Why Budgets are so Important for Software Development  Projects

As a freelance web dev consultant, I’ve been having a whole lot of introductory conversations. They generally fit in one of a few categories:

• potential clients looking for a developer for an upcoming project
• fellow consultants looking for a dev to join them on a project
• someone for either of the previous two groups that don’t yet have something specific in mind, but want to find potential consultants for work they’re trying to get started soon.

One big question I always ask all of them is “What’s your budget?”. As you might expect, this is also one of the hardest questions to get answered.

In this post I’m going to share why I believe it’s a critical question that should be considered carefully. Starting with a real estate analogy.

A Real Estate Analogy? Really?#anchor

I have a way with analogies to help convey details about software development. Usually they’re half-baked comparisons shared with folks as a shortcut to get them to understand some eccentricity, difficulty, or complexity in the topic we’re discussing.

The critical requirement of such analogies is that they’re based on a shared understanding, which we rely on to bridge that gap.

In one such conversation, I got the idea to compare a software development budget to a real estate budget and it worked surprisingly well. So well, in fact, that I’ve started using it all the time and led to writing this post.

You Have to Start Somewhere#anchor

This is the crux of why this analogy works, budgets may not be the most fun thing to talk about but they certainly are the most practical way to set expectations and find a good starting point.

It’s just as true with a software project as it is with buying a house. Knowing the budget is one vital step to finding a solution that is within reach and provides maximum value.

Setting Expectations, Saving Time#anchor

What’s one of the first questions you’ll get from a realtor? Yep, budget and probably location.

Why? Because they’re not going to take you to an open house for a $2MM home when you’re looking to spend a fraction of that. They’re not going to suggest a home that’s 200 miles (320km) away from your ideal location.

Would you love that $2MM house? Probably.

Do you want to be responsible for the maintenance and monthly bills? Probably not.

Taking the Analogy Further#anchor

Here are some other examples I gave when sharing this analogy, depending on the situation.

• Additional Constraints – I had briefly mentioned in the analogy that desired location is another early question that sets some helpful constraints.
  The same would be true for required technologies or an existing codebase that needs to be retained.
• Prebuilt vs Custom – You may have the budget and desire for a custom built home, giving you full control over every detail. It’ll take longer, but you have more opportunity to get exactly what you want.
  I would say this is even more true with software development, the potential return on investment is higher when you have something built specifically for your unique needs.

Wrapping Up#anchor

I hope this analogy helps highlight the importance of discussing budget – and any other constraints – from the start. It’s important to understand and work within these constraints as early as possible

So when you’re ready to start that new web application project and are asked about budget, rather than concluding their motivations are “how much can we make on this deal”, consider instead that they’re trying to determine “how can we achieve the most value that’s within budget”.