[consulting] REVISED RFP FOR DRUPAL DEVELOPER

[Christopher M. Jones]

Yup. Friendly advice. That's all this is. Especially since I personally 
am in no position to take any new work at any price or on any schedule ;-)

Ken, it's clear that the big big issue here is your timeline. I bet that 
if you were able to stretch that you could get some good bites that are 
worth reeling in.

I once did a project on a ONE week deadline. Sort of. The client was 
headed to a trade show and wanted something to show to potential 
investors. All she needed was something she could pull up in a browser 
and click around to one or two subpages. The requirement was that the 
home page look like the comp. Once the trade show was over, we hosed the 
site and built it for real. Took ten months.

Another client, a non profit, had a deadline similar to yours. The 
continuation of funding depended on having something live. If we didn't 
make the live date then the project was going to die. The project 
actually took twice the time alloted, and the project didn't die. 
Because we were able to do a pre-live launch to the investors which, if 
anything, made them MORE excited to invest.

The moral of these stories is: investors / donors cannot be allowed to 
dictate the schedule. And, usually, they can be romanced into being 
flexible when they see that real progress is being made.

I really do wish you the best on this.

On 11/11/2010 03:29 PM, Matt Chapman wrote:
> I didn't perceive or intend any "skewering." Seemed to me it was
> consultants offering friendly advice about how to make an RFP more
> attractive to developers. I'm going to guess the client who prefer
> /high-quality skills/ in their service provider over mere /ambition/.
>
> Even "ambitious developers" can get things done cheap, but rarely fast
> or good. Heck, that describes my first year of Durpal consulting. I
> gave a lot of people some great deals, but if I could do far better
> work in half the time rebuilding those same sites today. But then and
> now, I wouldn't commit to a fixed timeline that short.
>
> All the Best,
>
> Matt
>
>
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 11:42 AM, Sean Effel<admin at drupaltherapy.com>  wrote:
>> This list is a good way to connect clients and developers, but skewering
>> RFP authors will weaken this venue for all of us.
>>
>> What's more, I believe it's unprofessional to scrutinize potential
>> projects in a public forum.  If one has doubts about the feasibility of
>> an RFP then the choices are to either take it up with the author
>> privately or let the opportunity pass on to a more ambitious developer.
>>
>> Sean Effel
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> http://www.drupaltherapy.com
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