Programmers' Dirty Little Secret
This is the second in a series of articles on Needs Analysis.
In the first article I discussed what Needs Analysis is, and likened it to building a house, where the first step is making decisions about the design. The next step in Needs Analysis is analyzing the needs: how important is each need, who has the need, are there conflicting needs, etc.
When we've been hired to do a project, we always start with Needs Analysis. However, we don't normally get hired to do a project until the client knows what the project will cost. Here we have a classic chicken-and-egg situation: how can we work with you until you hire us, yet how can you hire us without knowing what your project will cost?
The fact is that Needs Analysis takes time and expertise, just like getting a diagnosis from a doctor or an opinion from an auto mechanic.
Our solution to the conundrum? We meet with you once for free to learn about your needs at a high level—I sometimes call it "creating the floor plan." We then supply you with an estimate for performing a full Needs Analysis. This estimate is a bit tricky in and of itself, since there are approximately a gazillion unknowns, by definition. However, years of experience have given us the ability to guesstimate the size of a Needs Analysis based on that first meeting. We also prioritize the analysis, so that we complete as much as possible within the budget.
Wait, you might be thinking, you ask people to pay you to create a proposal?
Indeed. The alternative is where the dirty little secret comes in: It's common practice for developers to put the cost of the Needs Analysis into "overhead" or "project management," or increase their rates to make up for the potential loss. Make no mistake: you are paying for Needs Analysis whether you know it or not! If you've ever gotten a bill from a developer and found it read like a cell phone bill (or paper napkin), this might be the reason why.
Sometimes clients hire us to perform their Needs Analysis, then give them a full-blown Request for Proposal (RFP) as the deliverable. With a detailed RFP you will then be able to compare proposals from multiple vendors, and know you are comparing them apples-to-apples, because they all have a clear understanding of the requirements. As a matter of fact, we did just such a Needs Analysis for a client months ago, then turned around and gave them a detailed proposal for the job itself, as did other vendors. We learned just yesterday that they chose us! Another benefit of the Needs Analysis phase is that it gave them an opportunity to know what it would be like to work with us. My contact told me that they were pushing for us when talking to the decision-makers because they knew they could work well with us, and enjoy it as well. While we would love to help you with your project, we get great satisfaction knowing at the very least we can help you hire a developer at a fair price!
At Pushing7, we don't like dirty little secrets. Instead, we quote you a fair hourly rate (ridiculously reasonable, actually), and tell you exactly what you're paying for, starting with a proposal that breaks the project into detail. We track our time to the minute for every phase of every project, and can give you the detail of cost if you like.
We believe that we should be paid for time we spend working on your project—nothing more, nothing less. If we complete your project at 75% of the cost we proposed, you only pay us 75% of what we proposed.
When working with any developer, be sure to ask them how they charge for their Needs Analysis! Drop me a note and let me know if they squirm.
Stay tuned—in the next article in this series I'll discuss how to save money and time by doing some needs analysis yourself!
