Calculating the cost of developing the site. Some automation

To speed up and standardize the process of calculating the cost of developing sites, we, a few years ago, introduced a simple excel-label that we still use today. Perhaps it will serve you as well. Here is a brief description of the calculation process:



Any development project is the time of the team we sell. This means that the manager who makes the offer to the client needs to get the clocks with a breakdown by activity and stage, then convert them into money. To do this, we make a tablet (ready-made example below), in which:



1. Create a standard team (manager, art director, designer, technical director, programmer, layout designer, content manager, tester). You can significantly expand the composition (depending on the complexity of the projects), but it is not recommended to reduce it.



2. For each role is determined by the rate in the company. It is easily calculated from the cost per developer (P / L + overhead) divided by the number of working hours per month.

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3. The roles of team members can be managerial (manager, art director, technical director) and production (designer, programmer). Depending on the type of role, the participation (elapsed time) in the project will be calculated. Hours for management roles are calculated as% of the time spent on production roles. For example, the manager 15% of the amount of hours for the project. Art director - 10% of the amount of hours for design. Hours for production roles are made up of the costs of various project activities.



4. Create a base of work types (ibid. In the table) for each of the development stages. For example: Design (main page, internal page, photo processing, etc.), Programming (connecting standard CMS, module "Question-answer", module "product catalog", etc.). For each work, a brief description, an example of implementation and an estimate in hours are prepared. Hourly assessment of typical tasks is enough to hold 1 time, gathering with the developers. Non-standard modules are added to the calculation and evaluated for each new project.







5. Enter the coefficients - the surcharge for the complexity. For example, the surcharge may be in the case of increased load, integration with a third-party system, the presence of dynamic elements in the interfaces, etc. The coefficients allow us to lay down buffers for developers. The customer accepts this without any problems.



6. Further, it all comes down to a sign that clearly shows the client what his money is spent on.







K - coefficient of complexity

H1-H7 - development weeks (you can use days, months)



An example of a plate with the calculation and a set of some modules spread on the link http://www.twinscom.ru/docs/web_calculator_demo.xls



Now the manager is left to put the received data into a beautiful offer (he should be able to do it very well) describing the stages, your competitive advantages and send to the customer.

This approach to the assessment introduces a certain standardization, always saves time at the initial stage and, almost always, is adequately perceived by the customer. He sees the structure of the price and understands that simply striking out the modules does not reduce the price by 4 times.



You will say that with such a calculation it is impossible to get a site cheaper than for 150 thousand rubles. Yes, it really is. Even in the regions. When a qualified development team is involved and the project is not done out of pattern, commercial value can rarely be cheaper. Details about this, I already wrote in the article "Black hole in the range of cost sites"

The methodology for this assessment has been developed in the calculation of projects by ICOM and TWINS .



I will be glad to hear from all comments on the calculation. Perhaps someone will offer a modified or own version.



It is important to note that such an approach to project appraisal should not be used to calculate standard or template sites. Here the turnover and the implementation of standards is important. If it is interesting, in the next article, I will tell you about our commercial experience of brand profitability of standard web-canape solutions .