re: "With software projects, there is no way to have a clear understanding of incremental progress."
Well, that's a big part of the problem right there.
For future reference:
Yes, you do want to keep an eye on the progress of the software project every step of the way.
And you want to compare the work done by the various people on your team.
And you want to either limit the work done by underperforming developers, or fire them completely.
Sergei:
I am really sorry that you were disappointed by your experience.
But I sincerely believe that you are confusing or conflating the following things:
- How Upwork actually works
- How you think Upwork SHOULD work
In the end, it just doesn't matter if Upwork SHOULD DO something... if it really doesn't do that thing. What matters is how YOU can actually use Upwork to achieve YOUR goals.
You are not a project manager.
If you want to succeed in commissioning a complex software project, you will need to do one of the following:
- Hire an independent project manager
- Hire a lead developer who can reliably server as his own project manager (20% can; but even with those, it is better to have them report to a separate project manager)
- Learn how to be a project manager. And if you plan to use Upwork for hiring, you will need to learn the "best practices" for hiring on Upwork, even if those practices don't reflect an idealizes version of how you think Upwork "should" work.
re: "Second, the Upwork support or mediation expert should have informed me before the process even began."
You and your projects will benefit if you plan to never again deal with Upwork mediation experts. Dealing with an upwork mediation expert implies that you are involved in the mediation / dispute process. Just stay away from that entirely. That is not how projects are completed successfully
re: "That's why it's absolutely necessary to have mechanisms by which a freelancer can be punished for such behavior if there is sufficient proof that he stalled the work. Otherwise, there will always be incentives to screw over clients in projects like mine."
You can't succeed in commissioning a complex software project if you plan to "punish" freelancers on your team. Instead, simply stop working with underperforming freelancers. If a freelancer deserves to be punished, then she deserves to be dropped from the team. If you value her work enough to keep her on the team, then you will NOT drop her from the team nor will you punish her.
re: "No one planned to "ask money back later", this is a simple case of violated agreement. That's why we have courts and legal teams all over the world to sort these issues out (apart from Upwork hourly contracts)."
That is not how this works.
Legal teams and courts have absolutely nothing to do with the successful creation of software projects. If you look at successful software projects of all sizes, I can assure you that lawyers, judges, courts, etc., had no part in the creation of their software. Moreover, the project owners focused on pushing their projects forward. They did not expend time or energy on penalizing or punishing freelancers or taking them to court.
You say that no one planned to ask for money back later. But that is exactly what you did. Successful, effective project owners and project managers don't do that. "Dispute thinking" only hurts clients.
re: "I hired a freelancer to create an app and he promised to deliver in 100 hours... When he sent a broken app with multiple issues and broken functionality after 350 hours... I hired one freelancer because it's a job for one person."
A project that is planned to take 100 hours, and ends up taking more than 350 hours, and still doesn't work... How is that a job for one person?
And even if it conceivably COULD be done by one person, how do you know you hired the right person? The entire basis for you filing a dispute is essentially you saying that you did NOT hire the right person. So, by definition, you made a mistake by hiring this one person. This is a potentially costly mistake.
But ANOTHER CLIENT who wanted to create an EQUIVALENT PROJECT did NOT look on this as a "job for one person." That client hired six different freelancers. That client quickly found that three of them were not to be trusted or were too expensive or turned in unusuable work. That client assigned the work to the remaining three freelancers. And those three freelancers finished the project in a total of 98 hours. By hiring multiple people, that client saved time, saved money, and never felt like he had to file a dispute.
re: "this is a simple case of violated agreement."
There was no violated agreement as far as Upwork is concerned.
You hired a freelancer to work for you on an hourly basis. He did so.
The agreement was: "He will work for you and track his hours, and you will pay him for the hours that he worked."
If you thought there was anything more to the agreement than that, you were mistaken.
re: "By your logic, there is no point in having any arbitration anywhere at all"
Actually, arbitration is NOT part of Upwork's hourly contract model at all. Upwork DOES NOT ALLOW arbitration for hourly contracts. Arbitration is only a part of fixed-price contracts.
Moreover, arbitration should ONLY be sought by freelancers. Never by clients. Arbitration nearly always results in decisions favoring freelancers and money awarded to freelancers. Arbitration is a costly and time-consuming process, a hinderence to project development. A wise client decides before hiring ANYBODY that he will never push for a dispute or arbitration. Instead, an effective, successful client hires proactively and thoughtfully, and monitors work submitted by freelancers, especially early on. An effective, frugal client does not set up large/expensive fixed-price tasks/contracts, especially not with unfamiliar freelancers. Instead, a wise client doesn't set up fixed-price tasks that are bigger than he can afford to lose. If a freelancer turns out to be a bad fit for the team, or provide work that the client doesn't love, the effective client can simply release pending esrow funds and close the contract and stop working with the freelancer. And there is NOTHING that a freelancer can do about it.
This does NOT mean that there should "be no arbitration anywhere for anything." There are MANY areas of life where arbitration has its place. Arbitration may be a sensible way to handle a divorce. Or a split between business partners. Arbitration simplly has no place in an Upwork's client's plans. Because it is far less expensive and time-consuming to simply fire underperforming freelancers, rather than go to arbitration.
If you hire using hourly contracts, then there is never any money tied up in escrow at all. You can simply end a contract whenever you want. If you monitor the progress of the different freelancers on your team, even if only by viewing the manifest front-end progress of their work, then you can make effective decisions about who to continue working with and who to fire. Many successful Upwork cients hire using hourly contracts extensively.
