Estimate: Websites

TL;DR - a blanket estimation for any website moving forward will be 6-8 weeks after design is approved and handed off. This includes the initial site build, QA, troubleshooting, etc that are part of the process.

Why 2 months?

Historically devs were asked to commit to a delivery deadline when the project was being scoped out—we're not doing that anymore. There is 100% fail rate when we do that. The best answer to provide to clients is dev will take 6-8 weeks to complete after designs are approved. When design is approved, we can quote a more accurate estimate as we will have current task load to consider; when we agree in the beginning we're assuming we know our workload 4 to 6 to 8 weeks in the future. That's just asking for failure.

Scope creep, design creep, new needs etc always come in to play - and that's not necessarily bad! But once you plant a deadline in a clients head, that's all they think about; they completely ignore the handful of weeks added to the project with all the scope creep, and then dev comes out looking incompetent because we can't deliver on something that we didn't estimate for in the beginning. Dev looks back, SQRD looks bad. That doesn't need to happen, we can avoid this.

Site Construction

All websites are custom designed by SQRD and custom WordPress builds by dev. SQRD uses several plugins across all sites and uses them at no charge to clients, however sometimes there is a specific plugin needed for a client and that cost will be forwarded to the client and invoiced by Katie.

All client sites will be hosted on WP Engine at a cost to be assumed by the client ($150/month). Occasionally other hosting needs arise and dev will use their discretion on where that hosting needs to be.

Domain Name Management

Ideally, SQRD Dev will have access to the clients Domain Registrar. This will allow us to quickly add new subdomains for landing pages or other needs. Several clients do like to keep this information to themselves and that is acceptable, but it can slow down go-live times on projects.

Process

The website building process can be broken down in to 9 major steps:

  1. Site Map and Site Structure
  2. Content
  3. Content > Design Handoff
  4. Design
  5. Design > Development Handoff
  6. Development
  7. Design QA
  8. Content Site Build
  9. Final QA

Ideally, the steps are taken in order, but all too often the Content step is skipped. Personally, I think this is a missed opportunity to create a very well balanced website.

1: Site Map and Site Structure (2 weeks)

This step should only take a week or two to complete and includes a simple diagram of top-level pages and sub-pages, as well as defining any conversion flows that need to be followed with various call to action plans in place.

2: Content (4-6 weeks)

Now that you have your structure in place, it's time to write, write, write. Since you now know the journey you want visitors to take around your site, you can write stories and calls-to-action that lead them down that journey. Every page should convey the information needed for its' step in the journey, and lead visitors down the right path - whether it's education or action.

Moviemakers don't shoot a bunch of random scenes, and then hope that the editor can assemble them in to a coherent story. Yet, in web development, most clients want to see the scenes before there's a script. This is pretty short-sighted and we need to lead them away from this path. A well structured site map with a purpose for each page should be thought-out and planned; and then killer marketing copy needs to be written that all leads to conversions. The site should be able to stand on its' own as just words on a page without design.

3: Content > Design Hand-Off

Once content is complete, the CS will meet with the design team to review the site structure and content, to answer and questions and provide clarity for the design team to move forward.

4: Design (4-6 weeks)

With copy and story-telling all solidified, the design team can confidently and beautifully wrap those words in a design that compliments the journey. All assets should be generated in this step - photos, videos, icons, graphics, etc.

5: Design > Development Hand-Off

Once designs have been approved, the Design Team, CS, and Development team will meet to thoroughly review the site, covering all design, photo, and UX needs and plans. All sliders, animations, etc are to be discussed.

After this meeting, Dev will take a day or two to review and plan and estimate how long the site will take to build, and will meet once again with Design and CS to go over the proposed timeline.

6: Development (2-4 weeks)

By this point everything has been decided, written, and created. All the dev team needs to do is build a website. With everything beforehand completed, this step can actually move quite quickly as we won't have to start and stop with questions or confusion or asset needs. When complete, the client should be given exactly what they approved with all the previous steps.

7: Design QA (1 weeks)

After Dev has finished building out all blocks, they will built out a few pages that includes all of the blocks and let the Design team do a visual QA. They will work alongside dev to fix and adjust any elements that don't quite match the design expectations.

8: Content Site Build (2 weeks)

It's finally time to build out all the pages and add in all the content. This step can be done by anyone but will be led by the CS team. Since all the content was created back in step 1, and all assets created by design, and all the blocks are ready and built in WordPress, this should be a pretty simple process to undertake since it's mainly just copy, paste, and upload files in to WordPress via the Dashboard.

9: Client QA and Functionality QA, and final Design QA

Once the site is all built out, QA begins to verify that all customer journeys are correct, the design is built out correctly, and to make sure there are no dead links, misspellings, etc. This is a joint effort between SQRD and the Client, and should take a few days to 2 weeks to complete and go live with the website.

It is important to set a hard deadline in this step, as oftentimes clients can start to give scope creep again and extend launch several weeks past completion. This should not be allowed, and any scope creep should be added as a V2 addition over the coming weeks post-launch. Once a site design is approved, there's nothing more to be added to the project in its current scope.