Talk about Money

Money is a complicated topic in software development, where it can be very difficult to estimate the expense of anything. This is doubly true for clients who don't often build software and therefore have little experience with the difficulties involved.

In a Perfect World

The idealized model for contracting software development goes something like this:

  • Develop idea
  • Make a best guess at budget
  • Solicit bids
  • Receive bids
  • Select winning (frequently: lowest) bid

Unfortunately, the reality is pretty different. We've seen one main variant of come about numerous times that looks like this:

  • Develop idea
  • Make a best guess at budget
  • Solicit bids
  • Receive bids
  • Bulge out eyes at bids, all of which are too high

This happens when the potential contractors didn't have enough information to make an informed bid. Maybe that's because the description has an expansive feature list that leads contractors to assume that the budget is present to build everything described. Maybe that's because the description was somewhat vague and the contractor sketched out every corner of a possible application. In either case, as we've frequently found—potential contractors end up pitching project budgets that far exceed the client's expectations, causing no end of unhappiness.

At 2wav, we prefer a different approach.

Talk About Money

When we meet with potential clients, one of the first things we do is talk about money and budgets. We like to be clear about what we charge, and about what the customer is willing to spend. This can be uncomfortable, but it's very important.

It's Hard

There are a lot of reasons that people don't like talking about money. In the case of customers searching for a contractor, it's usually because they don't want to be taken advantage of—soaked for 100% of their budget for work that doesn't require it. It's easy for a client to feel like they're revealing too much of their hand.

This is an understandable concern, but it doesn't reflect the realities of software development, and especially not of working with 2wav. We want to build the best software we can—software that meets the client's needs. Sometimes that means using up every bit of budget to build the exact thing that we've seen proposed. More often, however, we work to scale projects down by identifying the core functions and building those.

Get it Built

Knowing a client's budget provides a great framework for a project. We can take that budget and the goals that we learn from the client to build a solid plan—one that squeezes every bit of value into the project as we can.