A website saddled with a bad Content Management System can often really impact the site from being developed to meet your needs. As Umbraco specialists, we’re often approached by potential clients asking for their current site to be migrated to Umbraco. What we’ve learnt is that the impact of failing to properly brief an agency during a migration project can make a huge difference to the quality, timescales, and budgets of what’s being delivered.

It can be very difficult for an agency to provide an accurate or effective quote if presented with a brief of “move my site from platform X to platform y”. This can lead to difficulties of scope, testing, quality and even price later.

The risks can be mitigated by working on a time and materials type contract.  In this scenario, the scope and cost per day are agreed in advance with an estimate of the cost to be completed. The actual cost finally paid isn’t fixed.  This kind of contract often turns out to be the cheapest as the buyer takes the risk should the project overrun.  Because of this, there is often a need for a high level of trust between agency and buyer, in addition to solid plans and efficient communication in order to mitigate the risk of running out of budget before the site is built.

Where buyers need a fixed price contract, a more detailed specification of the features and functionality of the site is essential to providing a quote. Where a requirements spec doesn’t exist on the client side, this will fall to the agency or the buyer adding an additional cost.

At Carbon Six Digital we would typically spend up to two days producing a detailed specification for a complex site with a high level of functionality and perhaps a password protected area. This can take longer for very complex web apps.  Whilst this time will be chargeable it’s cost-effective as it enables us to produce a detailed project brief. Our approach is to use our Initial Project Brief Document as well as a Prioritised Requirements List, both of which are used throughout a project to ensure that the client gets exactly what they specified at the outset.

Next time you commission a new Umbraco website contact Carbon Six Digital to find out how we produce a Project Brief and Requirements List for a Migration Project.

Lastly, if you’re in the throws of having made bad buying decisions when you bought an Umbraco Site Migration you might want to consider using our Health Check service to get things back under control.