Offered short contract based on deliverables

[JuanSheet]

Hello All,

I have been offered a short contract that's based on deliverables. It's about 4 weeks long to join a development of a website halfway through.I have said I will need to do an assessment of what's been done before committing to any timescales.

Has anyone else had one of these contracts? Pitfalls...

Thanks for listening

[eek]

Hello All,

I have been offered a short contract that's based on deliverables. It's about 4 weeks long to join a development of a website halfway through.I have said I will need to do an assessment of what's been done before committing to any timescales.

Has anyone else had one of these contracts? Pitfalls...

Thanks for listening

• Do they have a finalised specification?
• can you do a gap analysis of what is missing?
• is pay purely dependent on what you are deliverying or would you be dependent on the output of others?
• Does the fee cover enough to make up for the risk of 4 weeks work without pay? (Most consultancies add a 50-200% premium for fixed rate work if they accept such work, many outright refuse)..

[cojak]

Also insist within the contract on a review of pricing should they want to change that 'finalised' specification.

[northernladuk]

Make sure the criteria for signing that deliverable off is watertight so the client can't refuse to pay because in their opinion the deliverable isn't complete.

[BlasterBates]

Delivery only with an Acceptance test specification which defines the outputs of your "bit".

You need the acceptance test before you implement. They need to sign off on the acceptance test spec.

Then it's water tight.

It shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to define one when you sit down with the customer.

General specifications are great but open to interpretation "oh I meant this" Test specs don't lie.

If you find the test spec becoming unwieldy and larger and larger you know you have a badly scoped project.

[yasockie]

I still wouldn't take it and propose to bill for the time and materials on daily rate.
In 4 weeks requirements can change a lot.

[vadhert]

Run like the wind.

Sounds like someone left behind a load of tulip for you to sort out in a short time.

[Contreras]

Contract on defined deliverables, eh?

Is that something 'real businesses' do?

Run for the hills?

hmm...

[Antman]

It's a great IR35 defence (even if it's only a 4 week contract ).

Like the others have said, if you can get acceptance criteria nailed down then you're safe and some way for handling the inevitable CRs, could also do another 9-5 somewhere else at the same time - ker-ching!

[d000hg]

Contract on defined deliverables, eh?

Is that something 'real businesses' do?

Yes, all the time.