The topic arrived with Tejas Kumar tweets about how to bill contracts... Per hour or Per project?
Let's look at Per hour first. It's a good way to bill when the scope is not clear, or when the project is expected to change a lot. You can start directly, you just need to set a rate and Let's Gooooo! I see a lot of Freelancer do it like that, and are not so much engaged in the project. They just do the job, and that's it. I feel that they would do 1 hour of this or 1 hour of [insert another topic], it doesn't really matter.
I feel that per hour less engaging.
On the other end, Per project you need to do a few go and back prior starting to define a scope, a timeline, and a price with the client. In the end, this preparation doesn't bring value to the product itself and it's time consuming before even starting for both the client and you. It's also less flexibility during developement as the scope is agreed and fixed upfront.
I feel that per project is less flexible.
So what do to?
As usual, it depends! On my side, I perfer to bill per big feature. (WTF, it's not in the title! š ) In the end, it's per project... But small chunks, like this it's overcoming the flexiblity issue. We can start with just a rough understanding of the feature and go. It's limiting also the risk and you get to know how the customer work. With my experience, The more you build trust with the customer, the more you can group features in a single quote. It's less and less risky as you start to know eath other well.
Take away
Avoid Per Hour work as your goal will be the oposit of the customer's goal. You will want to work longer, your customer will want you to work faster! On Per Project you both want more features ššš.