Drupal Themes from TopNotchThemes

Planning your Drupal project

Scope of Project

When it looks like you’ll need to hire someone, you need to be detailed and specific. I can’t emphasize this enough. Defining the scope of the project is the biggest thing that will save you from encountering major problems later on. As I mentioned, you need to be as specific as possible. If you need modules changed or new functionality created, be sure to state this. Do you require a new theme, too? Will you require installation and modification? What’s your timeline? Think about the user perspective – what can an anonymous user do? What happens when they click there? Should that be hidden in search results? What should it look like?

While these seem somewhat obvious, remember that the developer or designer cannot read your mind. Vagueness never helps your bottom line.

Budget

Now that you have an idea of the project scope, you need to figure out a budget. When talking with programmers in regards to price you need to be clear - know exactly what you can afford. Don’t worry at this point, once you quote a price, the programmer will let you know what can and can’t be done within your budget. Sure, you may need to cut back on what you can get done at this time, however, this also allows you to break up the project into smaller tasks - which sometimes are easier on cost as well as stress levels. Be wary of flat rate quotes when you haven’t provided much detail yet.

Match skill level to task

With a budget in place, the next step is to match the desired skill level to the specific task. You wouldn’t want a plumber to rewire your house. The same idea applies to your website. You need the right person for the right job. For example, if you require a new theme, you need someone with CSS knowledge and Drupal experience to create what you desire. Take into consideration that experienced people can do most jobs in a shorter time, and implemented with higher quality, which will ultimately save you money.

Pricing

Pricing is a very difficult realm to estimate. It’s like asking how much a house costs. Pricing will vary depending on the features you require, your timeline, and goals. You can find outsourced programmers for $10/hr, or you may pay $150/hr for a senior Drupal developer. You shouldn’t expect to pay less than $30/hr for a Drupal developer or themer with solid experience, and more likely in the $40-70/hr range. Exceptions exist, but they are often red flags, and you should proceed with caution if a candidate seems too good to be true. I would discourage you from working with a flat rate for your entire project, unless it a simple and very well defined task, such as installing Drupal on your server, adding a small feature to a module (these are often posted as “bounties” — as in “I will pay $X for feature Y”), or creating a simple Drupal theme from a set of detailed mockups.

Currently there are fewer good Drupal developers than the organizations who want them. Drupal has had a slower adoption in the corporate and mainstream world, but that is starting to change. If you are implementing a unique and complex set of features, it is best to go for a very experienced developer who knows Drupal’s best practices and will save you headaches down the road.

Mydrupal.com has a directory of Drupal service providers where some individuals and firms have listed their hourly rate.

Don’t forget the old story about the employer who complained that the repairman charged him $1000 for fixing a problem, even though he only tapped one spot with his hammer. So, the repair man itemized his bill: 1 tap = $5, knowing where to tap = $995.

Drupal is very much about “knowing where to tap,” and that takes months, if not years of building Drupal sites to be proficient at.

Tools/Documents

Now comes the time to actually hire on these people needed to get your website going. There are plenty of good resources out there on the technicalities of hiring a contractor, but here is a brief overview. You’ll want documentation, like a functional specs document, stating clearly what you require as detailed as possible, which includes agreed upon milestone dates. Wireframes are also a key document for planning and defining scope.

You will also need a contract. An excellent website to check out for contractor agreements and other legal forms is http://www.nolo.com. This site caters to the legal aspects of a business you’ll most commonly encounter.

Always expect that things will cost more and take longer than you think. The best thing you can do to keep your project on schedule and budget is get all materials to your workers as soon as possible, in particular preparing your site’s content when they request it. Building a site without having real content to enter is always a huge headache.

Contributing back to the community

Drupal is open source software, and there is a strong community around contributing and sharing code with each other. You should talk to your developer about whether there will be modifications made or custom modules that you could contribute back to the community by posting it on Drupal.org. This is the main reason that Drupal is as fantastic as it is today. If you are a business or organization building your site on Drupal, the code you sponsor can be marked with your name and link when posted to the site, which ultimately helps your site!