bet there are enough of these "tales of woe" to publish a nice short story compilation. <br><br>You know, something to read the kids at night when they say they want to grow up to be like daddy and mommy.<br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Nov 24, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Jeff Greenberg <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jeff@ayendesigns.com">jeff@ayendesigns.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
I've been a development consultant in one flavor or another (freelance,<br>
humongous computer company, software house, etc.) since punch cards, and<br>
at one point was managing consultant for an international development<br>
practice, so I've seen just about everything...enough to where I am an<br>
independent freelancer now and don't miss the rest :-)<br>
<br>
<br>
So I have an associate who is a Flash guy, who tosses me online stores<br>
to do a couple-few times a year. It's normally an informal thing, in<br>
terms of him telling me what's involved in the way of anything unusual<br>
with shipping, product options, the other gotchas, and I give him a price.<br>
<br>
<br>
He comes to me with a site that had an oscommerce store and wants a new<br>
site. Normal cart, nothing special. Only 18 products. Some templating. I<br>
had other things on my calendar, and he needed this started right away,<br>
and said he'd pay double. So I totaled it up, and quote $2500.<br>
<br>
<br>
Not long after it started, it became obvious that there was going to be<br>
trouble. His client had another consultant under hire, who had wanted<br>
the store business, and in addition to being bent out of shape about not<br>
getting it, managed to get inserted between the owners and my contractor<br>
as a "PM". Those of you who have been PM's will appreciate 'being one'<br>
yet not having a specification, not wanting the project to succeed, and<br>
having nothing be your fault (when I was a PM, the responsibility for<br>
everything fell on me).<br>
<br>
<br>
But the real issue was that the store was far from normal. A short list<br>
of the customizations I had to make to Ubercart include<br>
<br>
-importing a csv file - column format inconsistent - containing<br>
tracking information for orders, where the order had to have packaging,<br>
shipment, and status automatically created and updated and an email sent<br>
<br>
-automatically exporting orders as edi<br>
<br>
-writing a script to import the oscommerce data<br>
<br>
-custom admin reports<br>
<br>
-creating an intermediary payment gateway (since Ubercart can't<br>
handle two being active) to handle a special card<br>
<br>
-modifying the credit system to account for the normal cards needing<br>
CVV but this other card not only not having CVV but not having an<br>
expiration date<br>
<br>
<br>
I looked at all of that (by way of a 'QA' document the 'PM' sent...which<br>
basically said where is this stuff?) and told him that none of this was<br>
included in the 'normal store' quote. He said yeah, just do it hourly.<br>
<br>
<br>
So we get to the end of the project, and (a) I decide not to charge him<br>
double for the hourly stuff nor my expedited/out-of-hours uplift, most<br>
of it having been done at night because I was putting in 12-16 hours a<br>
day, (b) I even gave him a 10% courtesy discount, and the invoice BEYOND<br>
the original was a bit over $7000.<br>
<br>
<br>
He called and asked whether there wasn't something we could do about the<br>
amount. I said, "yes, you can stop giving fixed-price quotes on anything<br>
without a concrete spec to start with."<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
consulting mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:consulting@drupal.org">consulting@drupal.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting" target="_blank">http://lists.drupal.org/mailman/listinfo/consulting</a><br>
</blockquote></div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>Email is not a secure form of communication!<br><br>Drupal Consultant<br><a href="http://www.hazelconsulting.com/">http://www.hazelconsulting.com/</a><br>253.686.0296<br>
<a href="mailto:dave@hazelconsulting.com">dave@hazelconsulting.com</a><br>skype: hazelconsulting<br>gtalk:kananii<br><a href="http://www.facebook.com/davidhazel">http://www.facebook.com/davidhazel</a><br>ICQ: 366587185<br>