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WEBUILD
How Web Development is Reported on in the Media
Posted at 1 December 2022 | MarketingAn outsourcing agency has a reputation for being untransparent
An outsourcing agency has a reputation for being untransparent. Outsourcing software can be stressful. On the website, there are no prices. If you ask for an estimate, all you get is "it depends", "anywhere from $100,000 to $1 million", or no response at all. The quote arrives as if it was pulled from thin air, which does not build trust.
Our company is all about building trust from the start, which forms the basis for working together.
The scope of web development projects varies greatly
There’s a reason web development agencies can be cagey about pricing: web development projects vary greatly. No two projects are alike. Unlike building a house, there is no cookie-cutter way to build a client website, especially enterprise websites that need to take into account years of legacy, varying content volumes and types, language, accessibility and security requirements unique to their industry.
It’s also rare to understand all of the unique requirements of the project from the first call. Clients may not think to mention certain details because they assume they are irrelevant, but sometimes a detail like “we need to be in full compliance with 508 accessibility” or “the website needs to support a legacy browser” can double or triple the scope of work involved.
But even though scoping is hard - a good web development partner should follow a consistent and transparent methodology on how they scope the work.
Assessment of initial needs
Technology is always in the service of business needs. In an effort to really understand the needs of our clients and ensure that we have the right solutions to meet them, we dig into their company’s goals and needs long before they arrive at technology specs. What does this do for the business in question? Why does the business want it in the first place? What does the future roadmap look like? this is a crucial question, so let's try asking some important questions at the beginning of the process.
First, let's make sure we're clear on what type of project our client is requesting we handle for them.
Are you tasked with creating new content, new branding, or new funnels?
what exactly do you mean by a redesign?
Are there updates? If so, are they related to new features, additional languages, other operating systems, and/or different devices?
do there exist specific industry-related regulations for you to comply with? If so, what kind of requirements and regulations do you go beyond industry standard security measures?
If this project is for a website, where is the client at in regards to their site plan? Do they already have a design and specification? Do they just want to work with us on the new website from scratch?
Determining the cost of web development: The most important factors
our first step is to understand the content of our client. In particular, we need to understand:
what types of content are there? We'll discuss this in the next section.
there is also a huge impact from sheer volume of content.
Next, we look at the design of the client's website. Is it usable? Is the existing HTML and CSS code sufficient, working on required browsers, on mobile devices, etc? Is it possible to reuse much of that code or does it need to be re-coded? The good news is that a lot of that can be reused, which is a major "swing factor" when sizing a project.
in addition, re-creating HTML and CSS requires a number of unique pages.
as we will discuss in the CMS section below, we need to know what CMS the system is currently running on, and what version/license it will be ported to. What custom functionality will be built or re-built? If a client comes to us with a simple request to "lift and shift" their website to a new CMS, they almost always realize that additional functions will need to be added or reworked if they are going to go through with it. Working with custom code requires specific development expertise, and can account for much of the quote.
It is very helpful if the client has documentation to support the factors above. We will analyze this documentation as soon as possible. The client may need to approve our scope assessment by using the existing system and assessing what it currently does. If not, we may be required to write requirements ourselves.
The key to success is transparency and flexibility
The business goals and corresponding scope of work that we have understood in detail, including assumptions and limitations in some cases, are documented. Provide options and recommendations for target platforms, such as CMS licensing options This scope is broken down into timelines, costs, and options in detail. Getting an accurate quote relies on transparency, which we maintain throughout the entire process. the client can correct our understanding at each step along the way if we are constantly feeding back what we're hearing and uncovering.
In web development, flexibility is indispensible. There are many options and choices available to you. There are different options for content, for UI flows, and for cost savings. We try to provide clients with multiple choices (including options they had never considered!) with a recommendation based on our years of experience .