Having experienced something in recent times with respect to my work, I decided to throw this out to the forum.

Whenever you get a job from a client and they want everything including the kitchen sink, how do you approach it, especially when you are pressured to release something within a relatively short period of time? Do you offer to give them all they want (which more likely than not translates to working 25 hours a day, and snapping at anyone who as much as says hi to you, to get it done)? Do you resist? What do you do?

What I have learned is that its best to, just like in life, have a scale of preference. If I am faced with a tight deadline, I tend to ask the client what must absolutely go out on day one and rank them in decreasing order of importance. I then sit with the client and say, "hey, I would love to get all these done by launch date however I would hate for the quality of work to suffer for want of proper detail. Why don't we do this - I will tackle the first 5 (or whatever number I feel I can get done) on your list and over the following weeks, ease in the rest. If you insist, I will get all this done by the time you want but I would strongly advise that you go with my approach. Besides, the beauty of the net is unlike say MS where they come out with a CD and you have to wait for a year for an update, with the web, you can literally add new functionality to your site daily."

Again, from experience, there might be a little apprehension but I think when they see the maturity in your approach, 99% usually agree with me with little or no resistance.

Bottom line, just like in life as I said earlier, it is good to prioritize your requirements. It is then and only then that the quality of your work will shine.

Your thoughts?

Beautiful post. Enlightening, I like the part where you say " Unlike MS, " I'm an avid Apple Mac user myself, so you understand my amusement.

hahahahaha good post, at the end of the day, you tell them that here is the fee for such project at the end of the day they will tell you, one guy under the bridge did this thing for 10,000, haaaaaaaaaaaaaa and u tell them, why not give the same guy who did it for 10,000 for your friend??

What you will hear is "well, the guys has traveled" is that no sick huh ?

Agree with smartsoft. (Not in does terms. )

If they want something in a short period make them pay more (Much more). when you are 12 hours into the project, just remind yourself the amount of money you are going to make.