How do you make a project with an inhibiting agreement with fixed key terms successful? You don't. Here are 8 reasons to pick time and material instead. Trust us, we've been through this.

1. 8 Reasons to Choose Time
and Material for Your
Software Project

2. // 2
How do you make an agile
project,
or any project for that matter,
successful with an inhibiting
agreement with fixed key terms?

3. // 3
You don’t.
And there’s no way around it.
The projects that have been - or are - a
success at Espeo have always had one
common denominator: a time-material
agreement.

4. // 4
Basing on our experience in past
and ongoing projects, we’d like to
give 8 reasons why time and
material contracts are the best
choice for software development.

5. #1
100% transparency

6. // 6
You get billed for the time we’ve spent working
on your project. Every minute of it and not a
minute more. No rounding up.
You pay for what you get. Time spent on our self-
development, training, company meetings is NOT
billed.

7. // 7
We think there is a problem ahead - we’ll tell you
immediately.
We don’t think the feature is worth spending time
on it - we’ll tell you, you might reconsider.

8. #2
You’ll be playing on
the same team

9. // 9
There’s mutual understanding that long-term
success benefits both parties more than any
short term wins on either side. This leads to
mutual respect.

10. // 10
This allows all people - involved on both sides - to
think in ROI categories.
And one more thing: we love suggesting killer
features - hey, at the end of the day everyone
benefits!

11. #3
The overhead is
minimal

12. // 12
●no debates on what’s in scope and what’s out
●no debates on what’s a bug and what’s not
●no debates on what’s a bug and what’s a CR
●hey, no CRs!
●no development of features we don’t believe in
●no more waste!

13. #4
Time and material and
agile are a perfect
match

14. // 14
Agile still the best approach to software
development. And there can be no real agile with
an inhibiting agreement underneath.
Give your success a chance!
No more artificial agile, calling it agile, iterations
being just another name for weeks, etc.

15. // 15
It’s simple:
you show your needs,
we advise,
you decide,
we do it.

16. #5
Time and material
agreements are
change-friendly

17. // 17
You’ve changed your mind about your
business direction.
Very well, we can react to changes. We play
right along.

18. // 18
Here’s a sample dialogue: “no offence, but the
feature you’ve started work on is pointless now
since the competition already has it”
- “none taken, let’s build something new they
don’t have yet. Let’s start today!”

19. #6
Development can
become business-
driven

20. // 20
You need to grow your business in an optimal
way, we’re there to help you achieve this goal.
Even if it means taking a suboptimal route from
the IT perspective at times.
Technology shouldn’t dictate the path your
product is to take.

21. #6
Time and material
encourages the
development of a long
and sustainable
relationship

22. // 22
Long-term motivation based on a common goal
is achieved together in small steps.
It’s not based on bonuses, management
pressure, fear and contractual penalties.

23. // 23
A long-term perspective motivates against
taking intentional shortcuts that would remain
unnoticed for a long time but are very costly
when eventually TSHTF.

24. // 24
This model has a significant impact on team
morale: which leads to attracting new team
members and inhibits departures thereof.

25. #8
Time and material
contracts allow you to
rely on actions rather
than words

26. // 26
Proof of Concept:
●instead of multi-page specification and
implementation documents
●instead of estimations, negotiations and
assumptions

27. // 27
You should get an MVP ready and show it to the
clients ASAP. That’s what time and material
allows you to do. And it allows you to carry on
with scaling and growing!

28. // 28
You should also estimate
your budget and
milestones based on facts
(real team velocity) not
promises (initial estimates
based on documentation).

29. // 29
To sum up: we’ve tried to bend the continuum
before to get the most out of fixed-term
projects. It wasn’t only uncomfortable for us -
these contracts end up not benefiting the
client either.
Other opinions? We’d love to hear you out.

30. // 30
Like what you see?
Let's start development!
THANK YOU!
Poznań // Helsinki // San
Francisco