You are on a time and materials contract. You have finished your work product an hour earlier than expected and can go home. However, the billing was expected to be for full eight hours and would affect income goals. What should you do?
a. Bill eight hours
b. Stay an extra hour looking busy to make up the time
c. Find a one-hour task that you can do and legitimately bill the client
d. Bill the seven hours you worked and go home
Saving Changes...
I still confused. Where will be my Ethical responsibility towards my company will vanish?? How I can make a loss to my company who is giving me bread butter.
I also agree that I can not bill 8 hours without working.
So Why cant be "c" will be the answer? as I will search and do 1 hour more work for customer and bill 8hr for my company.
Eventually it will be win-win situation Saving Changes...
Amit JainProgram Manager| BarclaysPune, Maharastra, India
I'd say 'C'.
'D' is not wrong but if we talk about the best option, it would be 'C' Saving Changes...
Michael AdamsSolutions Architect| LANLLos Alamos, Nm, United States
Yes, C is the best answer. It is a task that will have to completed anyway, and getting it done now, rather than later, is a good idea. D is a legitimate answer, but it feels like procrastination to me. Saving Changes...
If the work could have been completed in 7 hours, but was quoted to be completed in 8 hours, then there is some problem in the way the work was estimated in the first place. So, since the work is completed in 7 hours, the client is to be billed for 7 hours and this should be documented in the lessons learnt, so that the estimation for such task would be accurate the next time around.
If there was some work around that aided in the early completion of the task, then that should be clearly documented, while still maintaining the original estimate. Saving Changes...
Hannes KropfProject Manager| ITERGO GmbHHamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Option A) is wrong, because you have a defined scope and a contract on time and material. The scope is fulfilled in less time, so you cannot bill 8 hours. It might be ethical to your boss and your company, but if it emerged, that you have billed for less, then your boss might be charged and that is unethical.
Option B) is unethical to your customer and to your boss too for the same reason as A). Don forget lies have short legs and it will come out, that you have done nothing in the additional hour.
Option C) might be correct, but only if you adress the change of scope to the customer and let him decide, if this is ok for him. Since this behaviour is not described in the answer, the answer is wrong.
Option D) is correct, since it is ethical to the customer and ethical to your boss, for the reason as in A) described.
Option D) is correct Saving Changes...
Rashmi MohanDar Es Salam, Dar Es Salam, Tanzania, United Republic Of
D
Reason : Ethically the work does is only for 8 hours and according to the time and material contract, we should only bill the client for the hours we have actually worked to produce the desired results.
And for option C -If you take up an additional task, you are still billing 7 hours for the completed activity. The additional hour that you expect to bill is for an additional task which if part of the scope would be billed sooner or later. Saving Changes...
Hannes KropfProject Manager| ITERGO GmbHHamburg, Hamburg, Germany
Hello Kalyan,
c) is only the right answer if you inform your customer about the situation beforehand. If he asks you to do something for the additional hour, then and only then everything is fine. It is a question of transparency.
And if you work the additional hour and the work is in the eye of the customer for the wastebucket (sorry) then he would not pay for this hour. You need an additional contract to work for the 8th hour, even if it is an verbal contract. .
Additional is c) not ethical to your company, because if the work you had done was for the wastebucket and the customer is angry and will not contract with your company anymore then it is your fault.
