[Tfug] Open Source solutions

[Rich]

On Aug 22, 2007, at 1:20 pm, Brian Murphy wrote:

> Rich, you're being too hard on the guy.
I'm practising being grumpy :-)

> Unfortunately (or not depending on which side you're on) fixing
> half-assed work from other IT companies is a specialty in itself.
Yes, don't get too precious about delivering The Perfect Network.  
What you *should* get precious about is restricting the scope of the  
work: identify existing problems, deliverables and their deadlines,  
and a realistic "budget+10%". If further work is required, ensure it  
isn't tagged onto the current contract.

A colleague back in England gave me the best advice ever about this:  
Always charge for work, even if it's just a pound, even if it's your  
granny. Because if you do it for free, they'll just keep asking for  
more. So that "little extra" work might be quick and simple, but  
*never* do it for free: charge a dollar, $10, whatever, just to  
identify it as work and give yourself a paper trail. That serves  
another purpose too: it ensures that the customer won't come to you  
with piffling tasks, but work you can get your teef into.

R. (less grumpy now :-)