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Ask HN: Dealing with client squeezing in extra scopes?
So I'm dealing with a client who is now adding more things to do than was budgeted for under the original document. There's so many hidden "but this should work like this which I didn't mention in the original scope", that I cannot actually continue working on this job. I told them X amount of budgeted hours was spent on implementing the extra stuff on top of the original scope. I'm going to have to charge another X hours for me to complete.
Did I do the right thing? I got a little bit angry but this seems to be the case when you work with people who seem to treat software like hiring sweatshop labor workers.
- lutusp 13y agoJust explain that you and he have a contract, your price was based on what was agreed in the contract, and you should be allowed to fulfill the original, mutually agreed contract. Then, if the customer wants more, negotiate a new contract. If you don't do this, you risk moving into the verbal contract domain, and, as Sam Goldwyn famously said, verbal contracts aren't worth the paper they're written on.
- relaunched 13y agoYou are a professional, watch this video, and act like one. Mike Monteiro - fuck you, pay me http://vimeo.com/22053820 http://vimeo.com/22053820
- pjungwir 13y agoI know lots of engineers who, when the customer asks for more, get angry. I do it myself! But I try to treat it as an opportunity. Smile and say, "I'd be happy to add these items to the project. It will cost an additional $x and y days." It's especially hard when it's a flood of tiny changes, so in that case you might have to group a bunch together to help demonstrate that it's a significant addition to the original scope. Just try to have a positive attitude about it, that of course you can do what the client wants, and you're happy for the extra business!
- notastartup 13y agoyes I did exactly that. I felt angry but didn't express it in any way, these were tiny changes and lots of them, so I said it flatly, these will take time and will cost X hours. If he comes back saying "bet I could do this faster", I would tell them good luck. If he insists I do it for free, I would tell them it would force me to cut corners and would hurt me and the project in the long run.
- gus_massa 13y agoNot sure that this is the same case, but the articles is interesting and in the comments there are some discussion about feature creep: “How to charge clients: flat fee vs. hourly rate?” https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909101 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2909101
- brudgers 13y agoChanges in scope are normal in any project based business, and the agreements between all parties should reflect that reality. Getting mad wasn't the right thing. Sending an invoice after the fact is kind of the right thing. The right thing is to send a proposal for the additional work when additional work is requested and to lay out a formal process for changing the scope in your initial contract. .
- logn 13y agoI go with flat-priced projects as much as possible. I break the project into milestones, each one priced and paid separately. If there's extra scope added but not a ton, I don't mind because I've already priced this in. If things get excessive, I can point to the milestone and show that we didn't plan for it.
- fsk 13y agoThat's the risk of fixed-price contracts. Some clients will withhold final payment until you do lots of extra things. Following the sunk cost fallacy, having put a certain amount of time into the project, you'll do more so you can get paid. In most cases, the client knows it's impractical for you to sue them. You either have to do the extra work for free, or write off the time you already spent as a loss. Another risk I noticed with fixed-price contracts is that the client almost always doesn't have a proper spec. If I help them write a proper spec, then they can post it on the freelance sites and hire someone cheaper to implement it. If you start a fixed-price contract without a proper spec, you wind up with the problem you're having. Now, I just flat-out refuse fixed-price contracts.