borked

That is a great writeup Varius. Some common sense stuff in there.

I do disagree with you however on the importance of version control ;)
Personally, all my code is versioned, and each client can access their own repository if they want to (l/p are sent on billing so further programmers can take it on if required).
I've had, too many times franckly, a client say how about add XYZ, and then scrub that idea when it gets delivered cos it doesn't work the way expected. A simple rollback saves me more pain, and the client more $.

Also, because it's versioned, they/I can deploy easily any upgrades additions with a simple svn up.

Trac goes without saying as it means I can have XX clients at any one go and keep my workflow and clients happy, since I'm not having to rely on emails to track what the problem/request is w/r to code. If the customer wants, they can post directly to trac to submit tickets, or they can just email me and I add it as a ticket for them (haven't streamlined my workjflow to auto-add trac tickets yet ;) )

Each to their own, but setting up SVN with Trac is like a 10 minute job if you know what you're doing, and should be the entire core of any freelance programmer's workflow IMVHO.

__________________

For coding work - hit me up on andy // borkedcoder // com
(consider figuring out the email as test #1)