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Q. Will you deliver it on time?
A. Yes, as long it wasn’t a ‘Mission Impossible’ from the outset.
This is almost always a bone of contention. Clearly, having made a commitment to a client, you need to deliver the goods when they expect them. However, there are several important things that need to fall into place to ensure success with this. Be very sure that you have accurately scoped the amount of work to be done. Be sure also, that you do not allow the client to keep changing the concept or design during the development process. It is a good idea to develop the outline and concept early on and get approval for that. From then on, you should make it clear that any further changes that the client requests must also be reflected in extensions to the deadline. People are sometimes afraid to be direct on this matter because they feel the client may pass them over for someone else on a subsequent project. You can be sure, that if you are not strict on these aspects, you run a severe risk of not meeting the deadline. What is worse? Warning the client that by continually requesting modifications, they are risking overruns or simply allowing the client to steer your project off the rails. It is difficult enough to make sure that the job is done within the agreed amount of time since the deadline was most likely set by a salesman with little or no recourse to the technical people for advice.
One way to build contingency time into the project is to estimate the resourcing as if you did not have the full time facility of the staff you have available. Most likely you don’t anyway. They will be pulled from one project to another. If you are working on your own, you can estimate based on 8 hour days but be able to work 12 our days to deliver on time if necessary. Again you need to be careful otherwise you could end up working 12-hour days and charging for 8-hour days.
Check out the whole list of Cliff's pithy tips for Web developers.
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