Re: Freelance programming
Re: Freelance programming
- Subject: Re: Freelance programming
- From: David Sinclair <email@hidden>
- Date: Wed, 5 Nov 2003 14:17:53 -0800
On Nov 4, 2003, at 21:52, Chris Hanson wrote:
I prefer not to work on fixed-bid projects. I do time-and-materials,
because of the methodology I use. I've run into too many situations
where attempts to fully-specify systems up front just aren't
realistic. So I work according to an agile development methodology
inspired by Extreme Programming.
I work in very short iterations and incrementally deliver
functionality to my clients, using the Planning Game to determine
their needs in the form of user stories. They're only paying for what
they get, and they're getting the most important stuff first. That's
first according to their most current business needs, rather than what
they thought their business needs would be three or six months from
when they first contacted me about the project.
Sounds fairly similar to a milestone basis. I've worked on an hourly,
fixed, and milestone basis, and find each approach to be suitable for
differing circumstances. I agree with you that a fixed-bit approach
often isn't realistic other than for the smallest of projects, unless
the spec is very well-defined and strictly adhered to. Long-term,
frequently-changing jobs are usually best on the time-and-materials
approach. But I think smaller projects tend to be better on a
milestone basis, where one breaks the project into well-defined
fixed-price blocks, of about 2-4 weeks work. That way, if the client
wants to add a feature or make some other change, they can be
accommodated in a later phase, with the fee re-negotiated if necessary.
XP does seem to have a lot going for it, and several of its
methodologies could well be adopted by more traditional developers. I
quite like the user story approach to planning, and breaking the
project into smaller milestones would seem to be an effective way to
manage client requests, and perhaps even the dreaded feature creep.
--
David Sinclair, Dejal Systems, LLC - email@hidden
Custom Mac OS X development -
http://www.dejal.com/consulting/
Site change and failure monitor tool -
http://www.dejal.com/simon/
Plus other useful Mac products -
http://www.dejal.com/products/
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