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Ask HN: How to deal with clients that want a signed agreement on a deadline

2 points by fimdomeio ↗ HN
When dealing with client work what's the best way to deal with a client that want's a signed agreement on a deadline?

My best guess is to explain to the client why software projects miss the deadlines so often, explaining that if we follow this way we cannot have reviews on the project requirements as the project evolves and that I'll have to significantly raise the estimate so I can throw money at any unexpected/unantecipated difficulty.

2 comments

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lilbro1062000
well as a professional from the book (Clean coder) Robert C Martin. You should know how long it will take you to implement features. What you say is what they are going to agree on. if that's the case, don't make any unnecessary gambles. only work on and with things/components/libraries you know and have worked on before. When it comes to scope creep it changes the project and if anything changes the project, any new deadlines must be agreed on/communicated before any changes are implemented. Be confident in what you can and cannot do. And always be professional about everything you sign. You can still have incremental reviews on how the project is proceeding and if they want to change or find out what they asked for is not what they want anymore just communicate the time it will take to implement the change and test it out.
chrisbennet
Either ditch the client or double or triple your rate (at least).

In addition to paying for a work product, clients will also pay to reduce risk. (The insurance industry is based on this fact.) When you agree to a fixed rate for a project, you are assuming risk. If you can't avoid assuming all the risk for a project, make sure you are being compensated for it.

In my experience, I never have a good estimate of how long a project with take - the type of projects I take on are never the same and involve a lot of inventing stuff as I go along.