GOOD, FAST, CHEAP – PICK TWO

	Good + Fast = Expensive Choose good and fast and we will postpone every other job, cancel all appointments and stay up 25-hours a day just to get your job done. But, don't expect it to be cheap.
	Good + Cheap = Slow Choose good and cheap and we will do a great job for a discounted price, but be patient until we have a free moment from paying clients.
	Fast + Cheap = Inferior Choose fast and cheap and expect an inferior job delivered on time. You truly get what you pay for, and in our opinion this is the least favorable choice of the three.

Excerpt above taken from: http://www.sixside.com/fast_good_cheap.asp

If you could only pick two, which two would you pick? Better/Cheaper. Better/Faster. Cheaper/Faster.
I would personally pick the Better/Cheaper (or the Good + Cheap above) combination.

 Why did you pick these two? An example would really be helpful.
The reason for my choice is that if I am proactive in planning my project, I would build in a buffer in the amount of time it I think it would takes to complete it. Normally, if I think a project will take two weeks to complete, I usually allocate twice that amount of time to accommodate for unexpected schedule changes, interruptions, etc. 

Having the above mentioned mindset, if I had to outsource a project that I could NOT do myself, I would have this concept as my consideration before I offload it. I would rather pay less for a project that is good that takes more time to complete (and may even be done better because there were more time to do it) than to have a project that was just good but was done fast. I would NEVER outsource a project that was fast and cheap which usually result in an inferior product. My philosophy is “get the best for less and forget the rest.” Having said that, I also do not want to fall into the paralysis of analysis trap by allocating too much time.

I have discovered from my own experience that if I am given more time to complete a project, I typically have more time to do it “right the first time” and I have more time to contemplate how to improve a project (The Measure Twice, Cut Once philosophy). Doing a project fast usually doesn’t allow the developer/designer to really “think” about ways to improve the project while it is being created. Also, when a project is done fast, people usually have a tendency to take shortcuts that are not always known to the client. For example, I can show you two web applications that look and behavior EXACTLY the same; however, one underlying code is well written and the other is “slap together” with poor coding practice (using referred to as “spaghetti code”) which would make it hard, if not impossible, for the same developer/designer or another developer/designer to update or maintain it.
As a Freelance Web Developer, most of the times I do two things:

1. Ask the client what is his/her budget and when the project is “really” needed.

2. Then I show the chart above because most clients usually want a project (i.e., web site) for “free or almost free and done yesterday.”  Showing this chart UPFRONT usually helps me to determine if I want to do business with that client or not without wasting a lot of my time.