[sciboy]

I still find it weird that people charge an hourly rate. My company has been doing fixed price projects, with changing scope, guaranteed bug fixes & payment on delivery for the last eight years. We regularly beat out the "big boys" and have never lost money on a project, even though some have gone on longer than we planned.

I don't see the value for a customer in an hourly rate. If I am charging you by the hour, I have an incentive to be slow. If I am charging fixed price, I want to be fast, and if we are "liable" for bugs, we have an incentive for bug free code.

I see it as putting our money where our mouth is. I'm confident that even if your scope changes we will still deliver for this fixed price. Why is this not the norm?

[gthank]

Since we're swapping anecdotes: I'd guesstimate 75% of the fixed-bid projects I worked on back when I worked for a consulting shop barely broke even or actively lost money. Estimating the project well enough to make a profitable bid is hard if, like many shops, you work in whatever domain happens to be sending customers your way.