Making waterfall development work

According to Eric Preisz, CEO of GarageGames -- creators of the Torque engine -- waterfall can still work, as long as you know what you're making and you can accurately define the process. While he says that it's not as useful if you're spending time trying to "find the fun" in a concept, waterfall development still has its place. Here are Preisz's tips -- taken from his new feature about how GarageGames estimates and executes tasks. "GarageGames is a service company and in the majority of the cases we see, the formula for customer's desire on an initial consultation is usually something similar the following," writes Preisz. "I want X by the date of Y. How much will you charge me?"

Problem Statement:

A customer wants a firm fixed price (FFP) quote for a game-related software development project. How does a company arrive at a price and date that is fair for the procuring and commissioned company? To simplify the problem statement, what the customer wants to know is: What, How, When, and How Much is required. Additionally, you will need to determine Who from your firm will do the work. Those elements, solved together are a FFP contract, schedule, and Statement of Work (SOW). Here are the steps we use to build them: 1. Determine initial scope -- Focus on the What. 2. Determine if the project is suitable for FFP contracting -- Initial analysis of How. 3. Build a rough order magnitude estimate -- Second analysis of How, first analysis of When and How Much. 4. Determine scope of the Statement of Work -- Final analysis of What. 5. Determine & deliver final quote -- Final analysis of How, When, and How Much and Who. To find out more, read the full feature, live now on Gamasutra.