As a independent software developer I often get confronted by the question: “What do we do if you get hit by a bus?” The snappy answer is “Are you kidding ? With this traffic (and my pay-grade) , you won’t catch me anywhere near a bus – I’ll take a cab !”
But off course the costumer means: “What can we do if you suddenly dies / disappear/ retire and leave us in a lurch with no support or means for further development ?”
![](https://usercontent.one/wp/www.aestas.dk/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/hit-by-bus.jpg)
After answering the same questions dozens of times I’ll try to sum up the situation (and keeping my blood pressure down at the same time):
- I probably won’t be hit by a bus, a heart attack is more likely for a man my age. I’ll try to stay fit and eat healthly food for your sake (and mine…)
- All my work is open source – no exception – preferably located on a server with public access, ex. GitHub.
- Besides the usual system documentation and user-guides, the source code will always be supplemented with instructions on how to build and install the software.
- I’ll won’t accept to develop more complex software systems than a single experienced developer on short notice can understand and work with.
I actually have a list of “stand-in’s”, people I know and trust, that has the same skill-set and -level as I have (My wife or kids will send it to you after my demise) - I’ll never ask for any large sum of money up front for development work. The normal procedure is a bill for finished work after it’s done, not before.
- And – snarkily – in most cases, you’re not better off with a large company: The employee turnover is normally so high that it’s unlikely you’ll get the same developer team second time around. But you will get a higher amount of administrative overhead (and a larger bill).