Notes from the shop floor of software.
Case studies, tool reviews, and methodologies that survived contact with real shops. No fluff, no gate, RSS available.
Fixed bids, two weeks at a time — how we price custom work without anyone getting burned
Every custom-software horror story starts with a contract shape, not a bad programmer. How we work — three ways in, fixed prices always, contingency stated instead of hidden — and why two-week fixed sprints are the shape where the buyer and the builder finally want the same thing.
We lost a bid last month. The math we redid afterward is worth more than the job was.
Four ways to pay for a shop system — rent it, buy it, adopt open source, or build on an open substrate — and the ten-year math behind each. Including the honest reason a from-scratch custom bid loses, told by the people who lost one.
Your shop runs on an Access database from 2004. Here are your three real paths.
No shame — it worked for twenty years. But the risk model has changed, and there are exactly three honest ways out. Here's how to pick, including the two that don't involve hiring anyone like us.