Calculate software development cost?

[Bot-Factory 602]

Hello.

 

When you calculate a quote for a client, do you have an exact process to do that? I think most of the times clients will ask for a fixed quote?

Do you estimate just from experience, or do you have a special process for that?

 

Like:

+3h hours for HTML UI

+4h for multi threading

 

Just recently I was working on a bigger project. And the necessary time to finish it was 3x off from what I initially thought it would be.

With smaller projects I can predict the amount of work very well. But with the more complex stuff...

 

So I would love to hear about your experience.

 

Dan

 

 

[Steve 30]

Good question Dan -- this is something I always struggled with, even when I was strictly doing web development. I typically gave them an hourly price, and told them I believe it will take X amount of hours/days to complete, but I make sure they understand that building something custom from scratch makes it hard to predict.

[kev123 132]

I tend to have a small pile of clients now due to me trying to move away from this sector they know my prices and it makes quoting much easier.

I have fixed prices for certain additions mainly due to me having them pre written such as proxies etc. The charge for these is mainly for testing. Before pricing I will generally know all steps from A to B. If people ask for a custom UI design my first question is usually is it a commercial bot. I explain to them my update policy is single user under the price I have quoted but still offer them a price for commercial support.

 

I have done what you have done when quoting on several projects before I decided to work with a small portfolio of clients. I think the reason is 1. trying to stay competitive in a open market and sometimes not realising your underquoting. 2.Not fully mapping A to B and just assuming everything will be ok because you understand how to automate this type of site.

 

I try and stay as fair as possible with my prices because I like working with repeat customers and try to build a good relationship. The day they have to use someone else because your too busy is they day you loose them if you have been adding lots of hours on top of each job to cover any unplanned issues.

[Bot-Factory 602]

Awesome! Thanks a lot for the feedback so far.

 

Let's assume we can predict the amount of hours needed for a project.

10hours  = Development time assumption

+30% = Unpredictable Stuff

 

+$ = Commercial Bot??

+$ = Source Code

 

 

If they want to use it as a commercial bot, how much do you add to the regular price?

Do you always include source code? If not, how much do you charge if they want it?

 

Any other factors that you use in your calculation besides the pure development time?

 

 

Do you protect your software with some kind of licensing? So that they can't give it away or sell it?

For public projects of course. But what about individual products? 

 

I have a couple of individual projoects. But they are all about stuff that could be easily used by other people as well?

 

Dan

[kev123 132]

My customers never want source so couldn't answer that. I also never restrict if a customer can sell commercially i only let people know that its Support for them only. Generally costs its specific to what the client wants if they want commercial support.

 

Its always good to plan for the un expected but its a fine line with making sure you don't overprice. An example recent job is for a particular site that's always is difficult and full of work arounds I priced to this. What the customer wanted went easier than expected so he got his bot and a partial refund. Its reasons like that why he only comes to me for his bots, he knows I price as fair as possible.

[blumi40 222]

Depence on "what kind of job"

 

if it is a big job its near normal to give the source away too.

calculation for big jobs most 40-50% of the realtime i need.

so a job with 50hours realwork i charge as 20-25 hour job.

 

This works fine for me but it depence also on things like 

update support and so on...

 

The Kind of Job means also...
Is this script useable for another bots or is this bot useable for sell to the masses  and so on

[bestmacros 60]

I have minimum price to start development - under this price I don't even bother to start the project this price is for creating medium complexy bot with proxy/multitasking support for regular functionality (scraping/posting/liking and so on).

I never give source code for free, only for additional price.

If I see that the project is more advanced I rise the price according to the additional time I think I need (according to my per hour rate)

[the_way 52]

create a cookie cutter set of examples that show how many lines, how many tables how many functions, and keep track of this, and compare them as you do each new project.

[Edward_2 85]

Considering that you get to keep the source code for the work that you are paid for... got to consider that as a bonus...