Yesterday at 10:39am, Daniel C. said: > I'm doing a research project involving web development companies in > Utah. If you work in web development professionally, and especially > (Mac) if you're a manager at a web development shop, could you take a > minute and tell me what your company's top three challenges are? The > more specific the better.
It's hard to pick just three, as there are probably about 10 problems where any one of the 10 in a serious enough degree could put you in serious danger of going out of business. I don't know that these are really in order, but some that come to mind, especially after others have mentioned them: A. Defining, documenting, and communicating the scope/plan for the project among the client and developers. (I could elaborate on this all day if you want - it's partly about making sure you get paid fairly and that the client feels protected and is happy, and partly about making sure everyone has the same destination and route in mind, and preventing changes in the plan as you go along. If the plan does need to change, the compensation and timeline need to be reevaluated as well. It is challenging to document in a way that clients and developers both understand and yet provides enough technical detail that the devs know exactly what ought to be done.) B. Having the right type and amount of work for each person to do at the right time. (If the person/people selling work are the same as those doing part of that work, it can lead to a nasty roller coaster. Always make sure that someone is still selling your work, even when you're slammed busy, or you'll have a dry spot where you'll do nothing but sell, then end up slamemd again.) C. Consistently high-quality results (Predictability and high quality are huge factors in keeping clients happy.) D. Win-win pricing (Prices that are a win for you and a loss for your client aren't any more sustainable than prices that are a win for your client and a loss for you. But it isn't always that easy to find the happy medium.) E. Building and maintaining a network of happy clients (Getting repeat work is a lot easier usually than getting new clients, and happy clients will spread the word around if you use them right. Referrals are awesome, like a lead plus a testimonial in one, and can often nearly sell the job for you before you even talk to them. But if you're not careful you can dump poison in your well...) F. Managing deadlines to get everything done on time, despite the unexpected complications that can often get in the way. (Picking the right deadlines to promise to a client is also highly important, and adding the right amount of padding to account for the unexpected. Avoiding cascading lateness is a huge thing, since a delay in one project can throw off your whole schedule.) I'm sure there are others, but that's all that comes to mind right now... I hope that helps some. Mac -- Mac Newbold Code Greene, LLC CTO/Chief Technical Officer 44 Exchange Place Office: 801-582-0148 Salt Lake City, UT 84111 Cell: 801-694-6334 www.codegreene.com _______________________________________________ UPHPU mailing list [email protected] http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net
