Re: Freelance programming
Re: Freelance programming
- Subject: Re: Freelance programming
- From: OL&L Dev 2 <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 20:04:59 -0800
At 9:44 PM -0600 11/4/03, Daniel Hedrick wrote:
"some huge amount" is a nebulous term. Keep in mind that it is
important to bill a project based on its *value* not based on how
long it will take you or how "big" a project it is. Whether the
project fee is $10k or $75k, it is imperative to demonstrate the ROI
to the client.
OK let me clarify with an example: you do a contract valued at
$50,000 and you think that is what your work will be worth. However,
it takes twice as long as you expected, so you spend twice as much of
your time doing so which effectively cuts the value in half - you now
made $50,000 but the value of the work was worth $100,000. I don't
know about you but I never enjoy getting paid half of what I am
worth. As for "some huge amount" my point was that if someone offered
you some overwhelming amount - say, $200,000 in my above example
*then* you should take it on a fixed rate because you know there is
*no* way it will take 4 times longer than you expected.
Every single time I've witnessed this, it's been due to one of two reasons:
1. The client misrepresented the work to be done.
2. The consultant misunderstood the desired outcome.
In both cases, it fundamentally comes down to discovery and
specification. A consultant worth their salt will be able to do both
efficiently and effectively. *THAT* is worth the pricetag.
Unless of course the client is lying, changes the spec in the middle
of the project, or otherwise misrepresents it to the consultant.
There is nothing you can do about #1 - if the client misrepresents
things to you, there is no way to know that *ahead of time* (which is
what fixed rate contracts depend on). If the consultant cannot
understand the specification (assuming the client has adequately
created a valid specification), then they should find another line of
work.
I respectfully disagree. One of my most recent projects, which is
nearing a close, will end up averaging out to about $300/hr.
Basically, a $6k project that I've spent right around 20 hours on.
The client is thrilled with the turnaround. I will probably be able
to generate about another $10-30k from this client based on this one
(small) project.
Then good for you. You have an exceptionally reasonable client. Try a
few of the projects where they say "Here's the spec, here's why it
should take two weeks", and then 10 days into the project have the
client bring out all the hidden things that they want to be done that
were never listed in the spec originally. I've had this happen dozens
of times.
To each his own. The purpose of my e-mail was to present another
billing option (and specifically in response to JCR's comments
regarding a client willingness to pay a premium for quality work).
It has served me well, but one reason I think I have had success
with it is because of my ability perform the critical tasks of
"discovery and specification" as I outlined above. Also, while I'm
never rude or terse with a client, I am always firm when I discuss
what *IS* and what *IS*NOT* part of a specification. I almost never
have to deal with feature creep -- and when I do, I always construct
an addendum to the original agreement and additional fee.
That of course, assumes that you can get the client to agree to
assign the addendum. If they feel the additional work is justified -
without any change in compensation, then there is little you can do
about it except to say that you aren't going to do the additional
work. I've seen so many companies try to use the trick of fixed rate
contracts to get more work done than they want to pay for. It used to
be such a common thing ten years ago that most developers stopped
doing work on fixed rate. In Silicon Valley where I work, the mention
of a fixed rate contract is something of a joke - because both sides
know how unreasonable it is.
That's just my experience and my take on it.
James
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