In the following series of posts, I attempt to explain the dysfunction at the heart of the client-agency dynamic in the software industry as I see it. My own experience is primarily in web software, but in research and talking to friends and acquaintances I know this dynamic frequently plays out in other software industries as well. My intention is to both illuminate as well as to discuss how best to forge a path toward healthier relationships between clients and agencies and a healthier software industry in general.
To start, I want you to imagine the following scenario, which I call “The Dream Home Architect.”
Imagine that you’ve saved up a bunch of money over many years and you’re ready to build your dream home. You haven’t got every detail worked out, but in your mind you know what you want. Confident and excited, you make an appointment to talk to a special architectural-construction firm about planning and building your home. The day of the appointment arrives and you walk into the architect’s office beaming in anticipation. You sit down and begin to verbally describe your dream home. You describe the location, paint colors, the exterior and interior materials, the size, the kind of decorating you plan to do, the overall style, the various features you want, and so on. All the while the architect dutifully takes notes and asks for occasional clarification.
After maybe 30 minutes of this, you find you’ve exhausted your mental notes. You look expectantly at the architect. She says “All right, I believe I have everything I need to get started here. I will do an initial draft and you’ll be able to review it within a week. It will cost about $100 an hour for us to do necessary research and draw up the initial plans and given what you’ve said I think it’ll take at least 40 hours for the first draft to be finished.”
Puzzled, you ask, “Wait, I thought you were supposed to estimate how much the house will cost to build.” The architect replies, “I have no idea yet how much it will cost to build.”
Now you’re really confused. “But I just told you everything! How can you not know how much it will cost?”
The architect shakes her head. “I simply don’t know enough about the house to give you an estimate. We need to design the house, draw up blueprints, consult with the builders and suppliers, review permit requirements and about a hundred other things before we’ll have any realistic idea of how much the project will cost. This can take weeks, even months.”
“But what if after all that your estimate is more than I can pay?” you ask.
“Unfortunately, that’s the nature of our business. After we’ve drawn up the plans, reviewed them together, done some more research and consulted with some more people, we can give you a rough estimate, but we can’t do better than that right now.”
“So you want me to pay you at least $4000 before I’ll have any idea what you will charge me to actually build the house?” you ask, incredulous.
“Asking me to do otherwise is asking me to work for free. Is it fair for me to work for free?” the architect replies.
You don’t have an answer to that question, but you decide to get a second opinion. You do some digging and find another architect-construction firm that seems to be more willing to do things your way. You repeat the process and after describing your dream home to the architect, he thinks for a moment and then says “Give me three days and I will tell you how much your house will cost to build.”
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Now, having envisioned this scenario in your mind, ask yourself: which of the two firms is more likely to do a better job working on your dream home?
An entry in this series will be posted each week for the next several weeks. Check back each week!