Consultancy
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Drew DeVault
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title: How does SourceHut's free software consultancy work?
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author: Drew DeVault
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date: 2022-08-23
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---
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SourceHut offers a [consultancy][0] in which we offer our services as experts in
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free software to work exclusively on free software development. Through this
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work we have developed improvements to Wayland, graphics, virtual reality,
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email, and more, entirely through free software developed in public. Our work
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can take the form of developing new free software from scratch, contributing
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improvements to projects that our client depends on, offering what sage advice
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we can spare, or, often, all of the above.
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[0]: https://sourcehut.org/consultancy/
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How does this actually work in practice? Following a discussion in our off-topic
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IRC channel today, I thought that it would be nice to write about the actual
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logistics of our operation so that others who want to sell free software
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consulting services are better equipped to do so, and so that future customers
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know better what to expect from us.
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The process begins with client on-boarding. We don't do much in the way of
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marketing — customers mostly come to us. When someone new comes to us with
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an idea, the first thing we do is seek a basic alignment on the project goals
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and needs, on our process, and regarding our unique free-software requirements.
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We evaluate proposals based on a few criteria:
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- Does this project benefit the free software ecosystem?
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- Does our team have the necessary experience?
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- Are the right engineers available to work on it?
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Roughly half of our proposals clear this stage. In addition to a reasonably
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complete project proposal, we need to establish with the client an understanding
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of our requirements, namely:
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- All work is published under a free software or open source license
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- All work is conducted in public — no <abbr title="non-disclosure agreement">NDA</abbr>s
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Though we require the results to be released to the public as free software,
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we're open to assigning copyright to the client. Not all clients want this,
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though. If the customer has a clear idea of what's required, a few emails back
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and forth are suitable to establish a consensus. If a deeper analysis is needed,
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we might ask for a temporary contract to cover costs of initial research and
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planning.
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Following this, we'll draft a contract and seek consensus on the expected
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pricing and effort required. Our contracts are short and simple, generally
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covering matters like logistics for payment and the contract period, but also
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explicitly addressing our requirements regarding subjects like software
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licenses. Sometimes the client prefers to use their own contract templates,
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which we're open to, but generally this requires more negotiation to remove
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"standard" clauses for things like NDAs.
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We bill for each of the engineers we plan to bring on board separately. Our
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pricing is essentially a function of two competing factors: we target free
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software and small- to medium-sized businesses, which pushes our prices down,
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and we offer high-end services from an experienced team, which pushes up. Right
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now this balance settles on a $250/hour and $150/hour standard base rate for our
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senior and junior engineers respectively.
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The rates are generally only somewhat negotiable — but we may tweak our
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rates depending on things like our perception of the positive impact a contract
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might have for free software, or the means of the client. An early-stage open
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hardware vendor might get a reduced rate for our work developing graphics
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drivers for them, for example. We will generally expect a deposit from
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unfamiliar customers.
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Once everything is signed and it's off to the races, the execution of these
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contracts involves a non-traditional planning style. We push back against
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suggestions like waterfall or agile, and prefer instead to work like a free
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software project often does — with broad long-term goals, loosely defined,
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and narrower short-term goals, more concretely defined. We also set research and
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planning as an objective in its own right, as this allows us to illuminate
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unknowns and secure a better idea of the implementation process for each task.
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We prefer to express progress and planning in terms of the complexity of the
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work required rather than the expected time to complete it.
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Facilitating this mutual understanding of the work involves monthly "status
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update" emails sent alongside the invoices for each month's work. These updates
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cover the tasks recently completed and those planned for the near future, and
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explain how these tasks relate to the broader objectives.
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This is a good opportunity for us to seek consensus where required. Often the
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client will follow up with questions and clarifications, which a brief email
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exchange squares up. We'll also use this as an opportunity to seek
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clarifications on our end, or to communicate when a decision is required from
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the client. We occasionally will entertain such exchanges mid-cycle as well, but
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we plan to anticipate decision points well before they become blockers so that
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we can work autonomously mid-cycle. We seek to understand and internalize the
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client's vision so that we can make the right choices autonomously, reducing the
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opportunities for our team to be blocked and increasing the client's confidence
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in the project.
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Though this approach is extraordinarily effective, it relies on a great deal of
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mutual trust. We aim to secure this by maintaining a reputation for careful,
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skillful engineering, fierce honesty and transparency, and a history of shipping
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reliable production software. Insisting on working on free software in public
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puts weight to these words: our results are independently verifiable.
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---
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The model works. Our clients have expressed unanimous satisfaction with our
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services, and we've been able to do a lot of great work for the free software
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community. Our successes includes [VR on Wayland][wxrc] and many improvements
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([1], [2], [3]) to the Monado OpenXR runtime, the [Wayland software][gamescope]
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powering the [Steam Deck](https://www.steamdeck.com/en/), and a new [webmail]
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and a [calendaring and contacts server][tokidoki].
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[wxrc]: https://git.sr.ht/~bl4ckb0ne/wxrc
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[1]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/monado/monado/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged&author_username=bl4ckb0ne
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[2]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/monado/monado/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged&author_username=ddevault
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[3]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/monado/monado/-/merge_requests?scope=all&state=merged&author_username=emersion
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[gamescope]: https://github.com/Plagman/gamescope/pulls?q=is%3Apr+author%3Aemersion+is%3Aclosed
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[webmail]: https://sr.ht/~migadu/alps/
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[tokidoki]: https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/tokidoki/
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If you'd like to hire us to work on your project, take a look at our [consulting
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page][0] for details. If you'd like to emulate us, I hope that you found this
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resource helpful. Feel free to ask for advice in #sr.ht.watercooler on Libera
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Chat.
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We have been planning to develop a jobs board for SourceHut users which allows
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FOSS developers to list themselves for hire called hire.sr.ht. We intend to
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provide this service as part of your normal SourceHut subscription,[^1] and will
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not take a margin on top of your contracts. You would handle your own contracts
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and billing, control the communication channels with your clients, have the
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freedom to take clients off of the platform, and enjoy full ownership over your
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consulting income.
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[^1]: Including for users who receive financial aid
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We have not been able to prioritize this work, but we have developed [enough of
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it][hire.sr.ht] that we can work with potential contributors. If you're
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interested in helping us bring this service to life, familiarize yourself with
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the existing code and see what you can do. Check out the GraphQL backend first.
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Patches to
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[~sircmpwn/sr.ht-dev@lists.sr.ht](mailto:~sircmpwn/sr.ht-dev@lists.sr.ht).
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Cheers!
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[hire.sr.ht]: https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/hire.sr.ht
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@ -81,6 +81,10 @@ necessary, reviewing code and assumptions, and lending assistance
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with planning, execution, and logistics. We also handle billing and
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price negotiation.
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To learn more about the logistics of our free software consultancy work, check
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out [this blog post](/blog/2022-08-23-how-does-our-consultancy-work/) on the
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subject.
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## Our engineers
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Most of our engineers publish monthly "status update" articles on
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@ -38,7 +38,7 @@
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</div>
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<div class="footer-links">
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<span>
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© {{ dateFormat "2006" now }} sr.ht, LLC
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© {{ dateFormat "2006" now }} sourcehut
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</span>
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<a
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href="https://man.sr.ht/privacy.md"
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