I have a general question.
I have an idea for a software package/application for hosting/running/tracking all things poker. I have the "design" sketched out in my head, and have a ton of things that I would like to see in this application. My issue .. I have no software/application design, patent design, etc... or .. well .. any skill or "know how"
1) If I developed a proof of concept (on paper of course), how could I potentially take this to the next step to get developed? Another major issue of course would be the limited customer base, and knowing that I wouldn't get much of a return on investment, if any at all.
Anyone have any experience in this world? 2) Wondering if this is something that would even be possible.
Thanks
Mark
Hi Mark, I just saw this thread for the first time.
1) Having read through what can probably be described as a rough project brief of your idea, I can tell you if you took it to a professional dev shop this could happen. What your describing is not so much a 'proof of concept' though as much as it is a rough outline.
A good dev shop will start their discovery process by discussing what the end result needs to be and how the software will be deployed. In this case, you have a specific set of requirements that are almost certainly going to be an exclusive one-off and not a mass market product. So what you're really discussing is a custom made software product exclusive to your purposes*.
Once the dev shop has fleshed out what it needs to be, if they're interested in the project they will craft a proposal that includes 3 key elements: Design, UX (user experience), and development. Some shops charge for this because the discovery process can be lengthy so don't be surprised if there are fees involved. They would produce a proposal that would express the estimate as a range of billable hours - which would include the 3 abovementioned elements as well as project management time. So they might for example come back with a range of 100-150 billable hours at $175/hr.
*I'm sure you're not the only one who could use this, but given the development costs, you'd have to charge a significant license fee to justify the dev costs - so the market for this is almost certainly going to be very small.
2) With enough money anything is possible. Dev shops are like anything else though. Cheap isn't good and good isn't cheap. Most of the good ones won't touch a project unless it's over a certain threshold, say $20k for example. They usually have multiple professionals attached to a project, from the project manager, to the creative team to the developers, so they can't take on small projects due to economies of scale.
If you're serious about this and need a referral, I have people in my network who may be interested in taking a look at your project. But before you shop it around, you should establish a budget for what you're willing to spend out of respect for their time and yours too. I personally have no idea since I'm not a developer - it could be a complicated project but maybe not.
