Most software projects fail commercially before they fail technically — because nobody agreed what "done" means or what it costs. Fixed price and time & material are not religions. They are risk allocation strategies.
When fixed price wins
Choose fixed price when scope can be defined in a week, outcomes are measurable, and you want predictability more than infinite flexibility. MVPs, chatbots with clear boundaries, audits, data pipelines with known sources, internal tools replacing a defined workflow — all fit here.
We absorb scope risk, so we scope carefully. That discipline often saves calendar time: fewer meetings, fewer "quick tweaks" that eat a quarter.
When time & material is honest
T&M makes sense for open-ended R&D, evolving product discovery, or when you need a senior embedded in your team for months with priorities shifting weekly. The catch: you need trust, visibility, and senior people — not a bench billing hours.
Our default
ITZEA defaults to fixed-price sprints. If scope shifts materially, we write a change order with a new fixed price — never a vague hourly tab. Clients get engineering, not theatre.