By definition we never reinvent the wheel and develop smart software solutions by making optimal use of the best technologies and tools the J2EE open source world offers. We believe this is the only way to stay on top of technology.

Our software development platform, WebTurbo, which bundles leading J2EE open source frameworks such as Spring and Hibernate and incorporates powerful code generation techniques, is the living proof of this approach.

Together with the best practices (agile methodologies, collaborative tools, continuous integration...) we adopt, our software factory is ready to industrialize your software development needs.

Though we take on projects on basis of the two most common contractual models, “fixed price” or a “time & materials” basis, our experience shows that these models do not provide the best results.

Fixed price model
The “fixed price” model implies a fixed price, project scope and delivery time frame while it is very difficult to precisely evaluate the exact workload to build a system and anticipate the exact functionalities it should incorporate. This all too often results in either the client paying too much or the provider losing money. This conflict of interests does not lead to the best project solution as in practice providers will try to recuperate their losses by opting for easy workarounds in case of problems and overcharging for project changes and extensions. In the other case the client simply does not receive his money's worth.

Furthermore this model conflicts with agile & collaborative development methodologies which primarily aim to produce the best functionalities in the shortest time at the lowest costs by accommodating change throughout the development process.

Time & material model
The “time & materials” model also has its flaws. It provides no real incentives for the provider to develop efficiently and due to a lack of transparency the client has only a limited control on the development progress and budget. This model is more appropriate for short application extension cycles.

Where does this leave us?
We believe a combination of both models is best suited as it provides the incentives for both parties to forge a true spirit of partnership and perfectly supports agile & collaborative development methodologies (scrum, xp, crystal ...).

Fixed time & materials model
In practice this means that a project is split up into several time-boxed iterations for which the workload is estimated together. Iterations therefore consist of a list of usable functionalities that need to be produced within a given time frame (e.g. one month) for which the budget is known.

The advantages of this model are numerous. As after each iteration the produced work is evaluated and the next iteration is fine-tuned on basis of this information, the client is highly involved and controls where the project is going.

This model enables us to develop a better application than we could have imagined initially as it supports a progressive learning curve and leaves the door open to add or change functionalities throughout the development process while keeping control over the progress and budget in full transparency.

Summarized the fixed time & material model leads to significantly better end-results and lower project risks.

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