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Software development isn't (universally) a painting type task. In painting a room, the painter can estimate (by measuring) the amount of paint needed, they know

Software development isn't (universally) a painting type task. In painting a room, the painter can estimate (by measuring) the amount of paint needed, they know from experience the time to acquire a particular color (if it needs to be mixed or can be bought readymade) in a particular volume, they know how long it takes to paint (they've done it many times before), how long to dry, and how many coats are needed for the type of surface. Now, ask them to paint a mural instead. The estimates will change, they'll probably give you a broader range instead of being able to estimate almost down to the minute (and being off by no more than an hour or two) like someone just painting walls (with a known environment, surface type, and paint material). Does the mural need to be designed? Are the desired qualities of the mural well-specified or will there be a series of back and forths? Maybe a set of prototypes (sketches) so that you can refine your requirements. At that point, the estimate for the total task (design and paint a mural, or design and develop a software application) becomes far less clear. There are certainly programming tasks which are closer to the paint-a-wall task which are much easier to estimate reliably, but they're far from the only thing people in this field work on.

kvmet 3y ago
This kind of thing destroys freelance devs who don't have context. Customer: "Hi we need this small change." Dev: "No problem! Here's a quote for 4 hours" Ignoring that 4 hours is probably less than the effort to consult, estimate, generate and process contracts, bill, do taxes... Then the customer comes back and asks for a revision which will at least require a Change-Order or a separate PO. To some extent the overhead should be covered under labor burden but the reality is that in a sole proprietorship YOU are also the person doing the labor that is within the definition of "labor burden". It adds up extremely fast. A million dollars would be a windfall if it landed in my checking account. On a development project with hardware and more than one dev it might as well be dust in the wind.

kvmet 3y ago

This kind of thing destroys freelance devs who don't have context. Customer: "Hi we need this small change." Dev: "No problem! Here's a quote for 4 hours" Ignoring that 4 hours is probably less than the effort to consult, estimate, generate and process contracts, bill, do taxes... Then the customer comes back and asks for a revision which will at least require a Change-Order or a separate PO. To some extent the overhead should be covered under labor burden but the reality is that in a sole proprietorship YOU are also the person doing the labor that is within the definition of "labor burden". It adds up extremely fast. A million dollars would be a windfall if it landed in my checking account. On a development project with hardware and more than one dev it might as well be dust in the wind.