These problems are so painful -- especially when one cares more about these small orgs than one could ever care about some big, funder-driven mammoth nonprofit.... But still it needs to be a non-martyrdom experience for the developer too. I think this kind of work is just very, very hard.

One thing I've heard about but not tried myself is the idea of a monthly retainer or support fee. This would be paid by the organization whether or not work was done and would encourage them to touch base with the developer on non-urgent, maintenance-and-improvement types of issues, perhaps anticipating some emergency changes before they become urgent. Certainly, it helps the developer have more steady income, though it may not help them anticipate what kind of time they'll have available in their schedule. I guess it is similar to the scheduled support model you mentioned, but the idea is that, though the money is a regular payment, the work hours could be concentrated at times of peak need for the organization.

Designated "superusers" at the organization are helpful too, of course. (Though with the way staff turns over at a lot of orgs, it's not always possible to really maintain this idea, and it doesn't solve the emergencies question....)

I've recently stumbled upon some websites and articles discussing "Agile" and "Scrum" software development models which sound intriguing -- coming up with small iterations of features that are developed quickly and go live right away rather than a big database plan that is expected to get "finished." For me, this whole idea of delivering a "finished" database keeps rearing its ugly head over the years and I want to come up with alternate ways to talk about how information-tracking systems actually function in people's lives, as well as figure out how to develop such systems in a way that is realistic for both my needs and theirs. I'm just starting to read about Agile/Scrum so I don't really know how much they might suggest new solutions for the problems you're talking about. But, thinking back on some of the conversations you and I have had in the past about database development at small orgs, I thought you might be interested in them too. (Though maybe you're already aware of these models -- they were new to me.) Here are a few links to what I've been looking at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agilesoftwaredevelopment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrum%28development%29 http://www.fmagile.com/ http://www.fmagilefiles.com/AgileDevelopmentAndFileMaker.pdf

Much respect and geeklove to you and the rest of MF/PL! XO! RD

--RudeGirl_1871

Great to see your post and get your insights.

I'd never heard of the scrum approach - there are some really interesting concepts there.

I particularly like the Chicken and Pigs concept - I think it's a useful antidote to the more liberal (as in individual-based) approaches to consensus and decision making that try to make every individual "equal" as if that were possible. It also has an originating story that is funny and offers ample opportunities for bad bacon jokes when decision making gets too serious and tense :).

--jamie