Why
- A cost-efficient way to provide quotes, which minimizes risk and friction
- Avoid unpleasant situations for everyone when there are cost overruns.
The challenge
Estimating how much time it takes to do something the first time is very hard. See the essay at Estimates
What the client wants
- A fair price
- Quick answers
- A predictable pricing and timeline
- A document to justify a budget request
- Maximize impact of their budget
What EvoluData wants
- To make client happy
- To reduce risk of cost overruns
- A very real risk is that what is first estimated at 15 hours can take 50 or more.
- Reduce time invested to prepare quotes
A "quick quote" with a "success or you don't pay" guarantee.
We provide to the client some quick quotes for all the tasks, which provides a global cost. For some tasks, it will take a bit more time. For others, it will take a bit less. But it will average out.
For a specific task: If, after a number of hours, we realize that it's way more complicated, and we won't be able to suceed, we inform the client. The hours are not charged and the task is cancelled.
- Benefit for client: No cost on that task
- Benefit for EvoluData: There is a limit to the liability/responsibility to succeed in the task. Perhaps we have to write off 15 hours of work, but not 35 (ex.: if we end up working 50 and getting paid 15)
There is a special case: A number of hours "best effort". This is typical for a challenge with external dependencies or to which the result is unclear. Ex.: reduce spam issues or fix a WYSIWYG issue. In this case, we work to get the best result in the alloted budget.