On Sun, Feb 6, 2011 at 1:31 PM, Michael Grant <[email protected]> wrote: >> That sounds suspiciously like Big Design Up Front which is a practice > I think you've jumped to some conclusions. I never said anything about fixed > costs.
BDUF != fixed cost. Sorry if you incorrectly inferred that I was equating them. I generally offer a fixed range on the initial requirements phase and once that's complete I generally offer a (wider) fixed range on the design phase - because those are usually easy to estimate. Then I switch to T&M for phased implementation since I encourage clients to change their mind during implementation. The iterations provide transparency, showing how many features they get for a given dollar spend, based on estimated complexity. > Ultimately your mileage may vary. I'm simply giving my advice based on my > experience. I'm not trying to get anyone to drink any kool-aid. Likewise. Your approach clearly works for you. My approach works for me. Some clients won't accept anything other than a completely fixed bid - and I just move on to other clients who are comfortable with an iterative approach. I've had some clients change their mind repeatedly on a feature, often weeks apart, going back and forth between two completely different implementations. I don't discourage that as it allows them to explore what works best for their business - and they can't know that until they've tried both approaches. One thing that I find really helps transparency is using a hosted source code repository with integrated ticket system. That way it's easy to generate reports showing the velocity of the project as well as reports showing how much the client is adding to the backlog. The latter acts like your Scope Change Requests but allows the client much more freedom to prioritize as well as allowing me to collaborate more easily, drilling into tickets and breaking them up into smaller child tickets if appropriate - since everything stays on the table until it becomes part of an iteration. -- Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN Railo Technologies, Inc. -- http://getrailo.com/ An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ "If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." -- Margaret Atwood ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/message.cfm/messageid:341917 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-talk/unsubscribe.cfm
