Mon, 12 Feb 2007 18:02 UTC
I recall several years ago a discussion on #phpc on Freenode IRC about the need for white papers on the use of PHP in the enterprise/business world. These white papers would serve as a sort of advocacy for PHP, but more important than advocating the use of PHP, they would help answer questions about PHP that management types have. The white papers would discuss the benefits of using PHP, highlighting its strengths and even noting its limitations. In short, it would answer the question: why is PHP suited (or not suited) for the task we need to complete? I was particularly interested in these white papers for Atlanta PHP to use and distribute to the local business community.
Well, three years have passed, and I don’t believe anyone has ever published any white papers on PHP, giving it a business case, and while we have companies like Zend, OmniTI, and eZ Systems providing support for PHP, I haven’t seen any documentation from them like this. So, last Thursday when Stuart Herbert announced his Google Group for developing a business case for PHP, I took notice and joined.
While I know that this group isn’t trying to advocate the use of PHP over other languages, I hope that it can generate white papers that will explain the benefits/advantages of PHP and why it is well-suited for particular tasks. Also, I think these white papers would do well to outline how PHP can work alongside other languages like Java, and how PHP has excellent support for XML and SOAP, making it a good choice to communicate with legacy/disparate systems.
I encourage those companies who use PHP and have an investment in the language to take part in this effort.
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Tags: atlphp, business, php
Wed, 21 Jun 2006 0:21 UTC
I originally posted this to the Atlanta PHP Freelance Advice forum, but I don’t think it’ll get much attention there for a while since we’ve just launched our new boards and they have very little traffic. Thus, I wanted to try it out here to see what the community thinks. This topic came up after an Atlanta PHP meeting a few months ago, and I’ve been asked the same question several times since then. So, what exactly is an acceptable rate for a PHP programmer?
To one person, I answered within the scope of the Java world (since this person has more familiarity with Java programmers). I recommended that PHP programmers receive pay comparable to Java programmers. To another person, I recommended that, as a freelancer, he not accept a job for any less than a specific rate comparable to that of Java programmers.
I want to see PHP programmers paid well for the work they do. Let’s face it: anyone can call themselves a PHP programmer, but not everyone programs in PHP well. You should be paid a competitive rate for your skills as an excellent PHP programmer.
However, the problem with paying a PHP programmer occurs when there is a market full of programmers who will work for peanuts, so everyone hires them. Often these are college students or programmers right out of college, but I know of one Java programmer with no prior experience who was hired right after graduation for $90K a year. What a drastic difference in the market view between PHP and Java programmers!
After all, why pay more when you can pay less, right? Wrong!
If someone is charging a lower-than-standard rate, it’s likely a red flag that they don’t know what they’re doing, and you’ll end up wasting money on an application that is very poorly designed and full of vulnerabilities. It’s best to pay for the better programmer the first time around rather than go through 4 or 5 different programmers to get the job done.
Am I wrong here? What do you think? What is a good pay rate for a PHP programmer?
Feel free to post your comments here or in the Atlanta PHP Forum.
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Tags: business, jobs, php
