We publish how wrong our estimates have been
Estimated against actual on every project we have delivered, including the ones that ran over and by how much. Across our last twenty-four builds the median overrun was eleven per cent and the worst was sixty-three.
Software built by people who track their own estimating
Iron Pixel Works builds web applications and business systems for organizations across coastal North Carolina. Every estimate we give is recorded against the actual outcome, and the whole history is available to anyone considering working with us.
Web Application Development
Customer portals, booking systems and internal tools, estimated against a written scope with exclusions stated and the estimate recorded for later comparison.
Business Systems
Line-of-business software built in a stack your team can maintain, with the estimating history for comparable past projects shown before you commit.
API and Integration Work
Connecting systems that were never designed to talk to each other, which is where estimates go wrong most often and where our published record is most useful.
Technical Discovery
A paid discovery engagement producing a scope and a defensible estimate, sold standalone so you can take it to any developer.
Maintenance and Support
Ongoing work on systems we built and systems we did not, at the same rates, on rolling thirty day terms.
Code and Estimate Review
An independent read of a codebase or of a quote you have received elsewhere, including an honest assessment of whether the estimate is realistic.
Every development estimate is optimistic and nobody keeps score
A project is estimated at twelve weeks. It takes seventeen. The overrun is absorbed into change requests, scope discussion and a slightly awkward conversation, and no record of the gap is kept anywhere.
The next estimate is made the same way. Without a record of past accuracy, an estimator has nothing to calibrate against and repeats the same optimism indefinitely.
Clients have no basis for comparison. Three firms quote twelve, fourteen and nine weeks. The client has no idea which of them has ever delivered on an estimate, because none of them publishes it.
So we record and publish. Estimated against actual on every project, with the median and the worst case available to anyone who asks. It makes our quotes longer and considerably more reliable.
What every client can expect
Estimate history published
Estimated against actual for every delivered project, including overruns.
Discovery before estimating
A paid discovery engagement produces the scope the estimate rests on.
Ranges where uncertain
Third-party and undocumented work priced as a range with assumptions stated.
Exclusions written down
What is not in scope appears in the scope document.
Your repository
Code in your own account from the first commit.
Same rates for inherited code
Systems we did not build are not priced as a penalty.
Ask to see our estimating record
We will send estimated against actual for every project we have delivered, including the overruns, before you decide anything.
Request an estimate