Short money cannot be an excuse to eliminate the necessity of the project.
We can easily compare building a website to building a house. In the best practices manual it is certainly written: hire an architect, make a good project, hire a good contractor with a good project manager, a good foreman and good bricklayers. The more adventurous ones sometimes eliminate the architect’s “cost” and propose to solve everything with the project manager or even directly with the master of works. The chance of going wrong or turning the execution into chaos increases exponentially. And why? One of the reasons is that any project is loaded with subjectivities. When we eliminate the design phase (planning) we miss the chance to “stress” all the possibilities. Building a website is exactly the same.
Someone could say: it’s very simple, just use one with BPM (Business Project Manager) or use some of the acronyms like PMO, PMP, IPMA, PRINCE2, CPM, WBS, PMBOK, PMI, but for smaller projects with lean budgets maybe not there is space or budget for it.
Well, it turns and moves us, with all the experience we have, we are faced with similar situations. I recently took over the redoing (êta ugly word!) of a website without a web designer and without an information architect, with only my best technician. Reduced budget, simple briefing, easy execution, after all, it was just a matter of “patting the site” to make it better than it already is. The result could not be different: wear and tear, margin reduction and almost going into the red, etc., but we keep the commitment to deliver, after all, for us, mission given is mission accomplished.
The thing is, we need to be very careful when budgeting and taking on a project. Anxiety about closing the deal always gets in the way at these times, but THIS is the most critical moment where we sellers have to take a step back. I explain:
The customer doesn’t always know what he wants but that’s not his fault. Or rather, he almost never knows what he wants. Or, better yet, he knows what he wants, but at the moment zero it is pure subjectivism with references from other sites, but he knows, “I wanted to do the same, only different”. Things clear in his head as we stress the briefing and add more information. And when does this happen? He guesses!
It is true that there are projects and projects. We have simplified products in our portfolio in which I can fulfill all the roles and make good deliveries, but when there are nuances that demand a “tailor-made suit” it’s no use trying to simplify. Need to put all professionals with their skills in the game. And you know what, it goes a little further:
This initial phase of understanding demand is so important that it requires dedication and research. The consumption of time at the beginning is very important so that everything else goes more smoothly. Route corrections are always possible, welcome and even necessary, but planning and documentation greatly mitigates “miss undertandings” and makes execution go more smoothly.
Things are so serious that we even created a pre-budget service where we dedicate a very precious amount of hours to the architecture of demand and organization of desires. We deliver a technical document, impartial with the design of the project, ideas and possibilities “stressed and the direction of the best paths. With that our client can make their budgets with any developer or agency. And most importantly, there are possibilities for all pockets precisely not to give up the most important thing.
Thank you and see you next time!
Cadu Tristão
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Talk to Dotmix and learn about project options for all budgets: Whats: 55 11 98335-2050
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