We’re suckers for romantic comedies here at The Gnar.
- When Harry Met Sally…
- 10 Things I Hate About You
- 50 First Dates
We’re also suckers for Time & Materials projects, and we always try to explain to potential clients how it makes for a better experience all around.
But for both, there’s always that moment when one of our co-founders, Mike, puts down his keyboard (or popcorn) and yells at the screen, “just tell him how you feel!”
All the unrequited love and poor communication really gets to him.
And while we feel for Mike, he should be used to it. Nobody ever says what they really mean, right?
They say they’re happily single, but what they really mean is that they haven’t found the right person yet.
They say they want to get out of this small town and move to the big city, but what they really mean is that they’re afraid they’ll never reach their full potential.
They say they can’t decide between fixed bid and Time & Materials, but what they really mean is that they want predictability and accountability.
All this reading between the lines is tough.
Just like the movies, our (client) relationships rely on good communication, and the discussion around fixed bid and T&M comes up frequently.
As a reminder, in fixed bid engagements the price and timeline for a project is determined upfront. Both parties know how much and how long it’s going to take but are risking that the project wasn’t underscoped or overscoped. In Time & Materials engagements, you should still get a price and timeline for the project (if you don’t that’s a red flag), but it’s not set in stone. As the work progresses, both teams work collaboratively to make decisions about what’s best for the product and decide where and how they want the budget to be spent or changed.
So while we think Time & Materials makes for the better end product, that also means approach and philosophy are important to consider when courting potential software development partners.
Why is Time & Materials better?
- There is accountability - With a T&M engagement you do pay for the work that you get. There are no vague line items in your SOW or “blended costs” that show up on your invoices. You know exactly how much developers are working and you pay for that work.
- It improves flexibility - Building software isn’t always a linear process and priorities can shift. Fixed bid engagements rely on a predetermined project plan that doesn’t take into account the bumps along the way. T&M gives some leeway for those shifts, while fixed bid isn’t as forgiving (“change order” isn’t a term you want to see).
- Collaboration is key - Whether you’re technical or not, you want to know how your project is going and understand the decisions the development team is making. With a fixed bid model, that team is incentivized to get the work done within the fixed scope. They typically go off on their own and build something, then come back and show you what they’ve got, hoping it’s right. With a T&M model, the teams are working in lockstep, communicating progress and challenges so decisions can be made together.
But just because T&M has all those great qualities, doesn’t mean you can’t be taken advantage of.
Here’s a list of “must-haves” for your future partner:
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- Predictability - With T&M, you do get what you pay for. But that doesn’t mean you should be shocked when the bill shows up. In fact, good partners should scope the work like a fixed bid project and give you an estimated timeline and budget. They just know it’s in your best interest not to take things too fast and dive right into a set budget right away. Rarely does a project end up exactly as it was originally scoped.
- Fully Dedicated Team - Are you exclusive? You don’t want your developers seeing other people. In fact, you should make sure you’re working with a fully-dedicated team. With a T&M project you don’t want to be paying for transition time and you don’t want this project dragging on as developers are trying to balance different client needs.
- Access to All Project Management Tools - Does your partner get nervous when you ask to look through their software? They shouldn’t. In fact, they should be happy to use whatever PM software you’re used to and give you full access. We typically use Jira, but whatever we’re using we make sure our clients have full access and are even involved in approval processes through the tool.
- Do they back it up? - T&M costs less and leads to a better product when done right. But what if it goes wrong? Are you automatically on the hook for lots of extra work? If development teams are dragging their feet, do you pay for their slow work? Ask those questions up front and make sure they have policies in place to do the project the right way. At The Gnar, we’re so confident in our ability to deliver high-quality software that we’ll repair any nonconformance with the spec in your released code for free within 12 months of acceptance. We also don’t believe in wasting your time or money. We like to work quickly - so quickly, in fact, that we’ll have production ready code in the first week.
So don’t settle. That perfect software development partner is out there and you shouldn’t have to sacrifice predictability or accountability for a great product.
And, if we might be so bold, feel free to drop us a line. We’re not a codebase, but we’d love to see if something develops.
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