views:

72

answers:

3

Hey guys this is one of the non Technical questions I can say but very important in terms of charging for software development. Recently I have been offered a freelancing project on ASP.net from one my known friends. Please try to help me cos I am new to freelancing and I really dunno how much to quote for the project. Also this is my first project with the client and I want to have a long term relationship with him.

I need help regarding the following:

Approximate cost of the project
Duration of the project ( There are 2 Developers )
Can I charge the client for software license ( like Visual Studio license since I have purchased it by paying a hefty amount)

My profile as a developer is as follows:

I am a C#, .net, ASP.net developer with 3 years experience in enterprise class web and desktop projects.
I can work 20 hours a week



The brief requirements of the project are as follows::

I have to develop an Ecommerce website.
The website is meant for buyers, sellers, advertisers and bidders ( I would say it is Business to Business and also Business to Customer site )
The HTML's will be given by the client.
The website will have all the features of any Ecommerce site like buying products, selling them, searching products, sorting them,etc
The website should conform to W3C standards

The following are my tasks :

I have to do the complete design and backend coding
I have to do the database design
I have to do lot of rich GUI functionalities like drag and drop, etc
I have to build lot of reporting stuff into it for the customer, administrator,etc
I need to build separate control panels for all 3 users with limited and unlimited access rights based on roles and privileges
All sellers will upload their products and I need to build a good system for uploading huge data
I have to build advertising features like news letters, promotion campaign, etc
I have to build a live help feature also
I have to build a solid enterprise class search feature into it
I have to do the user registration/user management and payment gateway integration I have to build a bidding feature also

I also need to manage the following:

Complete end to end testing testing which includes (unit, functional, integration, etc)
Complete deployment and scalability testing and management



More to above ::: I know the requirements here are very brief. But that is what I have with me. The client is asking me to quote an approximate quote and he will pay more than that after it is finalized. So I need some approximate duration and cost ( On a funny note : I am not thinking of http://www.amazon.com for sure )
It will be something like this (http://www.tajonline.com/)

A: 

Your question cannot be answered here with the information that you provide. However, I suggest that you get a copy of "Software Estimation" by Steve McConnell; you will probably find it very useful for this and future projects.

CesarGon
Hey CesarGon thanks a lot for taking time to answer. I know the requirements here are very brief. But that is what I have with me. The client is asking me to quote an approximate quote and he will pay more than that after it is finalized. So I need some approximate duration and cost ( On a funny note : I am not thinking of www.amazon.com for sure ) It will be something like this (<http://www.tajonline.com/>)
Guru Charan
I understand your need. However, I don't think that an accurate answer can be given here. If anybody is in the position of making a good estimate, that is you. A book such as McConnell's is likely to help. Good luck!
CesarGon
+1  A: 

I have my thoughts on this on this answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1692754/how-do-you-go-about-charging-for-building-a-website/1795125#1795125.

It was not the accepted answer, but given your question description I strongly suggest that if you don't want to get into trouble.

eglasius
Thanks a lot!! Its simply great!!
Guru Charan
A: 
AMissico