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The RightStart System™ - A Web Development Manifesto.

A streamlined and organized system for delivering quality web services.

The SonicSpider Team has been in the Internet business from the very beginning. We personally grew up with all the growing pains of the web and the technologies we all take for granted today. We can remember the time when there were only bulletin board services and painfully slow dialup modems. Over the years we have struggled with a singularly intractable problem:

How can we deliver a quality, standards based website at an affordable price to small businesses?

Five Deadly Cost Killers

For that last three years we have been working on the RightStart System™ to solve this problem. Using and testing many ideas and processes internally. We have found that there are "Five Deadly Cost Killers" that cause delivering a quality, standards based website and related services to become more expensive:

  • Management and Accounting: Economy of Scale - We found that Estimating, Documentation, Billing, and Payment processing on small projects became a significant percentage of the cost of the final product. We call them the Four Management Cost Centers. The cost of these management centers on a project does not shrink equally with the size. There are certain minimums required even on the smallest of projects and this minimum, though a reasonable "percentage" of larger projects, soon overwhelms the costs on small projects. There is a term for this phenomenon: Economy of Scale, basically this means that larger projects enjoy a natural efficiency that does not exist in smaller projects. (Small is under $10k therefore projects under $1k become mostly management costs, basically they cost more to manage than they earn. The web development company, basically is loosing money.) Bottom line is that you can not treat a small project the same as a larger project from a management perspective. This may not be a problem for the part time "hobbyist" web developer who does not care that they are loosing money, but for a professional web development company, it is finanical ruin.
    • What has to change with each of these cost centers on small projects?
      • Estimating - Basically there is no real estimating for small projects. Ball park numbers might be close but it is a large ball park and no promises can be made. To solve this, the "system" has to narrow the choices so that there is a predictable cost and outcome. The "estimate" has to be pre-defined and "standard"
      • Documentation - If you have ever tried to document something you know it takes an incredible amount of time. To solve this, we create a limited number of components that are pre-documented and then re-used. We also rely on the documentation of many of the tools and technologies that we choose for the system.
      • Billing - This one is simple: everything becomes pre-paid. This completely eliminates this cost center.
      • Payment processing - Since everything is pre-paid and is modularized, it can become a item in a shopping cart. This is a well defined solution that is completely automated. Again eliminating this cost center.
  • The Burden of Choices - Choices are nice, but too many choices drives the cost up. Each choice involves more discussion, communications, and then the "Cycle of Revisions" kicks in. Finding ways to limit the choices in some areas, define the choices better in others can save time and therefore money.
  • The Cycle of Revisions - Far too often, building a website becomes an "evolution" of ideas, learning and the discovery of unknown choices for the customer. The business owner often "does not know what he/she does not know". Therefore, as they learn the choices and ideas, all of this becomes overwhelming, triggering frequent revisions as the business owner struggles with all the new information and possibilities. Paralysis and confusion become the norm, the project drags on, and the cost climbs.
  • Vague Goals, and the Failure to Launch - What does it mean to be "done"? How do you measure finished? Many aspects of building a website and delivering web services are, by their very nature, fuzzy. This feeds the expansion of "choices and revisions", with an expansion of time that no one has the time to give. The project stalls and no one is happy.
  • Communication Breakdowns - Phone tag, emails lost in "spamland" and the time it takes to compose that "perfect" email such that there is less misunderstanding. Communication takes time and when it fails or becomes overwhelming, it bogs down the project and increases costs for everyone. Projects have failed simply under the burden of unmanagable communications.

The goal of the RightStart System™ is to minimize and control costs through a streamlined and organized system, by re-inventing ways to manage and control the five Killers. This means that we have very specific procedures and processes for everything. We enforce those processes through the RightStart Development Center and give no quarter. It also means that the customer has specific responsibilities. It is a "contract" of a sort between the RightStart™ team and the customer to get the project done in the most cost effective way possible. This "contract" is the core of the system.

The RightStart™ Goals

The RightStart System™ is built around goals that are tightly align with the Web Standards. Therefore, the foundational goal of the RightStart™ system is Web Standards. Quality and consistency comes from that foundation, lasting value comes from that foundation. This foundation is both the standards themselves and the way those standards are applied. Another point is that even a website that passes the W3C validation can be built in a way that limits its long term value. The key goals, therefore are:

  • Educate our customers, build sustainable expectations and results
  • Strictly supporting W3C standards.
  • Separation of Style and Content and supporting standards based construction
  • Flash, Javascript and other interactive content degrade gracefully and do not disable or make the website unusable.
  • Built to be maintained - Structure and built to be maintained by anyone with basic skills. This will include the following elements:
    • All code commented
    • Ids and class attributes clearly named for their function.
    • Structure is consistent, minimalist, and flexible, thereby supporting changes in design at any future time.
    • Content structured to be indexed.
  • Built for SEO - SEO is considered in every aspect of the construction. Foundational SEO components are built into every page as part of default procedures.
  • No secret formulas, Carefully documented expectations - Every aspect of the services is well documented and transparent. From the design, to the coding through to the SEO services. The Internet is constantly changing and is a very fluid platform, this is clear at all times. We provide a stable and scalable result through standards compliance and disciplined processes.

RightStart™ Development Guidelines

Goals are a great start, but we still need a framework to apply those goals. The next step it to have fundimental guidelines that every process and task must address. To accerate and simplify the traditional web development processes: the basic steps need to be streamlined and how those steps are managed have to be simplified. Following are some basic guidelines we have developed.

  • Alway Start Small - We all have big dreams, unfortunately our pocketbooks and time availability rarely matches those dreams. The key is "baby steps". Because you can't invest in extensive "up front" marketing, business, and customer requirements you need to "experiment" a bit, so starting small allows you to evolve while minimizing dead-ends and avoiding the "field of dreams" syndrome.
  • Focus on the Foundation - If you start small and want to grow, the foundation has to support that growth. Luckily the Internet industry got together in the late 90's and developed what is now called Web Standards. These standards are broken down into specific areas, for example: Web Design Standards and Web Architecture Standards. These standards, if followed, provide a foundation for any website to ensure future compatiblity with all browsers and technologies.
  • Clearly Defined Choices - It is easy to become overwelmed. By starting small and keeping the choices within what can be done in a reasonable timeframe, the project will get done quicker and will be easier to manage.
  • Well Defined Tasks - Each type of website, from a classic HTML/CSS website to a content management website, all of the preparation steps are outlined as steps in a worksheet format.
  • Education and Resources - There are a lot of tasks in building a website that you, the business owner/manager, must either personally do, or must directly manage. You need information on how this fits or works on the web. From content to marketing, the web has changed how many traditional business tasks are accomplished.
  • Realistic Expectations - One of the most frustrating trends in the web industry is the growth of inflated promises and hype. The RightStart staff works tirelessly in reviewing all web technologies and giving them a critical evaluation. Articles and ebooks are developed to give you a balanced and realistic outlook on how these technologies can by used and under what conditions. From that information you can develop reasonable expectations and carefully invest your resources

What About All The Other Low-Cost Website Programs?

They are out there, but work with mixed results. There are template systems available. There are content management systems and "build your website online" systems. Frankly they do work well for some people, especially if you have a technical background such that you can overcome the deficiencies. Unfortunately there are some down sides for each attempt, and some that catch people in a trap, especially the less technically inclined. Some common issues are:

  • Template websites
    • Many are old and use non-standards based construction. This limits the website and makes new techniques and technologies difficult if not impossible to integrate.
    • Poor documentation for the "do-it-yourself" - The more you already know, the better your chances.
    • No underlying system to get it done for you. Buy the template and you are on your own.
  • Content Management Systems (CMS)
    • Often provided as a service with limited or restricted features
      • One size fits all.
      • Slow to move into new ideas and innovations
      • Possible SEO issues and limitations (Varies by solution)
    • Training required and customer can become overwhelmed or lost. For some business owners this can be the death of the project.
    • The RightStart™ Program does provide a CMS system, but:
      • We insure that it is standards based
      • We insure that it can be customized using standards based techniques (CSS)
      • We educate the customer on the responsibilities for success.
      • We educate the customer of the issues and demands that can limit future needs.
  • Online "Build your website in one day.." (or less)
    • You don't own the website or the code.
    • You website does not actually exist but is dynamically generated.
    • Vendor lockin
    • New technology may not work.
    • Often not standards based.
    • SEO issues and limitations and the lack of control

The Problem: These solutions "often" are not designed to grow and adapt to the changes and innovations of the web, and those that are, often require more technical skills, that the small business owner does not have. They are immediate "solutions" that are "frozen" in time and eventually bog down as the web evolves and new technologies arrive. The RightStart™ difference is that our core goals are aligned with the standards provided by the industry supported and sponsored organization, W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). Those goals are largely technology neutral and new technologies continually strive to fit within these standards to increase their chances of acceptance. Basically this insures a web standard base website will be compatible with the future of the Internet.

Our Unique System

All of this sounds nice, but how can this be delivered affordably. SonicSpider has been delivering on these goals for years and will continue to do so at every project level, regardless of the size of the project. The new "System" has to do with developing a disciplined and highly organized approach that drills down to the core of delivering on these goals in a way that minimizes the fore to mentioned "Five Deadly Cost Killers" for smaller projects. That system addresses these Killers in these ways:

  • Right sizing the management and accounting - All projects are prepaid or on a strict automatic payment plan and the management is built into the RightStart™ Customer Development and Resource Center.
    • Detailed work descriptions (the estimate) that define the expectations.
    • Detail guidelines and terms of service
    • Easy online payment system.
    • Flexible automated payment terms available.
  • Controlling the "burden of choices" - Placing reasonable limits that are appropriate to the project size and scope.
    • Limiting designs to those that support the RightStart™ goals
    • Pre-Specified structure (headers, menus and sidebars). We have done a lot of research as to the best ways do organize the HTML for the maximum flexibility and maintenance. Some areas might include:
      • Well defined and documented style sheet components
      • Well defined solutions to common construction issue.
      • Common structure foundations throughout all designs.
      • Tables are only for data, never used for website layouts.
      • Style images only in style sheets (CSS).
      • Data images only in HTML page
      • Common SEO components ready for use
      • Passes W3C validation.
    • Colors and color combinations, based on the skills of professional designers. They know best.
    • Stock photo options and locations - Limited and well defined areas where photos can be switched out. A system for uploading these images and keeping track of what is needed for each page.
  • The Cycle of Revisions are isolated and limited - Scripted online worksheets for every customer task. This helps the customer focus and get the needed task completed without expensive help. Each task is either in "Draft" or "Final" mode. The RighStart™ staff only works on "Final" status items. These areas might include:
    • SEO - Keywords, Page Descriptions and Titles
    • Limitations on image size, type and placement. Upload management and review tools.
    • Content - Structure and completeness. There are no revisions once the status is "Final".
    • Design elements - Design selection and photos.
  • Launching is a goal - All tasks are clearly listed, and the status of each is summarized. The customer is in control of the status of each task, but once it is Final, it stays that way.
    • Clear accounting of the project statuses.
    • Tasks on worksheets broken down into manageable units.
    • Support information and Guides for each task.
    • Fully documented process for each task with a detailed "Getting Started" eBook to guide the process.
  • The system becomes the communication tool - No long emails, no spamland. Every question has the answer in the system before it is asked or there is a clear and managable system for answering each question. This is a part of the system that we will monitor constantly and build more tools as needed. If a customer asks a question that has not been answered it is uploaded to the RightStart system as a global solution for all to see.
    • Help Desk ticket system to keep track of every question, so it never gets lost.
    • Documentation and resources as part of the Development Center.
    • Resources for education and self-help. RightStart is about helping the customer do as much as possible and then filling the blanks as needed. All the while directing and educating as to the "commonly acceptable practices and procedures" as part of the W3C web standards. These areas might include:
      • Webinars and MeetUp groups
      • eBooks
      • Free articles and opportunities for learning.

No "system" is perfect and we will always be tinkering with every aspect of the the RightStart™ System as we review how each customer is using the system and respond quickly to customer needs. It has taken years to build, and it will never be finished.

 

 

 

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