We quote fixed prices for work that is well understood, such as discovery, assessments, audits and migrations with known inputs. When requirements are still moving, a fixed bid looks safe to procurement (one number, one date), but in software that safety is usually borrowed from somewhere else: from quality, from the team’s candor, or from a change-request process nobody enjoys.
Where the risk goes when scope is still moving
- The vendor pads the estimate to cover what nobody knows yet, so you pay for uncertainty either way.
- Scope is frozen before anyone has learned anything, so good ideas found in week three become change requests.
- Every change turns into a negotiation, and the relationship starts to feel like a contract dispute.
- Near the end, the incentive is to finish the contract, not to finish the product.
How we price evolving work
Engagements start with a short discovery sprint at a fixed price. It ends with a written problem statement, a definition of done and an estimate you can hold us to. After that we work in sprints, with a monthly cap you set, weekly demos of working software and one shared backlog. Either side can stop at the end of any sprint.
How you keep control
- A monthly cap that we can’t exceed without your written approval.
- A demo of working software every week, not a status deck.
- One shared roadmap and backlog, visible to your team.
- A burn report with every invoice: what was spent, on what.
When we quote a fixed price
Discovery, assessments and audits are always fixed price. So is work that is well understood and repeatable: a migration with known inputs, an upgrade with a clear finish line. The point isn’t to avoid commitment; it’s to commit to the right thing.