http://ayende.comAyende @ RahienCopyright (C) Ayende Rahien 2004 - 2021 (c) 202660Excellent post! I believe your comments are leading into the right direction. What hasn’t been mentioned yet is the fact that you as the vendor typically have a chance to ask questions and/or meet the prospective client face-to-face. That is your chance to get a feeling for a client’s motivation and to address cost transparency and the agile value proposition. It is your chance to level the grounds by pointing out typically hidden costs! http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment9http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment9Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:14:40 GMTI dislike documentation in general, so I am endlessly glad to have a great PM to handle that for me. Poor management is the fault of a lot of thing. In fact, you can say that poor management is the root of fault of _everything_. After all, it is management responsibility to fix what is broken. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment8http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment8Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:52:49 GMTYes, it is always a problem. It's also why its important to document these changes. It's project management's responsibility to handle these sorts of things so that developers don't have to. As a PM, I can tell you that Agile looks very different when you're managing and interacting with clients on fixed bids than when you're developing on those same projects. Poor management is usually the culprit when things get out of hand. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment7http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment7Sun, 02 Sep 2007 18:05:03 GMTIsn't that always a problem? New people, new idea, new ways to do things. You handle it the same way, you do the handoff, explain the benefits and the approach taken, and continue working. If the new rep is has waterfall tattooed to his body, it might be a problem, but the benefits of having something at hand are undeniable. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment6http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment6Sun, 02 Sep 2007 11:05:41 GMTI mean, the new customer rep doesn't feel obliged to uphold the methodology you worked with the previous rep. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment5http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment5Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:58:00 GMTSame thing that always happen, there is a transition in responsibility and hand over of what was done. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment4http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment4Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:07:04 GMTOren, Regarding your question about how to win such projects, what do you think of Steve McConnell's view that fixed-price bids should be made by "Managing your set of projects/bids as an investment portfolio, accepting that some will 'win' and some will 'lose'"? ( [http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/06/06/estimating-in-an-outsourcing-context.aspx](http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/06/06/estimating-in-an-outsourcing-context.aspx) ) Personally, I'm inclined to disagree. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment2http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment2Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:54:24 GMTOren, Regarding your question about how to win such projects, what do you think of Steve McConnell's view that fixed-price bids should be made by "Managing your set of projects/bids as an investment portfolio, accepting that some will 'win' and some will 'lose'"? ( [http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/06/06/estimating-in-an-outsourcing-context.aspx](http://blogs.construx.com/blogs/stevemcc/archive/2007/06/06/estimating-in-an-outsourcing-context.aspx) ) Personally, I'm inclined to disagree. http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment3http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment3Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:54:24 GMTWhat happens if the client representative changes? http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment1http://ayende.com/2753/fixed-bids-agile-projects#comment1Sun, 02 Sep 2007 09:04:40 GMT