Here's an update about my situation, and I will probably get nailed from some of you (but this is an educational process!).

The messages I received came from members of the task force, who are involved in the specification process. I have never met any one of the people I am contracting with. This is my third time working with them. The first version was in FPDOS 2.6, the next in VFP3, and now VFP6.

I did the first version while I was a government employee, and the previous and present time was/is as a contractor. I was put in touch with them through my former boss, who was a member of the task force. So, this is one of those things that I just fell into.

This agency has always preferred to work on a flat rate basis, and I end up giving them as many things as are possible on a prioritized task list. Anything I don't complete is either added later as an extra feature, or is dropped until sometime in the future (unless forgotten).

This has always worked quite well in the past, and they and I were both satisfied with the results. However, I am now working with a new project leader, and am quickly noticing a difference in how they work with me.

I have made them aware that delays and changes in the process may result in my delivering less work to them. And, I suggested that they might want to make sure they're all on the same track, before having me change something after I've already completed it. So, I've put the brakes on further progress on my part, for the moment.

I have Whil Hentzen's Developer's Guide, and it is very good. However, the structure of the specs I have is not completely specific. They know what they want the program to do, and leave it up to me to come up with the best way of delivering it. Again, this has worked quite well in the past. However, I know that using hindsight too much can get you where it hurts.

This is all relatively new to me, as any contracting I do is on a periodic basis. (I'm already employed full-time, and spend the bulk of my available time helping my wife in her business as a nutritionist, doing all the technical stuff.) In fact, this client is one of just a few that I have ever had. I am very inexperienced in the specifics of contracting but, so far, I've been very lucky.

So, if I deserve a virtual slap on the hand from anyone, I'm ready.

Michael Reynolds


>>Has this ever happened to you? I'm in the process of clarifying specs, by email, with a government client. I sent a list of questions, requesting they address them. I received my answers, only to find that they CC'ed a dozen or so end-users of the application I am to be upgrading, and included my list of questions.
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>>Now, I'm beginning to receive messages from the end-users, providing me with their personalized wish-list, all because my client was gracious enough to provide their end-users with my email address!
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>You need to let your client know that the time spent responding to the people that they cc'd is just as billable as the time spent evaluating their direct responses - if they say ignore outside input, do so, otherwise track and bill your time and provide your client with a detailed breakdown of your efforts. After all, they could have circulated the memo without you in the loop and just passed things along.
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>>So, I sent a somewhat not-too-delicate request to my client, asking them to support my desire in keeping the lines of communication to a more official level.
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>Did you ream them, or simply remind them that you're billing for your efforts on their behalf based on their decision to add the end-users to the specification process.
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>Get Whil Hentzen's Developer's Guide...