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Subject:Billing by project From:JIMCHEVAL -at- AOL -dot- COM Date:Tue, 20 May 1997 12:49:35 -0400
In a message dated 97-05-20 12:13:53 EDT, techwr -at- arundel -dot- com (Peter Kent)
writes:
<< It would be interesting to see how many bill by the project and whether
that increases their income (I believe that overall it probably does). >>
I avoid this like the plague.
If I had done it on my first free-lance project, I would have ended up making
about 20% of what I ultimately did.
Even though you can build in revision rates that kick in after a first draft
and a first revision, my experience is that there are so many unknowns going
into a lot of projects that it's hard to come up with a realistic estimate
that also can also be justified by specifics (as opposed say to building in
25% overage for "unknowns".)
This said, it seems to work for Peter. I'd be interested in how this can be
handled in such a way that the total initial estimate seems acceptable to the
client, yet covers things like software not really being 100% ready to
document, 'minor' changes in project scope, unavailability of key people,
unanticipated layers of review, etc.
Also, why would it overall INCREASE income?
Jim C.
Los Angeles
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<A HREF="http://www.gis.net/~jimcheval">Chez Jim: Jim Chevallier's Home Page<
/A>
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