Boyink! - Spring Forward on the Web

We’re interested in a content management system like Expression Engine. Please advise as to cost and timing. Our URL is ________.  Thank you.

Simply put - I can only quote a project to the same level of detail as it’s been specified.  In the case of the above—which is a slightly edited version of an inquiry email I recently received, I can’t even begin to put numbers or timing on the project as it’s simply too vague.

I always think of websites as being a bit like a custom-built house.  I don’t think people would approach a home-builder and say, “Hi - I’d like a house.  How much would that cost and when can you have it done?”  The potential customer would know that in order to estimate the cost of building a house there are many decisions that have to be made that further define the project - the overall square footage, the number of bedrooms vs. the number of bathrooms, the location, the finish materials (brick or vinyl siding, etc). 

I know the comparison falls apart a bit under heavy scrutiny - as in most areas there is a rough “cost per square foot” number that people use.  But you get the idea - vague definitions can only get vague answers. 

Same thing with a website - in order to quote prices, I need requirements.

Iif you don’t feel comfortable defining your own requirements, I can develop those for you as a consulting service.  We would agree to a certain number of hours (typically 15-20), and I would spend those hours interviewing your staff and customers, analyzing your current content, finding out more about your current business and future goals, etc.  The deliverables for this engagement are an internet strategy document that summarizes my findings and plots out a build approach, a sitemap, and a set of wireframes that begin to map out the structure of the site (like an architect’s blueprints).  At this point you could take those deliverables and use them to get estimates from any number of web developers.

If you want to develop your own requirements, this Project Survey (MSWord format) provided by the folks at ExpressionEngine is a good start.  You likely won’t be able to answer all the questions, but answering what ones you can will help me start to determine what your project will cost.

Please understand - I don’t intend this to come off as a rant.  As a small business owner I appreciate each and every inquiry for work that I receive.  I just want to be able to provide estimates that are as accurate as possible - and I’m sure as a potential client that’s what you want as well. 

In order to do that I just plain need more detail about the proposed project.

Comments are closed, but you can read the comments other people left.

1. Nathan Smith on February 11, 2007

   I got a rather cryptic email recently. It went something like this:

   “For security reasons, we are unable to offer full details of the project at this time… please provide details as to how you charge and an estimate on total time and cost if possible.”

   They gave no details as to the scope of the project, yet somehow expected me to tell them how long it would take, and how much it would cost. I love your building a house analogy, so true.

2. Boyink (Author) on February 11, 2007

   Hah!  That’s even better!

3. Zach Katkin on February 17, 2007

   I recently authored a response to a friend’s blog outlining some of the same points. I too also had someone come up to me and ask “how much to create a portal” with almost no additional details. I occasionally go to dealerships and ask, generally, ‘how much for a car…”

4. Jon Christopher on February 18, 2007

   Probably not surprising to anyone, but I’ll run into this time after time as new clients are contacted.  It is impossible to give an accurate quote when you hardly know what you’re getting yourself into.  We’ll generally try to estimate what it is they’re truly looking for and quote based on that.  After a few ‘lessons’ were learned, we’ve tagged a few paragraphs to the end of our quotes to ensure that any numbers mentioned are truly an estimate and subject to change once more details about the project emerge.  We’re currently in the process of coming up with a pre-project survey of sorts, in order to get a better overview of the project before we begin the quote.  As Nathan said, the house building analogy is spot on.

5. Boyink (Author) on February 27, 2007

   Heh - not surprising but still funny, this post has a referrer from google - someone searching for “how much does it cost to build a house”...:)

6. Erwin Heiser on April 17, 2007

   Mike, just a quick comment to tell you the project survey link no longer works since EE redesigned their website.

7. Boyink (Author) on April 17, 2007

   Thanks Erwin - fixed it!

8. Erwin Heiser on April 17, 2007

   Cheers, mate!

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