Presented by David Minton and Stephen Pashby at 4th Annual NCTech4Good Conference (06/07/2013) Don't let planning your next website project become a full-time second job. Join us for a fresh look at the planning, RFP writing, and hiring process. We'll provide a "from the trenches" look at common points of failure and provide tactics for avoiding them through guidelines, tips, and case studies. Takeaways: 1. Learn how to plan a successful website project 2. Learn how to prepare an appropriate RFP 3. Learn how to select appropriate internal resources and/or external vendors

1. How to Plan a
Website Project
& write a successful RFP
Friday, June 7th
David Minton @DH_David
Stephen Pashby @DH_Stephen
@DesignHammer
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2. Overview
• Planning essentials
• Resource allocation
• RFP elements
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3. Staying Organized
“Organizing is what you do before you do
something, so that when you do it, it is not all
mixed up.”
A.A. Milne
Author of Winnie the Pooh
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4. Planning Essentials
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5. Plan for Success
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
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6. On planning
“If you fail to plan, then you plan to fail.”
Harvey MacKay
Author of Swim with the Sharks
Without Being Eaten Alive
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7. Planning for success
• Define Success
• Define Desired Functionality
• DetermineYour Budget
• DefineYour Schedule
• Appoint an Internal Project Manager
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8. Define Success
How will you know if you have been successful?
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9. On success
“How does one measure the success of a
museum?”
J. Paul Getty
Industrialist and Philanthropist
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10. Define success
• What outcomes determine success?
• How can they be measured?
• Are they linked to website functionality?
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11. Possible metrics
• Page views & visits
• Membership submissions
• Contact form submissions
• Online orders
• Online donations
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12. Tips: Success
• Research metrics for similar websites
• Don’t loose sight of users’ needs
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13. Functionality
What does it need to do?
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14. On functionality
“Any program is only as good as it is useful.”
Linus Torvalds
Chief architect of the Linux kernel
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15. Website functionality
• Who will use it?
• What do they need to do?
• How will they interact with it?
• How will you measure their success?
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16. Tips: Functionality
• Define your core functionality
• Plan for user feedback to influence later
development phases
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17. Budget
More than dollars and cents.
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18. “I’d say it’s been my biggest problem all my
life… it’s money. It takes a lot of money to
make these dreams come true.”
Walter Elias “Walt” Disney
Co-founder of Walt Disney Productions
On budgeting
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19. Determine your budget
• What is project success worth to you?
• Budget will guide:
• Technological approach
• Customization & integration
• Expandability & future costs
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20. Budget factors
• Consider total cost of ownership
• If not paying cash, opportunity costs?
• Is schedule or budget flexible?
• How will you measure their success?
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21. Tips: Budgeting
• Projects always cost more than expected
• You never have enough for everything
you want; plan around core needs
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22. Schedule
What to do and when to do it.
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23. “There cannot be a crisis next week. My
schedule is already full.”
Heinz Alfred “Henry” Kissinger
US Secretary of State &
Recipient of Noble Peace Prize
On scheduling
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24. Define your schedule
• Work back from deployment date
• Reserve time for testing
• Reserve time for development
• Reserve time for bidding and selection
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25. Tips: Schedule
• If you think you have set aside enough
time, you probably haven’t
• Expect project to takes 2–3x as long!
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26. Project Management
Chaos was the law of nature;
Order was the dream of man
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27. “Plans are nothing; planning is everything.”
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Supreme Commander Allied Expeditionary Force
On Project Management
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28. Project Management
• Improves efficiency
• Lowers costs
• Reduces chance of failure
• Improves chance of success
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29. Tips: Management
• More decision makers lead to longer and
more expensive projects!
• Provide single points of contact for
project production workers.
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30. Resource Allocation
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31. “Most people have no idea of the giant
capacity we can immediately command when
we focus all of our resources on mastering a
single area of our lives. ”
Tony Robbins
Motivational Speaker
On Resource allocation
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32. Development resources
• You
• Paid staff members
• Volunteers/interns
• Freelance/individuals
• Agencies
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33. You
• Pros
• No additional cost
• Readily available
• Cons
• Opportunity cost
• Do you have the necessary skills?
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34. Paid staff
• Pros
• No additional cost
• Readily available
• Cons
• Opportunity cost
• Less scalable than freelance or agency
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35. Volunteers/interns
• Pros
• Free or cheap
• Augment internal capabilities
• Cons
• Less stable than freelance or agency
• Less scalable than freelance or agency
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36. Freelance/individuals
• Pros
• Less expensive than agency
• Augment internal capabilities
• Cons
• Less stable than agency
• Less scalable than agency
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37. Agencies
• Pros
• Stability
• Technical capabilities
• Scalability
• Cons
• Most expensive
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38. Drafting an RFP
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39. RFP Process
• Writing an RFP
• Selecting firms to approach
• Comparing vendors
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40. “If you think it’s expensive to hire a
professional to do the job, wait until you hire
an amateur.”
Paul Neal “Red” Adair
blowout/oil firefighting pioneer
On hiring professionals
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41. Vendor Information
Without, responses are just a guess.
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42. Vendors need to know
• Functionality
• Constraints
• Schedule
• Budget
• Decision making criteria
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43. Functionality
• Specific functionality
• Public vs. private content
• Third party integration
• “Must haves” vs.“Nice to haves”
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44. Constraints
• Technology requirements
• Hosting requirements
• Security requirements
• Organizational requirements
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45. Schedule
• Timeline for selection process
• Desired start date
• Desired launch date
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46. Budget
• Without a target budget, firms will guess
• What is minimum feature set for budget?
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47. Selection criteria
• Price?
• Schedule?
• Technical experience?
• Samples of similar work?
• Company infrastructure?
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48. Qualification Questions
Comparing apples to apples.
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49. Questions for vendors
• Past projects
• Design & development philosophy
• Technological capabilities
• Capacity
• References
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50. Vendor selection
A good decision is based on more than numbers.
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51. Types of vendors
• Freelance/individuals
• Virtual firms
• Web development agencies
• Advertising/marketing Agencies
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52. Which ones?
• Ask your peers
• Do web searches
• Review other websites
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53. How many?
• Does your organization have a minimum
bidding requirement?
• Consider no more than double this
number
• Ideally 3–6
• If really unsure, consider Request for
Information (RFI) to narrow number
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54. Compare vendors
• Review proposals with vendors through
meetings or calls
• Ask for an apples-to-apples comparison if
vendor proposals do not line up
• Everything is negotiable
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55. Tips and Tricks
Knowledge from the trenches.
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56. Tips: Budgets
• If you aren’t permitted to provide budget
numbers, indicate a budget above which
proposals will not be accepted that is
higher than your budget.This will help
recipients to decide if they want to
respond.
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57. Tips: Budgets
• Indicate who created your current
website, as well as the development cost,
and annual maintenance, as a point of
reference.
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58. Tips: Budgets
• Expect vendors to review your IRS form
990, available on websites such as
www.guidestar.org.
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59. Tips: Qualification
• Schedule initial calls or meetings to allow
both you and the vendors to pre-qualify
each other.
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60. Tips: Qualification
• If you openly publish your RFP, don’t be
surprised by the number of responses
you receive.
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61. Tips: Qualification
• Limit the length of response.This will
save you and the vendors significant time
and effort.
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62. Tips: Qualification
• Ask specific questions to allow you to
better compare vendors.
• The amount of effort required to
respond to your RFP should be
commensurate with your budget!
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63. Tips: Schedule
• Make sure you allow enough time to
review and compare vendors.
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64. Tips: Selection
• Indicate what type of vendor created the
current website.
• Why are you seeking a new vendor?
• Was the current vendor invited
to submit an RFP response?
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65. Tips: Selection
• Indicate how many vendors have been
invited to respond to the RFP, as well as
what types of vendors.
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66. Tips: Selection
• Don’t ask for “spec work.” Most
professionals will not provide work, such
as designs, plans, etc. as part of an RFP
response.
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67. It Doesn’t End Here
No website lasts forever.
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68. Conclusion
• Planning is essential
• Understand the pros and cons of resources
• Make the most of RFP process
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69. David Minton &
Stephen Pashby
Follow us!
@DesignHammer
facebook.com/DesignHammer
www.designhammer.com
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