Re: Proving Correctness (was Java Portability)

["Marin David Condic" <dont.bother.mcondic.auntie.spam@[acm.org>]

Well, a sane company might *try* to sell something on those terms (pay me
everything now and I'll give you a product later and/or pay me the full
development cost plus profit). However I doubt that ery many sane
*customers* would go for it.

Its not that these sort of arrangements don't ever happen. Note that the
giovernment often engages in exactly this sort of arrangement (Well, maybe
with progress payments rather than up front, but the risk is minimal to the
company. As long as they deliver on time, they get paid - often cost plus,
but not as much as it used to be.) The reason is quite simple: The
government is often buying products where a) the technology is totally
unproven, b) the usage is limited to some very small application domain, c)
they aren't going to let you sell the product anywhere else. The contractor
is in effect in an impossible risk position if the government doesn't fund
the development cost.

There may be times when there are similar situations in the private sector.
(unproven technology, limited usage, proprietary capabilities). You may see
some companies funding a development under these conditions. However, it is
a lot more rare than most developments and as I've pointed out elsewhere,
the customer is in a position to apply a lot of leverage on the suplier and
is not likely to give up the end result without some good and valuable
consideration.

MDC
--
Marin David Condic
Senior Software Engineer
Pace Micro Technology Americas    www.pacemicro.com
Enabling the digital revolution
e-Mail:    marin.condic@pacemicro.com
Web:      http://www.mcondic.com/


"Larry Elmore" <ljelmore@home.com> wrote in message
news:3B75C020.E00D149C@home.com...
> >
> > IOW: You go build it - if I like it and find it worth the price you
charge,
> > I buy it. It isn't usually done in the other order - unless you're the
> > government! :-)
>
> I don't think any halfway sane company would even attempt to sell
> anything on those terms (full payment up-front, before anything is
> provided), but I'm sure a lot of custom software is developed with
> partial payments paid upon achievement of intermediate goals, and even
> with some money paid up-front. Certainly a lot of construction jobs are
> done that way.
>