As the CEO of a Web development firm since 1994, about 50 percent of my time is spent in quoting (or what we call scoping) websites. It’s often a time-consuming, collaborative and laborious process. Every contingency has to be analyzed, every risk assessed, every detail rooted out. Developing these scopes/quotes can take hours, days or in some cases months. But there is no more important task than this part of the process.

I’ve seen quotes go wonderfully right when everything comes together … and regrettably, when quotes go wrong where expectations and needs are not fully married between the client and the developer.

So, I’ve put together a series of helpful tools, a guide to organizations of how to pick the right Web development firm, generate the most detailed specifications for the project and receive the most accurate quotation.

The RFI (Request for Information)

Before sending out a RFP/Q (Request for Proposal or Quotation), first send out a RFI to a narrow list of Web development firms. A basic RFI will root out those firms that do not have the related experience, staffing or infrastructure to handle your project. A problem you don’t want to discover once the project has been awarded!

The RFI does not need to be lengthy, but should ask these basic questions of the development firm to help you make an informed decision on who should quote your project.

1. Background/history: How long in business? Financially stable?

2. Related Experience: Examine not just general experience, but related experience in your specific industry and requested needs.

3. Staff: How many? Experience? Ask for individual resumes of the key staff involved.

4. References: List of references with specific contact information.

The RFP (Request for Proposal)

This is the critical stage of the quotation process. The more vision and detail you provide the Web development firms, the better and more accurate the resulting quotation will be. But it requires some “heavy lifting” on your part. The following is a general list of items which should be incorporated or considered in your RFP:

1. What is the vision of the project?
• Objectives: What do you wish to accomplish? What is your measure of success for the project?
• Audience: Who is your audience? Technical experience? Are they Web savvy?

2. What are the base requirements?
• Browser standards: Will it run on only the latest versions of Internet Explorer? Or must it run on many different browsers (Netscape, Firefox and others)?
• Resolution standards: Should the site display properly at 640 x 480 pixels? 800 x 600 pixels? This can dramatically change how the website layout is designed.
• Corporate requirements: Are there certain corporate compliance rules that may affect the layout or functionality of the website such as fonts, colors and security?
• Accessibility requirements: Does the site need to be accessible to people with disabilities? Is there a corporate mandate for the site to be 508 compliant?
• Security requirements: What areas of the site should be secured? Are there data that should be secured or encrypted? If you are in the healthcare industry, are there areas of the site that will require HIPAA compliance?
• Hosting requirements: If you are using a Web development firm to host your website, what operating system do they use? What are their uptime statistics? Do they have bandwidth or file storage usage limitations? Do they provide support?
• Programming language: What language should the site be written in? .NET, .ASP, Cold Fusion, PHP? Although you may not know which language is best beforehand, find out why they are using a particular language and its advantages. This way you will not surprised if the finished site is written in a language that is no longer supported!

3. Responsibility: Who in your organization will be managing the project? Will there be a central point of contact from the Web development company? What is the approval process?

4. Phased development: Consider the requirements, your budget and the timeline to determine if the project should be completed in phases. This is ideal for large projects as it will be much easier to manage in smaller “bite-sized” pieces.

5. Timelines: Establish a timeline for the project and a “go-live” date for when the site should be completed. For large projects, establish a series of milestone deadlines for specific portions of the project. This will ensure the project is “on target.”

6. Risk analysis: What can go wrong with the project? Determining this can save a great deal of future headaches and potential budget overruns. The following is a few examples of where a project can experience overruns:
• Reports: Although this is an often requested feature, it is also an often glossed over item in terms of specifics. How many reports? What kind? How will they be generated? Do they need to be exported into another application such as Microsoft Excel?
• Existing databases: How clean are your data? For instance, if you have a database that contains different versions of the field for the state (Michigan, MI, Mich), it will require additional programming to accommodate it. The worse the data, the more time in programming.
• Content migration: Do you wish to move all the content from your old website to the new site? If so, who will be performing that task? Is it merely a few pages, or several hundred? Although simple to perform, this can be a major time factor in the quotation.
• Designing the website: Will another company (aside from the development firm) be designing the website? If so, does the design firm have Web experience? Many graphic design companies are experts in print media design, but may lack the technical knowledge for designing websites, which can cause major cost overruns during the project.

In the end, the RFP is all about minimizing assumptions. The more clear the RFP, the better the quotation.

The quotation

Once a detailed RFP has been released and the proposals start rolling in, here are a few items to look for from the submitting Web development firm:

1. Scope document: The scope document is a very detailed listing of each of the features of the website that reflects the vision and objectives stated in the RFP. A scope document may range from 10 to 50 pages or more in length! This is the meat of the proposal, and it should spell out exactly what you are receiving in terms of deliverables and when they will be delivered. I cannot stress this enough: Read the scope carefully! Believe it or not, oftentimes organizations are in such a hurry to look at the quotation … they only skim over the scope, which is the blueprint for your website!

2. Quotation: Is the quotation broken down feature by feature or in one lump sum? Do you have the ability to choose what items you wish to purchase now and what may be pushed in a future phase?

3. Project management: How will the project be managed by the Web development firm? Will you receive frequent progress reports? How so?

The contract

For every website development project, there should be (at the very least) a “to not exceed” contract provided by the Web development firm. This protects both you and the development firm. Here are a few items to look for in a contract:

1. Billing terms: Is there an upfront fee? Monthly fees? Maintenance agreements? Licensing fees?

2. Post-development support: What is the development firm’s technical support policy? Is there a free grace period after the project goes live? Who owns the code once the project is complete?

3. New features: What happens if you make a request during development that was not part of the quote? Does it have to be authorized? Will you be notified before work begins if there is an additional expense?
By implementing these suggestions, you’re laying a solid foundation to a successful project. These are valuable tools for your organization to ensure you reach your objectives, and for the Web development firm to know how to get there … on time and on budget.

		John Forsberg is CEO of i2 Integration.