>This raises a question in my mind, "What constitutes due diligence?". Is it my job as a consultant to go out and do research to find a third-party tool if the client has contracted me to "write a custom piece of software" for them? Shouldn't they have done that already before they came to me? If they wanted me to research something for them, then that would be the contracted task no tthe creation of something.
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>Any and all view points cheerfully accepted. :-)

Larry,

I'm kinda in the middle on this one. I think it depends on the situation. I agree with you that I wouldn't research for a 3rd party app if the customer didn't ask me to, but I might also already be aware of something and would probably feel some sort of obligation (darn conscience!) to mention it to them. It, of course, would depend on how industry-specific their needs were and, uh, if the mortgage was late... :)

Renoir