In my opinion, the concept of paying per hour is one of the biggest fallacies in software development. I am salaried but I don't get paid based on hours worked, I have deliverables that I meet, its irrelevant how much time is spent on meeting those and is impossible to quantify because often the hardest problems are solved in my head when doing something else, could be when stepping out of the office to go for a walk or while on the commute home, etc. We are paid to use our brains and this does not correlate directly with the traditional concept of billing for time. Also,things I do outside of work often positively benefit me, such as working on a side project or reading a book about new programming styles / concepts, however this would never be considered to be "billable hours".
Its my goal to one day work on a per-project basis, I haven't quite figured out how to make a go of this yet, however I really think this is how most software should be done for anyone with a few years experience under their belt. Working software is valuable and if you can commit to something and deliver, the concept of time should be immaterial (outside of meeting a deadline)... its all about value delivered. By tying ourselves to hourly billing rates, I think software development as a profession is held back and part of the reason it may not be as well respected as it should be by "business" people. It takes standing up and proclaiming the value that you bring every now and then to make people realize this isn't an assembly line type of job and never will be.
Its my goal to one day work on a per-project basis, I haven't quite figured out how to make a go of this yet, however I really think this is how most software should be done for anyone with a few years experience under their belt. Working software is valuable and if you can commit to something and deliver, the concept of time should be immaterial (outside of meeting a deadline)... its all about value delivered. By tying ourselves to hourly billing rates, I think software development as a profession is held back and part of the reason it may not be as well respected as it should be by "business" people. It takes standing up and proclaiming the value that you bring every now and then to make people realize this isn't an assembly line type of job and never will be.