[rcvassallo]

Great points, re: discrepancies. In a way, I'm seeing both sides of the coin with a client for whom I designed and developed custom business software. Initial monthly budget gave me the flexibility to be a rockstar that actually put in quality tests and refactored for long-term maintainability.

The client is happily using the software and has many more ideas to implement, some of which I supplied! The system helped them explosively grow their business but over time has become part of the daily business routine which inevitably means they want to reduce costs.

Naturally, this means we are building fewer features each month but the cost focus pressures me to sacrifice some refactoring, testing, and UX quality which makes me feel more like the grunt that maintains it. On the plus side, my effective hourly rate has improved since I negotiated a fixed monthly fee into our contract and I've had time to find a couple more clients :)