Technical task: what elements should be spelled out, and which - in the mind
When I was offered this topic for writing my thoughts in the form of an article, I thought for a long time about what to write, because, in fact, this entire article fits into one sentence, which is a direct answer to this question - All documents should be spelled out and no moments should be in mind. Why exactly? Consider the points:
1. Usually what you keep in mind never coincides with what the customer keeps in mind. In such cases, there is a moment when the Customer says that he assumed the work / view / design is not the same as you did and, unfortunately, you can’t argue with that, since there is no documentation that will confirm your words. And the endless stage of alterations begins, until the client has played enough, or he does not receive a product that is ideal in his opinion. In this case, you go beyond the budget, and the project as a whole becomes not only not profitable, but unprofitable .
2. The project is a “thing” alive and, of course, during its implementation, new trends and goals / objectives will emerge that the client will want to immediately implement. Again, if all the given things are not specified in the assignment, then you will work a lot, and most importantly - for free. After all, if you refuse, the client will refuse to pay even for the work that has already been done and at that moment everything is done to get "at least something." At the same time having a competent task, you can not only refuse, but also motivate the client for additional paid work.
Consider, on the example of the company RBC SOFT , what and in what format should be described in the terms of reference.
Our company develops projects on its own CMS, and almost all typical functionality has already been implemented in standard modules. All these modules have a technical description of the module functionality. And for the development of standard projects, it makes no sense to write everything from scratch. Therefore, together with the client when discussing the project, the entire functionality of the future project is immediately determined, the necessary modules are selected and their description is reduced to the technical task. With non-standard functionality, a new functionality is carefully described in the format of this document. Further, the ready document is agreed with the client, signed and is an integral part of the contract.
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Next, a new document is introduced - the artistic task describing the entire structure and artistic component of the project. After a client’s briefing of 2-3 hours, the analyst and art director develop this document, which describes the structure, visual blocks, company colors, user followers, portraits of the target audience, goals and business objectives of the project. Again, this document is agreed with the client and signed. On the basis of the artistic task, the design of the future project is developed and the client accepts the work in 99% of cases, since during the presentation he doesn’t have a question why this is so and not differently. Everything is coordinated and described in the artistic task and if you want to change something, ask the question: “Why? What will change this edit in the proposed solution of the business problem, which was formulated in the task? ". Without a similar document, you can enter the stage of “moving” the images and “increasing” the logo, which can last indefinitely and eventually a stillborn project will be born that does not solve any problems from a business point of view, but, as you know, any commercial project is intended solve business problems.
And so, to summarize again, the documentation describing the task (it should not be just a technical task) should contain the most complete description of all aspects of the project, from functionality to appearance and business tasks, otherwise you risk getting stillborn
Finally, the rule of working with the client: More paper - cleaner pop!
Igityan Tachat,
Director of Interactive Communications,
RBC SOFT
1. Usually what you keep in mind never coincides with what the customer keeps in mind. In such cases, there is a moment when the Customer says that he assumed the work / view / design is not the same as you did and, unfortunately, you can’t argue with that, since there is no documentation that will confirm your words. And the endless stage of alterations begins, until the client has played enough, or he does not receive a product that is ideal in his opinion. In this case, you go beyond the budget, and the project as a whole becomes not only not profitable, but unprofitable .
2. The project is a “thing” alive and, of course, during its implementation, new trends and goals / objectives will emerge that the client will want to immediately implement. Again, if all the given things are not specified in the assignment, then you will work a lot, and most importantly - for free. After all, if you refuse, the client will refuse to pay even for the work that has already been done and at that moment everything is done to get "at least something." At the same time having a competent task, you can not only refuse, but also motivate the client for additional paid work.
Consider, on the example of the company RBC SOFT , what and in what format should be described in the terms of reference.
Our company develops projects on its own CMS, and almost all typical functionality has already been implemented in standard modules. All these modules have a technical description of the module functionality. And for the development of standard projects, it makes no sense to write everything from scratch. Therefore, together with the client when discussing the project, the entire functionality of the future project is immediately determined, the necessary modules are selected and their description is reduced to the technical task. With non-standard functionality, a new functionality is carefully described in the format of this document. Further, the ready document is agreed with the client, signed and is an integral part of the contract.
')
Next, a new document is introduced - the artistic task describing the entire structure and artistic component of the project. After a client’s briefing of 2-3 hours, the analyst and art director develop this document, which describes the structure, visual blocks, company colors, user followers, portraits of the target audience, goals and business objectives of the project. Again, this document is agreed with the client and signed. On the basis of the artistic task, the design of the future project is developed and the client accepts the work in 99% of cases, since during the presentation he doesn’t have a question why this is so and not differently. Everything is coordinated and described in the artistic task and if you want to change something, ask the question: “Why? What will change this edit in the proposed solution of the business problem, which was formulated in the task? ". Without a similar document, you can enter the stage of “moving” the images and “increasing” the logo, which can last indefinitely and eventually a stillborn project will be born that does not solve any problems from a business point of view, but, as you know, any commercial project is intended solve business problems.
And so, to summarize again, the documentation describing the task (it should not be just a technical task) should contain the most complete description of all aspects of the project, from functionality to appearance and business tasks, otherwise you risk getting stillborn
Finally, the rule of working with the client: More paper - cleaner pop!
Igityan Tachat,
Director of Interactive Communications,
RBC SOFT
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109591/
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