Hi Fred:

In the articles or files section there is an article on software development contracts.

Because of requirements creep, it is very difficult to do fixed price contracting unless you do a really good job defining requirements. IMO, there is nothing worse than going back to a customer for more hours because requiremnts changed or were incomplete. In my experience, customers are too busy doing what they do to spend a lot of time on requirements so they are never taken seriously. However, when I present them with a progress demo of what I think they want, it kicks them into gear. This is the only thing that has worked for me. It's like working in reverse.

I pefer to do an initial contract for one year with option of extending period of performance. Then a new delivery order is issued by customer every 3 months. This gives customer option of backing out by not renewing delivery order. I think this is good comprimise between fixed price contract and open ended contract.

Charlie