Most professionals (accountant, lawyers, designers, developers) charge by the hour because that is how it has always been done. Jon Lax has done the research to explain why. In the early 1900s, an attorney at Boston Legal Aide asked MIT for assistance managing a backlog of cases. The result was the creation of the billable hour […]
Four Steps to Determine Value and Start Pricing from WordCamp DFW
In October 2014, I had the opportunity to present a session at WordCamp DFW 2014 called Four Steps to Determine Value and Start Pricing. Even though the overhead projector was not working, we had a great session on the four steps to implement value pricing including Q&A.
Why Value Is Important for Software with Wes McClure – 004
Since software development is a technical craft, it is easy to focus on the details instead of the big picture. However, failure to focus on why the project is important can doom the endeavor before it starts. By starting with the value to customer, software development has a higher chance of success because every action […]
Why I Switched to Value Pricing with Kirk Bowman – 001
In the fall of 2009, I participated in a panel discussion on estimating and billing practices for software developers. I took the position that hourly billing is the only way to charge the customer for custom development. At the same time, another panelist said that billing by the hour places an arbitrary limit on your […]
Value-Based Pricing from Pause OnError
In February 2010, I gave a presentation at the Pause OnError conference in Portland. I explained the advantages of value pricing to a room of 50+ software developers and facilitated an open discussion. If you look closely, you can actually see someone sitting in the bath tub to listen.