INTRODUCTION
I was (and still am) discussing about the pitfalls that we may encounter during Sharepoint engagement. This is a series. The previous article can be found here Part 1.
I also realise that a lot of the times people tend to quote for the whole project so that the final full cost can be identified. This is not a bad practice except the number at the end can be very huge and scary.
Clients are clients. They will always say, “Just give us the final number mate. We understand that this is only a quote and may change depending on the requirements but just give us the final number so that we can prepare the budget for it.”. Then when we give back to them with $200K worth of development, I’m pretty sure that they’ll be scared off.
When this happens, PM/BDM/whoever deals with the client will start to cut things off (ie. time required to achieve a particular functionality)Â off just for the sake of winning the tender.
I’ve ever had a situation where we (the developers) quoted 1000 hours and it’s been cut-off to 300 hours. In the end, we ended up taking 1000 hrs anyway to finish off the task.
HOW TO DEAL WITH THE SITUATION
To deal with this particular scenario, always scope EVERYTHING (ie. every single piece of functionality) then break them down into phases. Prioritise the functionalities into the ones that need to be built first (ie. the must-haves) then to the least required.
Especially when writing quotes, client will appreciate this so much. They can start seeing what part of the requirements that take much time to develop. Trust me, a lot of the times they end-up de-prioritizing what’s been an important priority in the first place.
And by approaching it this way, client at least can start using the system sooner. They can at least play around with it just to find that the system is very helpful and making their work more efficient. Once they’ve been more familiar with it, they’ll start ask for more functionalities (hence more work for the server provider, hence more money and income).
Hope this helps,
Tommy
