Re: Lead developers vs 'Helpers'

"Stephen J. Turnbull" <[email protected]> writes:

>     David> I wonder how important this distinction is in economic
>     David> terms?

> What do you mean by "economic terms"?  By my definition above, the
> lead developer will have to (a) get paid more in absolute terms and
> (b) get a significant ownership share, because otherwise he'll start
> his own business.  (Ignoring lifestyle considerations, which make it
> likely that economic reasoning will _not_ drive compensation and
> ownership decisions in FSBs, at least not nearly 100%.)

I suppose I was idly wondering about the relationships between lead
developers and helpers as far as the business world is concerned.  I'm
sorry I don't have a very clear question in my head, but it would be
along the lines of the following.  Let's also assume, just for the
heck of it, that they are all independant, and don't belong to any
large organization.

Do helpers have a shot at making money off of the project in terms of
services?

How much of a shot do they have, if they are going up against the lead
developer?

How big does the project have to get to give helpers a shot at carving
out their own space?  Your examples above indicate projects that are
big enough to support more than one consultant.

Anyway, just a few things I'd been mulling over a bit.

-- 
David N. Welton
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