10 Reasons Why You Should Stick With Billing By The Hour

I am a programmer, and I bill by the hour. I don't have to come up with estimates of how long something will take, when that is normally not possible to accurately guess, and then try to convince my client not to ask for features they now realize they want. If it's worth it to them to add something, they can add it. If they would be willing to argue for it, but not actually pay anything for it, then it gets dropped. This means I only work on features they actually really care about.

Yeah, it means I think of myself as a hired hand. That is, in fact, what I am. This is their project; I give my opinion, but they are the ones who are going to use it. Billing by the hour keeps my mindset right where it should be; this is their project, and I am helping them with it.

Apologies to burger flippers everywhere.

It's not you. It's the stereotypical role. Extremely manual with minimal thought needed to perform the job to be done.