All of the outsourced sub-projects have so far proven disappointing, with 2 of them very disappointing. Nobody has delivered everything specified in anything like within the initially agreed upon deadline. The database/API project auto-approved by accident, with the only thing delivered being a database. This database had easily fixable errors, that the programmer bizarrely refused to fix, or even acknowledge. I could have done – correctly – what was delivered in a hour or two. The programmer who got his easy $200 then disappeared. I assume he realized he’d actually have to work to make right the auto-approve error, as well as the remaining bulk of the work.
The timeline control outsourcer asked to cancel, after taking 2 months to complete about 50% of the requirements, and asking for another $100. I accepted his cancellation, yesterday….
The slack clone outsourcer was given permission/blessing to be a few weeks late, as his sub-project is sort of orthogonal to the rest of the project. He strikes me as competent, but has not made any changes to the code base for 5 weeks.
All attempts to get funding and/or volunteer coders have failed, so far.
For personal reasons, I need to focus on another software project, plus maintain my other jobs.
So, this project is headed for limbo. In an optimistic case scenario, I guess that I will be able to work on coding it, directly, in 3 months. In a best case scenario, I will be able to pay more dedicated/capable/expensive outsourced coders in 3 months – 6 months.