August 18, 2010
When it Comes to Pricing, Simpler is Usually Better
Every new outsourcing contract discussion must cover pricing. It’s always the subject that people dance around and are often reluctant to talk about. There are so many ways to price services. Most high-end professionals work for an hourly rate. Some work on a retainer or monthly for a guaranteed number of hours. Some work on…
July 30, 2010
Between Chaos and Suffocation: Communication in Project Teams
Picture these situations: Three engineers from different groups talking at lunch about a bug that one of them spent most of the night fixing. Nothing wrong with that, right? Just some colleagues talking informally about their work. A Product Manager meets with the User Interface Design Group to decide about priorities for the next release….
June 8, 2010
Business Leads Can Take the Funniest Routes
I had a funny thing happen with a new business lead the other day. We’ve been working with a number of great people at a big name design firm for many years. We’re good friends with these people, and each of us is always looking for ways to either send business to the other or…
May 9, 2010
What If the Rules for Team Communication Aren’t Enough?
Effective software development teams have defined communication paths that help guide how projects are run. One important path governs what to do when a customer finds a defect in the software. The bug gets reported, logged, prioritized. The priority of the bug determines when it will be evaluated and fixed. But what about when the…
April 2, 2010
Another Way to Handle the Fixed Bid Dilemma
In the beginning of each Project there is The Contract. The terms of that contract will have consequences, some anticipated, others unanticipated, for the project’s cost, for the project’s timelines, and, too often, for design decisions. Many companies enforce a fixed-bid contract when engaging with outsourced software design and development. But traditional fixed bid contracts…
