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My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

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Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#101

Post by beat »

Devilboy wrote: post #6
downandout wrote: post #2

In this case, it's probably a good idea to fire the customer. These types of outrageous requests don't exist in a vacuum. People like this are very difficult to deal with, tend to be very miserly, and will be a non-stop headache. The customer will question everything you do, why you did certain things a certain way (even if he or she has no idea what they are talking about), etc. Drop kick this customer from your lif…

If the client is 'not worth it' you're just not charging enough. Just work out what your price is and send them a new quote. Don't ever fire a client, that's just silly. Make the client say no.

Hell YES fire a client! It's not just about money. It's about grief and stress. Don't work for people who want to set up a Panopticon because they think you're cheating them. Just... no.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#102

Post by jroseattle »

As absurd as this situation was, it really doesn't surprise me in the least. Having been an independent consultant for several years, I've had some client requests that were real humdingers. My favorite of all-time (I'm paraphrasing, but this was a real conversation):

  Client: We would like a fixed-price bid on this project.
      Me: Well, let's talk about your project. What's the scope?
  Client: We're working on a list, which will grow over time.
      Me: Let's make sure I understand. You want a fixed price for a variable project?
  Client: Yes. We're budgeting $5000.
      Me: I'm sure I do not understand.
          Do you expect the entirety of work to basically be my 
          bill rate X number of hours = $5000?
  Client: We expect you to manage that. The reason we're interested in a fixed-price 
          bid is because we need to contain costs.
      Me: You mean contain *your* costs. Do you think there is any risk 
          in this project from my side?
  Client: Only your time is at risk.
      Me: (face-palm)

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#103

Post by madaxe »

anonymous wrote: post #30
madaxe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and fire them. We had someone approach us a few years ago we really didn't want to work with as everything they did screamed "moron in a hurry", so, rather than telling them to naff off, we gave them a quote that should have caused cardiac arrest. They agreed to it. Two years on. Still working with them. No amount of money makes it worth it. Particularly given that they…

If they haven't paid in two years shouldn't you be suing them?

Oh, they have paid, just not in full. As to suing them, no - the industry we work in is stupidly tight knit, and regardless of the truth, any agency that sues their clients looks like crap.

We have leverage over them in terms of "whoops, looks like your sole revenue stream just got turned off", they have leverage over us in terms of reputational damage.

Were this some sole trader on the far side of the planet, there'd be nil compunction. But they're not.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#104

Post by vijaykiran »

passerinelabs wrote: post #85
j_s wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

See also: http://www.timesnapper.com/ for Windows (Classic version 'free forever'; doesn't seem to support stitching all the images together to export a video but should be do-able manually.)

For OS X users, you can take a screenshot from the command line with /usr/sbin/screencapture, so putting together a little script to make a screenshot timelapse is pretty trivial. With that and ffmpeg you can replicate most of the functionality of my program in just a few lines of bash. :-)

Indeed :-) I use

brew install watch watch -n10 'screencapture `date +%s`.png'

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#105

Post by madaxe »

Devilboy wrote: post #38
madaxe wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yup. Sometimes you have to just bite the bullet and fire them. We had someone approach us a few years ago we really didn't want to work with as everything they did screamed "moron in a hurry", so, rather than telling them to naff off, we gave them a quote that should have caused cardiac arrest. They agreed to it. Two years on. Still working with them. No amount of money makes it worth it. Particularly given that they…

Gotta get paid half up-front man!

Half up front is a bad model. A better model is 25% staged throughout a project, with 25% post completion. This means that they don't get live unless you've at least 75% of the balance paid, and you then operate a one month warranty period at the end of which they pay the balance.

With these particular goons, we have our 75%, and a never-ending stream of "we've re-interpreted the specification and believe that X means Y, Z, Q, R, P and M, which we require before we will sign off", much as we'd anticipated.

This is why we charge a minimum of 75% prior to go-live. Means that even if they do decline to pay the remainder, we aren't left out of pocket, and can play silly buggers for as long as it takes for them to get bored and go away.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#106

Post by Udo »

michaelochurch wrote: post #96
new299 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

assholes often don't pay their bills.

With $50k on the line, you collect upfront.

And then they'll sue you after the work is done to get it back. I don't think it's worth it.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#107

Post by madaxe »

ZoFreX wrote: post #32

Something I dealt with a lot in oil & gas engineering, and have never personally witnessed in software engineering, is a "change order". The contract is signed. At this point, if you deliver on your end of the deal, they have to deliver on theirs†. If they want anything other than what is in that contract - additions, changes, removals - you send them a change order. This is a new document for both parties to sign, c…

PRINCE2, baby. It's heavy-handed, produces mountains of paperwork that you hope to never have to look at again, and allows both parties complete clarity as to what is, and what isn't, in scope. You want to change the scope? Needs a change-request, a re-quote, a re-scope, and it all trickles back into the project plan.

The only problem with this process is that it actively encourages the client to find any shred of loosely worded anything in any specification, and interpret the hell out of it, rather than having to go through change control.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#108

Post by roy_x »

passerinelabs wrote: post #78
srik wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All codes have been grabbed; saving you time to check. That said, the codes were a nice gesture. Will definitely put it in my list of apps to watch.

Wow. Here's 25 more: http://pastebin.com/r2KVSmXp I'm happy to hear any feedback: andrew at passerinelabs.com or @passerinelabs on Twitter.

LYAEFN4PPWHW taken, thanks

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#109

Post by pavel_lishin »

redblacktree wrote: post #98
mikeash wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd definitely accept toilet jobs for $5,000/hour, then subcontract out to a plumber for their going rate, and pocket the difference. IMO a bad example.

Yes, but what if they demanded that you do it, personally. While wearing a French maid costume.

That's $7,000 per hour, plus they have to provide the french maid costume, and I get to keep it after.

Re: My customer wants me to record a video of how I develop his software product

#110

Post by wtvanhest »

You are looking at this as a problem rather than an opportunity.

If I were in your shoes I would calmly explain that you do offer video of the coding in the condensed form that the HN person 'chops' shows.

That service of offering the video will cost $X more per hour to implement and you would be happy to rewrite the contract to include that service.

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