Employing a company to undertake a web design project can be a daunting task. To save your money, time and to get something that your competitors will be jealous of there are numerous items which you should give due consideration to to ensure that you act in your own best interests.
So the situation is that you need to employ the services of a professional web developer or web designer for your company. How do you go about it so that you don’t waste your time or the time of the companies you get quotes from.
All to often a familiar situation arises. Somebody asks for a quote for a website which after carefull consideration of the requirements one is provided. Then,
it is found out that some other company has been employed to develop the website on a completely different specification. It is even more annoying when you realise that they haven’t made the best choice price wise. How can these pitfalls be avoided.
The onus here is for the person who is getting the quotes from hopefully reputable web designers that they make sure they are getting like for like quotes and that the people quoting provide what is asked for. We are talking about a project specification here.
Drawing up a project specification.
Before even considering getting quotes you should draw up a project specification. This is not as an onerous task as some people seem to think. Be clear in your own mind on what the purpose of the site is and how people will interact with it. Investigate your competitors sites, think objectively about what you like and what you don’t like. Could they be improved? If so what would you add to the site to improve it?
There is not a problem saying in a project specification that the features of your site should be similar to X Y or Z, but be as clear as possible. If you want a Content Management System (CMS), Blog, Forums, Photo galleries, RSS feed, secure areas, make sure you write it down. If you are getting quotes for an ecomerce site make sure you mention how you want the system to operate. Are you happy with paypal for accepting payment or are you going to want a merchant account with an organization such as Protx
The project specification will be typically about 2 pages for a small website. A project specification for a large site could be the size of a novel. But once you have compiled it you will be able to go out to various web designers or web developers and get quotes that you can compare like for like. If you, like most of us, have a limited financial budget, then identify which components of the project could be optional, and ask for those items to be priced separately. This will enable you to proceed with part of the project if necessary without later having arguments with your designers on the value of those particular components.
When evaluating the prices from the companies which you sort tenders from, pay careful attention to any qualifications they may have introduced. If they have made significant qualifications within their price then you are no longer comparing apples with apples and should be very careful. If the result of the qualifications is that they are significantly cheaper than their competitors and you might proceed with their revised specification then it is only fair that you ask the others who provided prices if they can adjust their prices. It might even end up producing an even cheaper price.
However that is not the final use of the specification. It can be used at the end of the project to determine if the project has been completed to the initial requirements. I have seen many projects where arguments have ensued at the end because it was unclear at the outset what the detailed requirements were at the beginning of the project.
Invest some time before employing your web-developer and develop a specification that will save you time, money and give you far greater peace of mind when it comes to your website.
