be a professional
i’ve unfortunately been part of too many projects doing consulting or designing – where the development company has over-promised and under-delivered their obligations to a client for online software. mostly, i just don’t get it – because these companies are established, have had other clients before, and charge a lot of money for their services.
i think it comes down to communication (doesn’t everything?) and education. 99% of the time, if client comes up with an idea that involves building software – they don’t know how to build software, since if that was their skillset, they’d do it themselves. so they easily spec out what they want the software to do, but they don’t know how software in general works or how it should work, or what’s involved in making it work. to me, that feels like the job of the programming company to educate them through their pricing and through their timeline, and then, explanation of both. certain things should just always in every situation be included in pricing and time scope – and then the client should be made aware the reason why they have be in there (which actually makes sense when you learn).
for example, a client might not understand contingency design – and that every feature or function needs to be designed to work correctly if it’s used right, and also designed to work correctly if it’s used wrong (and spit out the necessary errors and guides to make it right). clients also might not understand that if they (or another non-tech) has to administer this software (i.e. create new clients, give them access to things, interact via the software with them) – then each feature needs to built to work and to be used at an administration level as well – which can sometimes mean double the work. these are just two examples of things i’ve found that most clients don’t think about, but development companies obviously know about, then hum and haw when they’ve got to build them.
i don’t think it’s fair for development companies to assume a client understands issues like those, so when scoping a project, it seems like it should be their job to tell the client what’s involved in developing software.
i know i do that when i’m explaining even how simple websites with a CMS work to clients. i want to make sure they know what they’re getting into, what’s involved, and sometimes, why things might cost more than a client thinks they should. that way everyone is on the same page going into a project and knows what the outcome will be.
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there should be a white paper on “what you need to know when paying to have your idea turned into a web application”. and then, a way to distribute it to everyone who’s not in the tech realm, but thinking of paying for something to built.