Vim & Vision
[ #99 ] Not Being Involved in Estimates == Insanity Permalink
When you go to accept a contract and the client has already estimated the time that the feature addition will take, and expects you to sign off on it, do not sign.
It is very important that you are involved in the estimation of the project. You need to sit down with the client for a day and break the features down into small, manageable chunks. Only then can you provide an estimate - being careful to stress it is an estimate only.
Why? Because clients do not know how impenetrable their code is. They don't understand that their proprietary storage engine will set you back three weeks trying to learn it. They don't understand that their codebase doesn't contain enough documentation to set up their product in your environment. They don't understand that their spec sheets do not contain information that is easily interpreted by a programmer with no domain knowledge of their business.
I have unfortunately made this mistake once before and I will never make it again. Realise that it could be difficult to recognise this issue if you are under financial pressure and want to sign something quickly, but it is so important to avoid getting involved with clients in this way. Explain to them the correct way of doing things and when you're sorted out with proper estimates and spec sheets only then should you sign the contract.
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