[thelist] Fulltime to freelance

[sbeam]

On Tuesday 25 November 2008 16:14, Joel D Canfield wrote:
> since you admitted the snark, I'll ignore it ;)
>
> what I do is know what the spec is, keep it clearly in front of the
> client and myself, and treat creep on a case by case basis. (I rarely
> work by the hour; I hate keeping track.)
>
> sometimes, a client says "It's gonna do this, right?" and I say, "No,
> not in the contract, that's a separate tool, see here and here?" and
> then we discuss the extra. sometimes the client asks and I realize,
> yeah, they had every right to expect that, but I didn't think of it. my
> mistake, I pay. sometimes the client asks, and I realize that either
> it's small enough to just do because it's no big deal, or the client has
> made me want to help them for more intangible reasons.
>
> you write specs at the beginning of the project, when you know the least
> about how it's going to go. how could you *not* expect to learn more as
> you proceed? as you learn more, aren't you going to adjust occasionally?
>
> it's about working for a human being client rather than working for a
> contract or business model.

well that's a relief! It turns out we work almost the same way :)

and yeah you bet if conditions change or ideas are spawned then I will 
communicate and adjust and bend with the wind, for the same reasons. Scope 
changes are good, as long as the client agrees with it.

Keep in mind this was once about freelancing - not software development. I can 
see how my original post about estimating sounded like I was some dogmatic 
authoritarian micro-manager. Nothing could be further from the truth (being 
opinionated is OK though right?) You are making me a straw man - I am not 
talking about writing 200 pages of deadweight requirements up front that the 
dev team slaves away to meet, just an estimate/proposal/spec 
whateveryoucallit that a non-technical client can read and reference to see 
what they are paying for, and so we know when to stop being agile and send 
the invoice. 

Sam