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I agree with you that $50 is stupidly low. I also agree with you that the estimates are laughable for making an actual copy of Instagram. BUTTTTTTT. They are v

I agree with you that $50 is stupidly low. I also agree with you that the estimates are laughable for making an actual copy of Instagram. BUTTTTTTT. They are very clear in the article about calling it an MVP of something like Instagram. It's the difference between making the Twitter-like app in a tutorial and making Twitter. This is a pretty good example of someone making an estimate for an MVP level contract app. Obviously it's what they do for a living so that's not surprising. I think it's a good reference for anyone else trying to spec something. If you aren't at this level of detail, you don't have enough detail. The big problem with a spec like this is that the app you will get is not going to be anywhere near the level of quality of an app like Instagram. You have to set customer expectations or you will spend a huge amount of time litigating whether or not the app is 'done'.

eunoia 10y ago
> The big problem with a spec like this is that the app you will get is not going to be anywhere near the level of quality of an app like Instagram. You have to set customer expectations or you will spend a huge amount of time litigating whether or not the app is 'done'. This. In my experience of building apps under contract, the concept of the MVP is not very well understood outside of our tech industry echo chamber. We regularly have clients who know the term and "want an MVP" but when it comes down to release act completely contrarily (mostly trying to delay releases for additional features, more polish, etc). Client education and carefully setting expectations are key in this line of work. This estimate also complete ignores billable time for project management and testing. Edit: And design, if you want your app to look even remotely different from Instagram. And devops to stand it up in a scalable way. And maintenance / service agreements to keep the thing running...

eunoia 10y ago

> The big problem with a spec like this is that the app you will get is not going to be anywhere near the level of quality of an app like Instagram. You have to set customer expectations or you will spend a huge amount of time litigating whether or not the app is 'done'. This. In my experience of building apps under contract, the concept of the MVP is not very well understood outside of our tech industry echo chamber. We regularly have clients who know the term and "want an MVP" but when it comes down to release act completely contrarily (mostly trying to delay releases for additional features, more polish, etc). Client education and carefully setting expectations are key in this line of work. This estimate also complete ignores billable time for project management and testing. Edit: And design, if you want your app to look even remotely different from Instagram. And devops to stand it up in a scalable way. And maintenance / service agreements to keep the thing running...