Drawbacks of fixed price projects

It seems reassuring doesn't it ?
You've worked hard producing a specification document describing exactly what you want for your next web project, you've carefully selected a few web development companies and you have proposals with promises to deliver your specification on time and to budget. All you need to do now is choose the best company on quality and price. But there are some big risks ahead:

 •  how do you know that your specification is right ?
 •  how do you know whether the web developer will provide the right solution to each feature ?
 •  what will you do if your priorities change during the project ?

A fixed price makes the big assumption that you can know everything about a web development project before you start it. But we know this cannot be true, no plan ever survives the first few weeks of a project, and therefore the measure of a successful approach is how well it adapts to reality, as we discover it on the project, and how much burden is placed on accommodating changes.

That alternative is Software Development Life Cycle