Re[2]: Price Range for User Manual

[Virginia Day <Virginia_Day -at- DATACARD -dot- COM>]

     Basically, I agree that fixed-price work is a bad idea.

     I used to work for a contract house writing, estimating, and managing
     pubs projects.  Customers who insisted were offered "time and
     materials not to exceed" contracts if conditions were right.  The key
     to success with these projects was stating clear assumptions, getting
     customer agreement (signatures), and *identifying change in scope*.
     For each change in scope, a cost was provided, and customers could
     agree to the change (with a signature) or re-think their request.
     Identifying changes in scope takes a lot of experience.

     I would stay with "time and materials" projects for now and develop
     your own antennae for change of scope. Try keeping project logs--to
     record phone calls, e-mail, reviews, etc.  If you have an estimated
     cost for a project, and compare it to the actual cost at the end, you
     should be able to go back through the logs and identify the changes
     contributing the difference between estimated and actual.  After
     several of these projects, you will be able to identify cost impacts
     as customers are requesting changes.  Only then are you close to ready
     to address "Time and materials not to exceed" bids.  You also need to
     make it clear that you might need to turn back unfinished work if the
     customer does not agree to pay more or control changes--an unpleasant
     situation.  Having a separate terms and conditions page for your
     agreements can separate these business issues from the creative stuff.
     (Yes, you need an agreement for each project, and yes, technical
     writing is a creative profession.)

     Good luck!  Virginia


______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: Re: Price Range for User Manual
Author:  Elna Tymes <etymes -at- LTS -dot- COM> at Internet
Date:    7/24/97 11:31 AM


I'll respond here with what I sent Matt, since others appear to be
interested in the subject.

Matthew J Long wrote:

> I have heard that most people bid their freelance contracts by the job
> rather than by the hour.

It is NOT true.  Most new companies want you to bid it that way, but
most seasoned contractors know better than to bid it that way.  The
reason is that what it is that's to be documented rarely stays in the
same form very long, and you usually have to adjust the docs on the fly
while trying to meet a deadline.  You simply CANNOT predict up front
what changes the client is going to make and how that's going to affect
the docs, and anybody who says they can is asking for a dunking.

We rarely bid fixed price.  What we usually do is estimate how long it
will take us to complete a project, based on what we know, and make it
clear that we charge by the hour, and then quote them the per hour
rate(s). Based on that, we ESTIMATE that it will cost $XXX to do their
manual of approximately yyy pages.  However, we also tell them in the
contract that our estimate was based on zzz information and the
assumption that all parties will meet the deadlines in the schedule we
attach, and that if these assumptions change, our estimate will also
change.  Dr. Joann Hackos, in her book "Managing Your Documentation,"
gives some estimates on p. 190, including 5 hrs/finished page for a user
guide.  That's probably accurate.

Elna Tymes
Los Trancos Systems

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