Something as a developer or designer I find irritating and I feel a fair few others find is clients or designers making changes once development on a project has commenced. I have recently started some freelancing web development work with a local marketing agency, and hoping to iron these creases out in their processes and help them as much possible.
However there is always one client or designer, or to be fair a few; whom look around once the development has started and are like "Oh actually, I like this can it do this as well" or "I had a rethink and heres the new design, which my brother who is an expert on computers did in powerpoint"
Now these may be a few examples off the web, but we're all in the same boat in that once you see something you want, you want it no matter what it takes. I feel educating the client or designer here is whats in order, they think that by having this on their site it will make it the best and #1 in Google...
Reality Check
Now here is where it comes into play, once the site is near completion and the site is due to launch the following week there is no time to put this new feature in or amend the layout, because then that reduces your testing period. The best way is get all the artwork and functionality documents signed off before commencing the work, and then stating that any changes (depending on how big) will be charged accordingly.
Obviosuly if it's a 2 minute CSS fix or adding another <div> in then that's fine, but bigger changes like changing the layout of the site etc are much bigger and time consuming; they may also require the need to outsource or use any other resources, which may already be booked up.
Coming into land
So basically it's up to you how you run your business, but it's like the phrase I have heard so many times. When you give a client or designer the freedom to pick what they want it's like letting a child in a sweetshop, they will want whatever they can see, and by detailing this in your brief or contract it restricts them to change without additional costs once development has commenced.
