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In 1996, mountaineer Rob Hall led a team of climbers on what turned out to be a disastrous expedition to the top of Mount Everest. Commercial tourism was big business, and what were arguably underqualified climbers had been able to buy a trip up what was becoming an overcrowded mountain. One such climber, a wealthy socialite, brought an espresso maker along on the expedition. She survived the journey—no thanks to the extra weight she was toting, which at such altitudes and temperatures posed a serious and foolish risk. But the lady and her coffeemaker became a symbol of the excess that commercial Everest tours had become. That espresso maker is exactly what web professionals need to look out for as they approach web sites with limited budgets.
Overstuffed backpacks have undermined many sites, no matter what the budget is. Before any journey, it is tempting to load up on all of the fabulous things that you might use. But low-budget travelers must pack with care. Think of your shoestring site's development as a trip up a tall mountain, where any bit of extra weight is a burden that you have to carry. Pack too much, and it will cost you.
I have never done any mountaineering, but I used to rock-climb. Most of my crag time took place in a climbing gym. My climbing friends and I scaled 70-foot slabs made of plywood and synthetic rock formations. The gym was pricey, and I think it made most of its money by selling beverages. Bottled water was about $3 a pop. These were my graduate student days, and I did not have money for extras, so I brought tap water from home. Pretty simple stuff, but I probably saved hundreds of dollars each year that I climbed there.
Budget Threat: Treating Small-Budget Sites Too Casually Can Be Expensive - I have enjoyed a modest supplemental income from creating small-budget sites in my free time. I learned the hard way that neglecting the planning phase of such a site costs money in the long run. By failing to plan and budget for basic things, such as the cost of new fonts, the time to produce web-ready images, and the labor of authoring content that was supposed to have been created by someone else, I have worked more hours without pay than I care to add up. Whether you are working freelance, in an agency, or in-house, don't let poor planning eat away at your budget this way.
So often when web professionals approach a small site, they don't take the time to plan. A low dollar amount can lead people to think, "This is a minor project that I can do in my off hours. It is a casual job that will evolve on its own." Don't ever put yourself in this position! You will pay dearly for taking that attitude. If you are working on a flat fee, you will not recover your costs. If you are working on a billable-hour schedule and you pass that cost on to the client, shame on you! If you are working full-time as part of an in-house team, you will pay personally by working late and on weekends to make up for time lost to lack of vision. One way or another, lack of planning will cost you big-time.
If you plan well, your project has a better chance of staying on budget. Specifically, you need to address three steps formally and rigorously:
Define the goals of your site.
Define the functional requirements.
Define the technical requirements.
None of these steps needs to be overly involved, but you do have to take the time to write each definition in a document. These documents will help you and your budget stay on track.
Budget Threat: Scope Creep - An unstoppable phenomenon is common to all web sites: scope creep. The development of a web site is hard to pin down. New ideas surface, and needs change. The scope of your project expands exponentially as new ideas and new "needs" are added. Scope creep can be good or bad, depending on how you manage it. The trick is to direct these shifts by making conscientious adjustments to the definition of your site and by carefully adjusting the budget to fit the new needs. Clearly defined project goals and carefully articulated functional and technical requirements will help you stay sane and in the black as you begin to experience scope creep.
Before you begin to work, sit down and take the time to write out what you are trying to achieve with your site. Let's work with a hypothetical example. The following is a freelance scenario, but the principles apply to any web-development circumstance.
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