[Disclaimer: I run Terralien, and the author of the article works for me.]
Building custom software is nothing like building a cookie-cutter tract house - completely agreed. In that case you're getting the same house as someone else, the builder has done it all before, and there are only a few options that you get to pick with the costs for those options known.
Building custom software is a lot like building a custom house, though - while there's an estimate going in, it tends to change a lot, and the final price varies widely depending on the buyer's choices during the project. Try being the general contractor on your own house construction project and you'll quickly discover costs are very variable regardless of the estimates up front.
There are a lot of stereotypes about how construction projects are "fixed bid" and "everything runs off of well-defined blueprints"; my Dad is an architect working on large healthcare projects, and I can tell you that those stereotypes are largely wrong. The projects do not go according to plan and even things "in the blueprint" change regularly mid-project.
Comments
[Disclaimer: I run Terralien, and the author of the article works for me.]
Building custom software is nothing like building a cookie-cutter tract house - completely agreed. In that case you're getting the same house as someone else, the builder has done it all before, and there are only a few options that you get to pick with the costs for those options known.
Building custom software is a lot like building a custom house, though - while there's an estimate going in, it tends to change a lot, and the final price varies widely depending on the buyer's choices during the project. Try being the general contractor on your own house construction project and you'll quickly discover costs are very variable regardless of the estimates up front.
There are a lot of stereotypes about how construction projects are "fixed bid" and "everything runs off of well-defined blueprints"; my Dad is an architect working on large healthcare projects, and I can tell you that those stereotypes are largely wrong. The projects do not go according to plan and even things "in the blueprint" change regularly mid-project.