Posted by mattmm on January 9, 2009 at 8:02pm
I'd like to discuss (if you feel like sharing!) what it takes other D shops to develop your "average" site.
For us, a site that requires no custom code, will "cost" our customers roughly 80 hours of work from us. That's setting up the server/hosting, installation/configuration of D, custom theme (2 revisions), applying the theme, installation.configuration of modules, seeding a few major content areas, training and then launch. We then break down the custom areas that a client requests as seperate modules (modules in the sense of the invoice - not drupal.)
So what does your average site "cost" - to either you or your client. Discuss!
Comments
Process
In any discussion of site development, I find it helpful to ground the discussion in the process of how the site will be developed -- a good process helps ensure that all parties understand how development time is spent, and what the result of those development hours will look like.
Drew Gorton did a great session on this at Do It With Drupal -- the notes of this presentation are online. He is also planning a presentation on this for Drupalcon.
Cheers,
Bill
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Hey Bill, thanks for your
Hey Bill, thanks for your input! You're right, the process really dictates the length of the project.
Discovery
Design
- Mock ups
- Design approval
Core build
Core theme
Module installs
Site testing
Site seeding
Training
Delivery
there are a lot of minor steps I have missed a long the way - but that's our typical flow. Then of course the life cycle process and discovery steps could be huge themselves - god bless you if you find a client that bites on that! ;)
matthewm.org
I would add to your list,
I would add to your list, after module installs, "customization and refinements."
More and more I am implementing a two phase process, where we start with a basic site build as part of phase 1, and then do additional discovery and building as part of phase 2.
This works in a number of ways. To start, I'm not wasting a lot of time, and potentially money, on scoping out something in the beginning. Second, it's far easier for the client to know what he/she wants once they have a live site or a staging site to work on.
On smaller sites it just doesn't make sense to spend a day, on spec, quoting a project, when the project itself might just take a few days to build.
For three projects I'm currently negotiating I have taken this tact. I have basically said I'm not going to scope out your project in advance unless you pay me for my time doing so. So I've offered two options. 1. Pay me to develop a detailed spec and quote -- which they then have the option of shopping around if they wish. Or, 2. we do a very basic spec, we build the site, and then we decide what to do next.
Mind you, I don't do the design part of it. I either partner with themers/designers, use an existing theme, or just convert a design from an existing site into a theme, so my approach might not make sense when developing a new design is a large part of the process.
I'll see how it goes.
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Agreed. We've always said
Agreed. We've always said with discovery, "who" is paying us. Again, that grey area of the business. Do you hold out on indepth discovery, in favor of less hours - potentially losing the client to someone else who introduced a feature/need that you didn't offer.
matthewm.org
matthewm.org