How We Work Together

Overview

1. Introduction

Thank you for considering Wolf Works for your project. Please be sure to read and understand this document before accepting any quote or proposal as it will govern all work done for you by Wolf Works.

2. Common Concerns

Web projects are very complex by their nature. We ask that you to keep the following items in mind throughout the process:

• The final project Scope is our blueprint, our mutual agreement and is intended to protect the interests of both parties.
• The final Scope of the project (timeline, budget, deliverables) will be determined during Discovery and agreed to by both parties.
• Changes requested after final Scope approval can affect cost, deliverables and timeline.
• You may request Scope changes at any time, subject to these guidelines (https://wolfw.com/Terms/scope.html).
• Delays in approvals or delivery of required materials (content, branding elements, account information, etc.) may affect the project Scope.
• We refer to the end of a project as Delivery not Launch. Delivery happens once the Scope is complete, whereas launch is your decision and often happens later. See Delivery vs. Launch below.
• If you require a signed NDA or ownership agreement, please provide that to us before the kickoff meeting.

Fees

As a service provider, our only product is time.

1. Note on Estimates

Estimating is an art as well as a science. We try our best to be accurate, transparent and fair. We'll adjust pricing with your approval if discovery reveals a need.

Estimates are valid for 30 days, regardless of how provided.

2. Terms

As a small business, timely payment is critical to our ability to offer great service at reasonable prices. We appreciate any help you can provide with your accounts payable department to ensure all payment terms are met.

• We do not extend credit or provide payment plans.
• Project deposit is due before work can begin.
• Payment is due when invoiced except when the amount exceeds $2,000, in which case the terms are Net 30.
• Remember, timely payment allows us to focus on delivering great results.

3. Deposits

• Work cannot begin until the deposit has been received (See Payment Milestones below).
• Deposits are non-refundable except where required by law.
• If, for some reason, we cannot perform or deliver as per the Scope, we will negotiate a pro-rated refund of any unused project funds.

4. Payment Milestones

• Deposit
  • For projects under $100,000, the deposit will be 50% of the estimated cost in the proposal.
  • For projects over $100,000, the deposit will be 30% of the estimated cost in the proposal.
  .
• Progress payment: 50% of the final Scope cost, minus the deposit paid. Due at Beta Presentation milestone.
• Final payment: entire outstanding balance due upon Delivery.
• Hold back: if you want a hold back provision for the payment of this project it must be agreed to and executed before work begins.

5. Late or Non-payment

Unless otherwise agreed to in Scope, if we do not receive payment as per the terms and milestones above, we reserve the right to take any, all or none of the following actions, at our discretion, unless otherwise prohibited by law. No action or inaction on our part will constitute a change to your obligation to pay.

• Elect to continue work or halt.
• Retain any deposits/payments made.
• Shut down services related to project.
• Terminate project.
• Pursue legal action.

6. Retainer

Clients may choose to purchase up to 50 hours in advance (Retainer) to be used for any service that we currently supply.

• Retainer hours are good for 365 days after purchase after which they expire.
• Client may request that we transfer unused Retainer time to another department within its organization, subject to our approval and provided the time has not already expired. (Please note that transfer does not change the expiration date.)

7. Materials and Additional Services

• Materials: cost + time to acquire/process (minimum 30 minutes).
• Labor: billed at current hourly rate (in minimum 15 minute increments).
• Travel beyond 30 miles: may incur additional charges; an estimate will be provided beforehand.

Operational Items

1. Abandoned Projects

Projects dormant (defined as lack of communication from client or lack of timely approval) over 4 weeks may be declared abandoned. We will provide a minimum of two notices to the CLient Lead before this happens.

We reserve the right to take any, all or none following options are available to us once a project is declared abandoned, at our discretion:

• Elect to continue work or halt.
• Retain any deposits/payments made.
• Invoice for any work not covered by deposits/payments made.
• Additional billing for time/materials.
• Terminate project.

If the project is terminated, or upon your request, any/all work completed and paid for will be delivered. Otherwise, unfinished/undeliverable/unpaid work will be archived and kept for up to one calendar year. Reactivation within 1 year may incur restart fees.

2. Hosting/Infrastructure

We do not provide hosting, certificate, domain, provisioning, security, monitoring, backup, disaster recovery, DevOps or email services, but we can facilitate them for you, upon request.

We strongly recommend border protection services like Cloudflare or Cloudfront to protect your website from denial of service (DDOS) attacks and to improve performance and efficiency. We are happy to help you set this service up either as part of a project scope or we can provide a quote upon request.

3. Delivery

Unless otherwise specified in the Scope, we will deliver all product materials and artifacts via one or more of the following methods.

• Repository access (to ours) or shared repository (yours).
• File archive (provided as a .zip or .tar.gz file) on private server.
• Turnover of account (for instance, with a vibe coding project, there is no artifact to download).

Installation, Configuration

Because every organization's hosting arrangements are different, we do not include the price of installation or configuration of the work we deliver by default. We can optionally:

• Provide remote launch support to assist your team.
• Assist you with finding resources.
• Perform the installation and configuration services (assuming required levels of access) at our hourly rate.

If this seems confusing, it is. Feel free to schedule a free consultation to discuss.

Resources

1. Use of Sub-contractors

When additional resources are needed for a project, we rely upon an extensive network of highly qualified professionals, both domestic and abroad, covering almost any technology or area of expertise. The same hourly rate applies.

Upon request, we will provide you with credentials of any such individuals for your approval, approval of which shall not be withheld without adequate reason.

Restrictions & Preferences

Understanding it may impact scope, you may indicate your resource requirements/preferences related to:

• Offshore resources.
• Undocumented U.S. resources.
• Possession of/eligibility for security clearance.

We do not discriminate on any other basis, unless required by law.

Any such preference/requirement must be presented to us before the kickoff meeting and will be incorporated into the Scope.

Quality Assurance

1. Issue Tracking

We track all bugs/issues to ensure nothing is missed. Our bug tracking system can be accessed via our portal.

2. Code Revision

We use version control (Git) for managing code changes and deployments and feature branches for any bug repairs or work done to an existing project. If you have someone on staff who can understand and review pull requests, that's always helpful.

3. Testing Regimen

• Browser Testing: Common, current browsers.
• Accessibility Testing: W3C guidelines (WCAG 2.2 AA).
• Code Validation: XHTML 1.0/Strict and CSS 2 standards.
• Unit Tests: All functions tested through multiple phases.
• Site Testing: Full functionality & navigation check pre/post launch.

4. Warranty

We will fix our errors or omissions for 90 days post-delivery. An error or omission is defined as something in the final Scope that we did not deliver or that does not function as detailed in the Scope. Up to 90 additional minutes over the course of the 90 days are provided to assist with deploying fixes. Additional time can be provided at our hourly rate. External issues may require scope change or new project.

Issues caused by external factors beyond our control are not covered under this policy. They may include (but are not limited to):

• Version changes of dependent software or libraries (e.g., jQuery library).
• Required service outage (e.g., your hosting provider goes down or accidentally deletes a file).
• Security breach or report of vulnerability.
• Actions by client or others.
• Force majeure.

ADA III, Section 504 and 508 Compliance

For all work we provide, we follow the POUR principles provided by WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) as our baseline. This should meet WCAG 2.2 AA guidlines and should satisfy ADA III requirements.

For federally-funded insitutions (or those otherwise requiring it) we can provide higher levels of conformance (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AAA), but it is not guaranteed and can be quite expensive so please let us know during kickoff.

We do not test using screen readers unless you specifically request it during kickoff. Please note that it can add time to the Scope.

Project Management & Communication

We do not use project managers as a general rule because we only work on one major project at a time. We do manage the deliverables, billing, bugs and scope using our dashboard and simple tools like Google Calendar to minimize expenses and to provide the widest level of support.

We provide weekly updates during the course of any project. Retainer clients get monthly summaries. Other updates provided upon request.

We are responsible only for the parts of the project assigned to us in the Scope.

Process Items

1. Major Milestones & Process

Typical development milestones include:

1. Deliver Proposal.
2. Contract Award.
3. Discovery.
4. Client Approval of Scope.
5. Alpha Phase
   • Design (if necessary).
   • Content Migration (if necessary).
   • Feature Build.
   • Alpha Presentation & Feedback.
   • Alpha Approval.
   .
6. Beta Phase
   • Implement Designs (if necessary).
   • Content Migration Review & Edits (if necessary).
   • Feature Completion.
   • Beta Presentation & Feedback.
   • Beta Approval.
   .
7. Gold Phase
   • Final Changes Based on Beta Feedback.
   • Comprehensive Tests.
   • Gold Presentation & Approval.
   • Delivery.
   .
8. Documentation Delivered.
9. Training Session.
10. Launch Support (optional).
11. Post-launch Support (optional).

2. Delivery vs. Launch

Delivery marks project completion. Delivery will happen when we complete our obligations as listed in the Scope and receive final approval from you.

On the other hand, the decision to launch is up to you and as such can take an indefinite amount of time (we've seen launches delayed by a year or more). We promise not to abandon you, we just need to establish a rational set of payment milestones to sustain our business.

Ongoing Support & Maintenance

Support and maintenance are critical to the long term success of your site, but are complex subjects and therefore are handled separately. We can provide almost any kind of support you require outside of 24x7 support. We are happy to recommend other vendors if you wish.

Licensing

We use open-source software. Any commercial code with extra requirements will be cleared with you in advance.

Ownership

All materials created for your project become yours after final payment under the Work For Hire provisions of U.S. Copyright law. Delivery is included in the cost of the project and is detailed above.

Any third party tools used remain the property of their respective owners.

Tools, techniques and other items or devices like templates that aid our development process will remain the property of Wolf Works with a limited, perpetual license for you to use them as part of the project we deliver.

We reserve the right to delete any or all of the materials or work product we provide you from our servers after no less than a year from delivery. We will do our best to help with any requests for these materials.

Conclusion

We are honored to collaborate with you. While we do our best to be relaxed and casual, we take the work seriously and strive for meaningful results.

Acceptance

Signature by an authorized client representative is required before we begin. We're happy to countersign upon request.