Why are Businesses Willing to Spend More for Software?

Lost Canadian Abroad asks: "As a software developer I have always found it strange that large companies are willing to spend obscene amounts of money for software development. Until recently I have shrugged it off as 'the cost of doing business', but something happened not long ago that has caused me to start questioning that practice. The more I talk about it with other people, who are business people themselves, the more irritated I get about the whole thing. Why is it that if you're not charging a company tens of thousands of dollars for a development project that you're not taken seriously?" I've always wondered about this, myself. This practice seems to contradict common sense. Is it that higher prices imply a certain degree of quality and/or assurance to managers? Do you think that businesses might be better off if they took a risk and tried the lower end of the costs spectrum?

"I recently had a the chance to bid on a contract, which I didn't win because of my estimated project cost. The winner of the bid had an estimated cost of $15,000 whereas my estimated cost was around $5,000 for the same project. The contract was not a complex project: a system comprised of database-generated web pages, with file submission and minor document management features.

I had, in about 8 hours of preliminary work, 50% of the website and associated back-end completed and had the rest of the site roughed out for what they wanted. The work is simple and I think almost anyone who has done similar types of site designs would agree with me.

The reason I got for not winning the project was that my proposed bid was seen as too low.

Does this make any kind of sense to anyone? Why would a company prefer to spend $15,000 on a project instead of $5,000."

Comments

Re:COMMON SENSE WARNINGS WHEN DEALING WITH A UFO

[Anonymous Coward]

10. Do not attempt to shoot at alien craft. Not only is this a direct act of agression, but many alien ships employ powerful sheilding which can deflect a bullet or shot directly towards you, which may lead to injuries.

Re:MEANING THAT FREE SOFTWARE IS THE SHITTIEST OF

[zapfie]

I wish you'd actually put some effort into your trolls.

1.1 on OSX.

[Anonymous Coward]

Hrm... Download manager still broken on OS X (That bug has been open for how many months?) and the browser still crashes heavily on later OS X 10.1.5 and 10.2 implementations (those bugs have been opened and unconfirmed for how long?)

GREAT release guys. Not.

Re:MEANING THAT FREE SOFTWARE IS THE SHITTIEST OF

[Anonymous Coward]

What fun it is, too.

Good book

[Sloppy]

This book, which has sold over a quarter of a million copies, was written by distinguished psychologist Robert Cialdini, Ph.D. It's not just some cheap online free text, and well worth the money if you can still find a copy. Speaking as a karma-maxed Slashdot-posting nerd, I have to say I really liked this book.

(The above is sort of a joke. Sort of. Actually, this book frightened and saddened me, and I passionately hate it. I still recommend it, though.)

whining about a lost karma point

[Sloppy]

How come the parent got +1 interesting, but my brilliant review of the same book, which demonstrated an application of the knowledge, got -1 offtopic? Waaaaaaaaaaaahhhh!!! *whine* *whine*

Hopefully, whining will get me my precious lost karma point back. Hey wait a minute, what do you mean this is offtopic too? Wait a minute, I--