Path: csiph.com!x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net!usenet.pasdenom.info!gegeweb.org!de-l.enfer-du-nord.net!feeder1.enfer-du-nord.net!feeds.phibee-telecom.net!usenet.ukfsn.org!not-for-mail From: Martin Gregorie Newsgroups: comp.lang.java.programmer Subject: Re: General Consulting Advice Urgently Needed Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:44:17 +0000 (UTC) Organization: UK Free Software Network Lines: 32 Message-ID: References: NNTP-Posting-Host: 84.45.235.129 Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: localhost.localdomain 1322599457 14581 84.45.235.129 (29 Nov 2011 20:44:17 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@localhost.localdomain NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 29 Nov 2011 20:44:17 +0000 (UTC) User-Agent: Pan/0.135 (Tomorrow I'll Wake Up and Scald Myself with Tea; GIT 30dc37b master) Xref: x330-a1.tempe.blueboxinc.net comp.lang.java.programmer:10335 On Tue, 29 Nov 2011 05:24:36 +0000, Novice wrote: > So that's not an unreasonable thing to ask, although I shouldn't take it > for granted that he will go for it, right? He might want me to commit > within a day of getting the spec; if that happens and I'm not > comfortable yet, I think I'd be crazy (or foolhardy) to go ahead with > the job. > If the requirements are complete enough to quote on you might do so, though IME this needs a spec that has enough detail to let you count programs/processes, assign complexity scores to each so you can estimate development time for each. Don't forget that you also need to allow for unit, integration and system testing and also to estimate the schema complexity if you need to implement or understand a database schema. OTOH, if the requirements are unclear or don't contain enough detail to quote on, you might suggest a preliminary contract to rewrite the requirements into a form that contains enough fixed detail to allow a fixed price estimate to be made. Its either that or add contingency to allow cover the amount of woolliness in the requirements. In any case you'll need to add a clause to cover requirement changes and their impact on project cost and timescale: these can be considerable of the client doesn't know what he wants or, equally problematic, hasn't had any input from the people who'll use the end product: in general a manager doesn't know what his staff actually do - he only thinks he does. -- martin@ | Martin Gregorie gregorie. | Essex, UK org |