Before starting the work on any software project, whether it’s a mobile, web, or enterprise-level application, you need to choose the model of cooperation to work with your development partner. It determines how the development process will be organized, the team’s flexibility level, payment process, and the overall delivery of the result to the client.
It’s up to you to choose a cooperation model according to your project’s objectives and requirements:
- If it is a project development from scratch and we are responsible for the frontend, backend, testing, and other related services such as BA / PM (optional), then we offer Fixed Price or Time & Material as a part of the Project Development.
- If the client needs to implement some of the functionality, finalize the project, then it is more convenient to use the Development Team cooperation model.
To make understanding easier, let’s compare the mentioned above models with pizza cooking. So, in which cases is it necessary to “cook pizza” via Time & Material, Fixed Price, and DT?
Ordering home-delivered pizza or work on Time & Material:
Let us say you invited your friends and decided to order a pizza at home. You just go to the pizza maker’s website and choose what you’d like to order. You know exactly your budget and choose pizza with the appropriate cost and ingredients. What you don’t know exactly is how soon your pizza will be ready and how soon it will be delivered, but the performer determines the approximate terms, for example, 30 min/1 hour, taking into account the production risks (availability of ingredients, other orders and traffic jams). During this time, the performer is trying to cook the pizza you want, and the courier – to deliver it as quickly as possible. As a result, everyone is happy: you and your friends are full, and the performer makes a profit.
If we talk about the outsourcing of software development, the implementation of projects on Time & Material basis is very similar to ordering pizza at home:
This model of cooperation with the client is used when it is difficult to determine the full scope of work or timing of its implementation before the project starts.
The client entrusts the development and management of the project to the executing company, team leads of which are responsible for assigning tasks to developers. The client pays only for the actually realized tasks in accordance with the time spent.
Ordering pizza at a pizzeria or work on a Fixed Price model:
When ordering a pizza at the pizzeria, you know exactly the cost of your order, the time it takes to implement it and what’s the result of the product you get. You do not pay for anything superfluous (delivery, for example), since all the requirements were discussed in advance.
The Fixed Price model is used in the case of guaranteed predictability of costs and schedule, that is, all stages of work, results, time, and costs are determined in advance and fixed in the contract. Such an approach allows reducing project risks due to a more accurate estimation of the requirements. In addition, upon completion of the project on Fixed Price, we provide a 2 months’ guarantee for our services, during which any bugs and errors are fixed free of charge.
Pizza is already there, but there is no cola or work as a Development Team:
When there are a company and pizza for all, but nothing to drink – it’s time to find a fast, responsive, or very young friend, who can run for drinks.
The Development Team cooperation model is suitable for customers who already have a project, but need more resources to refine the functionality. Requirements for specialists are indicated by the client in advance and are fixed in the contract. We invite the client to conduct a technical interview and study the CV of our engineers who best meet the stated requirements. While working on the project as Development Team, our engineers are not involved in the implementation of third-party projects and tasks. Accordingly, the client is responsible for ensuring the workload of the staff during the hours specified in the statement of work.
Exposit’s team become your employees for a certain period of time
Establishing effective cooperation is vital for any business relationship, and we realize that it is especially important for those who decide to outsource software development. When making a decision, one should rely on three main components of the project: budget, time, and results.
Let us know your business needs and we’ll tell you which model is more profitable to work in your particular case.
