Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a consultant/freelancer?

Re:Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a con... by monkeycantype on Saturday December 07, 2019 @06:21AM (#21729677)

I've made movies and software. I'm extrapolating from movie experience to imagine I know something about marketing and advertising.

I'd feel more comfortable presenting a fixed project quote for a creative project than a software project, because in the case of a creative project I can choose to dedicate a fixed amount of time, and have the result - to be judged subjectively - that I was able to produce in that time.

In the case of software, I would need to keep working until it objectively meets requirements. The quality of software I deliver doesn't degrade smoothly under time pressure, it falls off a cliff.

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Re:Ask HN: What mistakes did you make when starting as a con... by LoSboccacc on Saturday December 07, 2019 @05:39PM (#21733062)

an essential aspect of fixed hour contracts is that requirements need to be sorted from the most critical to the nice to have and the client needs to be prepared to drop the nice to have if the budget doesn't stretch to them

which is the whole point of the agile manifesto

which is why agile fails under most circumstances, as having fixed time, requirement and budget but under scrum and sprints is anything but agile.

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