Hey all Ok heres whats going on. I currently have a big project i am getting developed on RAC (freelance hiring site) Anyway this project has begun in August and was due this December) But both me and the Developer / Design teams working on this project know that the project will need to be extended another couple months. Theres just no way the site is huge. Anyway the developers and myself officially agreed that i will pay a lump sum at the end of the project, this works best for me because i know a project won't be stopped in the middle and everyone has something to look forward to. Yesterday i get a call that the developer would like some money, about 12.5-15% of the work that has been done so far. It was a last second call and request on the last day of the month (payments are released on the last day of the month) After a quick call to my advisors i was notified to not agree to this because an agreement was made in the beginning to only pay a lump sum at the end.. Today i talked to the developers and they want to change the project into partial payments every couple months, overall i am happy with their work so far but i am scared they might drop the project half way, i've heard of many projects getting dumped like this. After a long 2 hour discussion i asked the developers what kind of guarantee they can give me, after a short while they told me that i can write a document and they will sign it.. Now, I would like to know what kind of document i should write specifically, any examples i could see? or someone can help me and let me know how to professionally write something like this. One note that you should keep in mind is that the developers reside in a different country, i don't know if that matters but just want to let the readers know in case theres another way to approach something like this. Overview: I need some kind of agreement that will keep me safe in case the developers want to drop out before the project is done. I don't want to get into any arguments with the developers later on, when say they request 80% of the funds for 80% of the work and i'm stuck with an unfinished project. Thank you
1. Where are you located? Where is the designer? 2. How much money is at stake? 3. If it is less than $50,000 and the designer and you are not in the same legal jurisdiction, then just pay the 12.5% to keep the project moving. Obviously, reserve the balance of payment until the project is complete. The signing of a contract is a mere formality since the simple reality is that there is almost never going to be a lawsuit over a small sum, as it is simply not worth it.
1. Im located in Canada and the developer is in Romania. 2. About 20 big ones 3. Hes a good guy and development is still going, i was thinking of writing a contract for example that would turn him away from a thought of quiting. For example if cancelation is made by the developing side they shall have to pay a fine for my problems and time wasted. A penalty fee. Whats your opinion about that?
Merely thinking out loud. You can supplement any previous verbal or written agreements but regardless of why something failed it is doubtful (if for any reason it failed) they will be reimbursing you... it is naturally assume that "both parties" lose - not just you. You may indeed have a written contract in hand thus contract law on your side - but that is only as good as your ability to enforce it. It seems a little strange that the project is going well (albeit behind) and now greater concern for "dropping out"... I would think anyone going 3 months based solely on your word that they would be compensated in the end... has shown trust (unless I am missing something). Since it was preceived by all parties that December was the end date - it isn't all that unrealistic to expect some compensation at that time... earlier - a judgement call. Sure thing... it was also understood to be ending in December - so does this mean you prefer "verbatim" and it ends in December no matter what is left to do and payment is in full? The real question is "why" is there a deeper concern for unfulfillment? If certain milestones have been reached and the developer isn't solely responsibility for the delay - good faith is usually met with good faith.
Well i have noticed slight changes the last couple weeks, before we would have meetings everyday, they would always get ro meetings on time and everything was going smoothly, but for a couple weeks now im noticing a bit of the developing force and work flow that they put into the project to be easing out.. for example they don't show up for meetings or are late most of the time, some parts of the designs are not done which i have to constantly repeat myself and ask for changes. Some time on the project was lost when the project leader had an family emergancy. Which is ok, things happen this is life. But sometimes i can't even get in touch with project leader for a couple days and it seems like no work is being done. I feel like slowly they are giving up because both the developers and myself know the project will have to be delayed a couple months. I don't want December to come and them to tell me that they cannot continue.
Sounds as if these concerns need to be discussed with the developer. Consessions can always be made in any project... BUT lackluster performance isn't a reason for any consessions after-the-fact. I would say that "IF" they can start showing the original investment in the project (at meetings on-time, the original level of communication, and physcial progress in the project) then it is worth making consessions in the payment plan... Remember that your sole purpose here is the spirit of a satisfactory project completion rather than the spirit of the contract terms which may or may not produce a satisfactory end.
Keep in mind that in many development projects it is very difficult to quantify project completeness. So if the developer says they are 80% done, that doesn't necessarily mean that the amount of time remaining will only be 1/5 of what has already been spent. For example, if you are creating an application with 20 pages, and the developer completes 16 of those pages, it could be easy to think that you are 80% complete. However, in most applications the complexity increases as the project progresses, so the remaining 4 pages could take much more than just 20% of the total time to complete. In fact it is very common in development projects to rewrite a significant portion of the first 80% while working on the remaining 20%. Not all projects are like this, but sometimes it is very difficult plan out how things are going to interact until you actually have something to work with. This is especially true when a developer is working from a spec and the designer isn't actually a developer them self.
Just a thought here. If you do go into a written agreement with them, make sure it's valid in Romania, ie get legal councel from RO with the knowhow to write it up and, in worst case scenario, can handle it for you.