We’ve all done it.
We’ve all seen a crazy deadline and rushed headlong into finding design solutions to largely undefined problems.
‘It’s all good’, we say, ‘we can meet the deadline’ and we resolve to do the hard yards, work back late and rush this one through.
Then, as the deadline approaches, the cracks start to appear and the finely tuned design (which now just needs a quick sign off to keep the project on track) prompts questions that could — and should — have been answered earlier. Last-minute content arrives unexpectedly and we end up having to ditch a whole lot of hard work to fix the design.
Nowhere is this more painful for clients and designers than in web design and development.
At Boccalatte we’ve been busy establishing and refining a web project scoping model to prompt the right questions up front, to be open about factors that affect the cost of a website and to be clear about project deliverables.
We like to share this model with our clients and walk through it with them to make sure everyone starts with a clear view of the project requirements. Our web development process then follows a staged process of content (site) mapping, visual design and finally web development. At each of these milestones we seek a formal sign-off to encourage attention to detail and a commitment to the agreed process.
Of course we understand that requirements change and that throughout the project ‘wouldn’t it great ifs’ are discovered — we completely understand this and welcome anything that makes for a more effective communication design.
That’s when the Boccalatte scoping model kicks in again to come to the rescue.
Elements of the model are attributed with a risk factor and the combined risk assessment leads us to propose a client-controlled contingency budget. With this contingency in place, we are able to say ‘yes’ to most improvements and stay within the project budget.
No more pain. Happy designers. Happy clients.
