Ask HN: How to formalise an ad-hoc maintenance arrangement

[cppr]

I wrote some software for a family member's joint business a couple of years ago that is used constantly and very much a critical part of the daily operations of their business. Roll on to now and the family member has decided to resign (though retaining their stake), leaving it in the hands of the remaining owner and the investors. There was never much thought given to maintenance in terms of formalising the arrangement, there was the occasional issue with a third party integration that I would resolve without charge (because it was family), but it has been very little hassle. He understands how the software works at a process level and its quirks, so staff would never need to approach me directly.

Now that he will be gone I will potentially have to deal with staff training, direct support if there's an issue, angry managers, etc, currently with nothing in return for myself. If the software or integration fails, then the business grinds to a halt. How should I go around approaching this issue given that they are used to paying nothing, or would it be better for them to approach me when they first need my assistance?

I would want to make sure that I am correctly compensated with a monthly retainer. I wouldn't be able to provide anything in the way of an SLA because I have other work commitments. Any advice would be appreciated.

[jrowley]

I would definitely layout all the options for the client, including an option which is abandoning your software and migrating to / developing a new option. Putting that other option on the table will make whatever you propose seem like the obvious choice.

[japhyr]

Yes, one way to look at this to get out of the "for family" mindset you've been in is to ask what it would cost them to hire a new developer or firm to build them a replacement, and maintain it. That should guide you in deciding how much to charge, if you want to continue working with them.

I imagine you are also asking yourself if you want this ongoing work. If you don't need or want the work, maybe you can agree on a scope of work to help pass the work off to another developer or firm.

I haven't been in your shoes with family before, but I have done low-cost and pro-bono work for nonprofits in the past. Fortunately those projects all wrapped up with a reasonable outcome, and no need for long-term maintenance. It's expensive to pass off projects to developers and firms that don't have an altruistic interest in a project.

[hkhanna]

If it were me, I'd prepare a basic contractor agreement with an hourly rate. And as a retainer, that agreement would guarantee a minimum number of hours a month. You would commit to provide those minimum hours but will not commit to go above that. If you do go above that minimum number of hours, they pay your hourly rate.

For example, you charge $100 per hour with a $1,000 per month retainer, guaranteeing them 10 hours per month. If you and they agree to go above 10 hours for a particular month, you charge $100 per hour in addition to your $1,000 per month retainer.