garden and adds them to the dish and says “I don’t want payment for them” even though he bought the seeds and nurtured them himself – this is like the programmer bringing along some component sets we don’t have but are shareable.

3 thoughts on “Should a contract developer pay for their own components?

  1. Your answer sounds right to me.
    It is very simple: if the customer takes the initiative of using/requiring certain components, they pay for them. That includes the additional license for the contract developer. If the developer wants to use certain software, (s)he pays for it.
    (Side note: If the developer thinks certain components are useful for the product, (s)he suggest to the customer to buy those.)

    Your statement “This particular out-sourced software developer contractor is being paid an hourly rate that is less than the company’s least qualified office staff.” only muddies the waters. Two wrongs don’t make a right, and (s)he should be paid more, period.

    1. Well I don’t get to intervene in other contractor’s pay – that’s their war to march in to. ?

      Philosophical question: Why should he/she be paid more than they want or are asking for?

  2. A bit of a side note:

    I am a South African and our currency does not hold strong against the dollar or euro and is constantly loosing value against them so acquiring any Delphi product or third-party component becomes more expensive as the time goes on. More than your usual price increases.

    It is becoming very hard to continue doing Delphi development if your company is small but is excluded from using Delphi Community Edition for whatever one of the limitations may be. If you want some features of Architect or Enterprise then you are even worse off. And third-party component developers do not take the fact that you use Delphi Community Edition into consideration as well so you still pay full price for them and they are super expensive. And there are some really good component suites available but pricey.

    Even if you are employed as a Delphi Developer at a big enough company it always morphs into a big expenditure meeting when it is time to upgrade Delphi and/or components. And as always costs need to be justified.

    I love working in Delphi and I am all for companies charging for their products so that they can be successful but the current market makes me feel as if some people are slowly being excluded by no fault of the suppliers, from being able to acquire Delphi and components. Basic economics, I suppose. It is really sad.

    I am no wimp and I will keep in fighting to be able to use Delphi because I love it.

    Back to the post; considering that we in South Africa can be compared with any country that might have a lower cost-of-living i would say that I agree with the post.

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