Will Bridges

So, many times in the past I have made mistakes about how to quote projects and learned quickly that I need to walk on a very wide line. That means I need to give myself plenty of room to fail on a quote. The problem lies in the fact that you really can’t quote something that has never been done. I have over 10 years experience and so it’s not that I don’t have the experience to give an accurate quote. We are on target much of the time but the times we aren’t on target have really hurt us in the past.

So, my partner suggested we only guarantee a sprint and quote projects in a certain amount of week sprints like a 4 week sprint or something like that. That’s something we have been forcing ourselves to do and also turning down work that doesn’t allow us to be agile in sprints like this. We’d rather not deal with the possibility of a big mess. It’s time software developers set standards and put their foot down and say “Look, we can’t be 100% sure that we will be on target with our estimate because we can’t assume we know everything about the project at it’s onset.” This is where the business people cry because you don’t know a budget. So, best to set a budget and then allow for a 20% bend so you have a target. Without a target your budget will turn in to a nightmare. If you have enough experience you should be able to pick out certain peices of a project which you know how long will take. You should mark the parts of a project you don’t have much experience with as unknown or risky.

At the end of a quote you should then know around about how much the whole project will take given the information you have. But you really should only guarantee accuracy and the quote for the first sprint and re-quote at the end of the sprint for the next sprint. Each sprint should be quoted as if it were it’s own project. This may be hard for some clients to accept but you have to make them understand that it’s not only for your protection but for their protection too. The only time I would say this is not necessary is for a very short project that doesn’t take that long. Like a 4-6 week project doesn’t really need to be broken up in to sprints.

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Sometimes I dream of leaving this country. My friend and I have talked about it at length in the past few days. I really would like to but I’m hesitant for all kinds of reasons. Either I haven’t saved up enough money, I know it would be difficult to get as good internet bandwidth and I have a young child and girlfriend that have to agree with my decision on where and when to move.

I’m not to the point where I’m so displeased with the country I want to leave but I’m close. My primary reason is that I love to explore by nature and I want my son to grow up with more of a world view. I know I’ve discussed this on my blog in the past. I just want to mix things up a bit. I love Nashville but I get tired of the same things all the time and I’ve never lived in a place in my adult life for more than a couple years. I’m coming up on year 3 in Nashville on October 10th. I have a wonderful business and decent local respect as well as a few friends. But, not as many friends as I would like. Many claimed to be my friend or good acquaintances but then never call me or email. This is a phenomenon I have found regularly in the south. Everybody likes to stay in their own little click and not bring in new people.

It makes me miss the the west coast at the very least, where I had very close friends very quickly and not only that, they made me feel like family. It also makes my mind wander for satisfy my sense of adventure and possibly leave the country. I’m not sure that the west coast will satisfy that need for adventure as I’ve lived there before. But I’m moving somewhere before next summer. No more than 3 1/2 years in Nashville. I love you Nashville but we have to part ways because you are making me tired and it’s lonely not feeling like part of the city because I didn’t grow up here.

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