There are all sorts of marketing strategies to pull you in to buy a product: Buy one get one free! Free consultation! First 30 days free! In the software development world, this often looks like a free analysis of your project and maybe some help organizing your project. Listing out the individual tasks, etc. Perhaps you need some consultation on the development process itself since not many people understand that. Or, we find folks often want lengthy, detailed replies to an RFP (Request for Proposal). We get it. Corporations and governments often address uncertainty by throwing more paperwork at it. You have to be sure. I imagine the mental thought process goes something like this: If we document the things, ALL THE THINGS, then, THEN, we will be certain about the project.
This is painful. It is unhelpful. And worse, it is entirely wrong tactic to solve your underlying problems: Uncertainty in how software development works. Uncertainty in how much it costs. Uncertainty in what is harder (i.e., more expensive) than other parts.
So how do you resolve uncertainty?
Find a partner you trust, and get started.
No really. It’s that easy. This is going to sound flippant, but it is really easy to get started on your project: Step 1) Introduce yourself and your project to us. Step 2) Get the paperwork completed so any work we do for you is owned by you. Step 3) Start the project.
But the budget!
What you do not know yet, is that we do nearly all of our projects as time and material engagements. What does that mean? It simply means that when you ask us to do work, we track the time it takes us to complete it, and invoice you the time. We break down our work into 15-minute increments. And the materials bit? If we buy a special plugin or software widget to enable us to spend less time building something for you, we will ask that you pay for the widget. Don’t worry, we won’t buy it till you approve the expense. There will not be any unexpected costs here.
So where does this leave you? In complete and total control of your project. How great is that? We get started. And if it isn’t working out, or it is more complicated than originally thought, well then you get to decide what to do next. Keep working? Great! Stop and think about it for a while? No problem. Unhappy with the work we’ve done? Sorry to hear that, that was our mistake. But the good thing for you is that you have a copy of all of the wireframes, code, design files, backlog of tasks …. You own everything we created. You can take it anywhere you like and continue right where we left off.
What are you waiting for?
You have an awesome idea. Let’s start with a small budget — just enough for you to learn a little bit more about what you want to build from the professionals. And if that works out, maybe we go a bit farther.
We can’t wait to discover where your great idea leads you (and us!). Let’s make it happen.