WCB2015 Agile Contracting
Channel: Boston WP
Date: 2015-07-23

Mike Toppa

Before going out on my own to start Poka Yoke Design this June, I worked at PromptWorks, where we signed over 30 Time & Materials (T&M) contracts with clients over the past 2 years, from local businesses to nationally known media companies. This is in contrast to traditional Fixed Scope, Fixed Cost (FS-FC) contracts.

Prospective clients typically have an initial preference for FS-FC contracts: they’re familiar, and at first glance, seem to guarantee the client will get what they want (by spelling out business requirements in detail), and place the business risk on the contractor. However, traditional contracts fail to recognize that web application development is more like an R&amp;D project than a construction project. In the fast paced world of the web, business requirements can grow and change rapidly, technical challenges and opportunities can arise, and both parties benefit from being able to respond to these changes in a teamwork fashion, instead of spending time on lengthy contract re-negotiations.

In this talk we’ll explore what goes into a T&M contract, how to persuade a prospective client to sign one, and how to live up to the expectations you create in the persuasion process, to deliver a successful project.

Mike Toppa has been coding for the web since the days of HTML 1.0, and he caught the WordPress bug when he wrote his first plugin in 2007. He moved to Boston from Philly this month, and he’s the CTO for Poka Yoke Design. Mike was previously the Director of Development for WebDevStudios, and he’s also worked at U Penn, Stanford, Georgetown, Ask Jeeves, and E-Trade. Outside of work you will most likely find Mike embroiled in a Nerf gun battle with his two young boys.
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http://bostonwp.org/