Excellent discussion!<div><br></div><div>Fixed rate budgets are a waste of time for everyone first and foremost because they posit the waterfall approach to software development; the requirements are thought of as a fixed abstract continent, and the analysis of those requirements are supposed to be done on the quick (and for free) by the candidate consultant. When the truth of the matter is:</div>
<div><br></div><div>* Requirements will change at a minimum of 40% during the development of the web app, as complexities emerge and are dealt with and what is built firms up how to implement the business model.</div><div>
* The adquisition of knowledge of estimatation in best done in the analysis and design phase, which in turn is best done in an agile, user story (bit sized self-contained) iterative and incremental manner; so it is revealed bit by bit. However, total accountancy and transparency is provided by the client participating in this process by writing acceptance tests for a single user story as the analysis and design and implementation goes forward.</div>
<div>* Analysis and design of ALL the project is ridiculous because of the 40% reqs chagne and because the proof is in the pudding (delivery) not in anyone's head.</div><div>* As more and more of the backlog is delivered and is staged, the candidate architecture firms up, risks are dealt with up front, change requests form part of the backlog, and the client learns more and more about what she or he really wants.</div>
<div><br></div><div>If the client is misled towards thinking that developers "who really know what they are doing" can give a "good estimate" then they are at best exaggerating the power of an RFP... it cannot, in the Chomskian sense, be explicit. It cannot be an explicit description of the project. The only explicit description of the project is the series of acceptance tests which are passed as part of the incremental and iterative development and continuouos build. The <a href="http://economist.com">economist.com</a> process (thin slices continuously built), recently presented at some conference or other, I think is the best exemplification of what can really work. Well.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Then, the team with time (if it is not ridiculously and continously broken up just when it's getting good) can cultivate a productivity with their synergy, and estimates begin to make more and more sense.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Hope that helps towards what you were asking,</div><div><br></div><div>Victor Kane</div><div><a href="http://awebfactory.com.ar">http://awebfactory.com.ar</a><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 6:13 PM, John Saward <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:john@also.com.au">john@also.com.au</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;"><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>Victor,</div><div><br></div><div>Can you elaborate? Why are fixed rate budgets a waste of time for everyone?</div>
<div><br></div><div>(I agree with you and I try to explain this also, and have yet to find an explanation-formulation I am happy with; especially from the client's point-of-view - they all want to know in advance how much their project will cost them, and that is a reasonable expectation, I guess)</div>
<div><br></div><div>Thanks</div><div><br></div><div>John</div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On 12/11/2010, at 7:45 AM, Victor Kane wrote:</div><br><blockquote type="cite">Both Joel and Christopher were dialoging and what's more, they were right. And what's more, they were helpful, on both sides. Went from 12 to 18 in ten minutes. And with the acknowledgement that custom dev would be more, and with the acknowledgement that it depends also on the real requirements (word conversion? yes? no?).<div>
<br></div><div>Now that's a consultants forum!</div><div><br></div><div>I've been tiredly explaining to people all week why fixed rate "budgets" are a waste of time for everyone, this really brought it home.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Victor Kane</div><div><a href="http://awebfactory.com.ar" target="_blank">http://awebfactory.com.ar</a></div></blockquote></div></div><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>
<br></blockquote></div><br></div>