Requirements Document.

[StubbyD]

Hi all,

My first serious post on the subject of our impending, hopefully, websites (*).

First a bit of background - I don't intend to do the up-front grunt work of designing the (hopefully) gorgeous frontend but will no doubt be involved in the week to week running and updating and certainly involved in the advisory capacity.

For reasons why I don't do websites, see www.redandthewolf.co.uk (a production from the drama group I co-led)and www.vinecc.org (this is the main one we are looking at replacing as a by the by).

Anyway, I want to put together a requirements document and before I went about re-inventing the wheel wondered if anyone had already done a similar thing and cared to share their document with me?

That or pointers as to what not to forget, or what I might want to include would be great.

The Stubster

(*) I will likely refer to websites most times as we are going to be throwing up 4 of them. The main one, the Church, will be the biggest and most involved, whilst the second will be an e-commerce front end for the trade business the Church runs (Christian book imports) with possible end user sales as well with teh 3rd and 4th being purely informational and satic page(s).

[Faithhb_lutheran]

I'm a little confused by your question. What type of requirements are you looking for?

[StubbyD]

Perhaps that's why nobody's responded up until now.

I'm thinking along the lines of when in business you put out a tender for say support on your computer hardware - the requirements document will state what type of service you want, etc ....

All I was looking for was when getting your (generic) sites developed, what were your initial must have requirements?

[Faithhb_lutheran]

So your looking for a requirements page on the design? I can't help you there. I do have some docs on website creation strategy but I don't think that's what your looking for.

[flutem3]

Hi, Stu,

I have never heard of a "requirements document". And there can be all kinds of interpretation of the word, requirement. Are you looking for a document which tells people what to do? What the minimum requirements are for a system to have?

The one thing I have learned about websites if nothing else is that we, and I think that includes many people, do the process backwards. It is not the design that is to be created and filled in with content. It is content that is just screaming to be placed on a website. When you have excellent content, the rest can fall in place. Most people do not look at a website to see what wonderful designing we have done whether we like it or not.

That certainly isn't the reason I go to a website. I have a reason for being there, except for those wonderful ones I end up on my accident. It wasn't the design that brought me, and it is not the design of the website which will keep me there. It is the content. That is why I gave www.kencollins.com (http://www.kencollins.com/) as an example of a terrific website for certain kinds of material. It is certainly simple, I can find my way easily, and the content is great. The design does not compete with the content. I am afraid that many of us are trying to overwhelm people with our designs and not paying attention to what people are after. The longer I work with this stuff, the more convinced I am of the truth of it.

And your website is for a church, before anyone begins anything decide how and from whom you are going to get the information to keep the website updated. Even if you do that, it will still be difficult to get it. For example, I just found out today that there is going to be a Christmas breakfast on December 3. It is not worth the time to put it up. You need the information a month before the event, in my opinion, for anybody to see it at all...unless everyone in the church uses the website which our members don't much at all.

That's it. I am going to watch some college football. And tonight is Notre Dame vs. USC. That should be good.

Carol

[David Gillaspey]

Hi all,

To come to the Stubster's defense, I would say that any commercial website or graphic design company would certainly expect a set of requirements from the client, for several reasons:

1. They (the website design or graphic design company) need a set of objectives to which to strive for, that is, what is it that they're supposed to do for the client?

2. Without this list or set of objectives, how could they possibly provide to the client an estimate of the cost of the project?

3. Both parties (design company and client) need an objective way to determine when the job is done. Without a set of requirements, here's what happens: the client keeps coming back, asking for more and more changes, and the design company loses money because they aren't being paid for the changes. With the set of requirements, the design company is basically agreeing to do X amount work for X amount of money, and the client agrees to pay for any changes after the initial requirements are met.

Thus, requirements are like a contract, and protect both parties.

Now, for a church doing their own website, some of the above points won't apply. But you would still want to know 1) what needs to be done? and 2) are you done? Requirements (i.e., a list of requirements) make this possible.

Sometimes, however, a client doesn't know what needs to be done, and sort of relies upon other companies with expertise and experience in a given area to help them. Here in the States, and maybe worldwide, there is a concept called an RFP or Request for Proposal that I think is akin to requirements. Companies needing something done issue RFPs and other companies respond with proposals detailing what work they'll do and for how much money.

Sincerely,

David Gillaspey
President
Great Church Websites.

[flutem3]

Hi,

I didn't mean that there should not be requirements. I meant that I have not heard of a requirements document. If you look at Google Analytics, you can get some ideas of what might be required and measured and how.

In a business the ability to measure is essential. In a church it is a bit more difficult to measure anything. Page hits is iffy at best. And I am not certain how effectiveness can be defined on a church website. I know that our church website is not particularly effective if measuring the number of pages or hits from church members is a criterion.

If I want to use geography as a measure, then we have had people from all 50 states check in as well as 40 different countries. If you want to use educational institutions as a measure, we have had 41 various colleges and universities check in with the top one being Johns Hopkins for a reason I cannot imagine.

However, these are all just figures which are of interest to me just out of curiosity. It does not tell a thing about the website other than there is quite a diversity of people who find it. Please do not tell me it is hackers trying to get in. I doubt that hackers stay as long as most of these people stay, and I am in contact with about one-third of the people from foreighn countries...in particular the Philippines, Spain, and the UK.

I have not yet discovered what people want/need on a church website. And people with whom I have talked over the last couple of years don't seem to know either. I am certain it will differ from church to church, but I would think that there is a core of information that people will use. But I have not discovered what it is.

Anyone who knows please clue me in!!! :D

Carol

[flutem3]

David,

Look! I am a "gold member". That means you will be too in just a few more posts. I figured we would have to have 1000 posts to be "gold". :D

Carol

[StubbyD]

Thank you david - you have put much more clearly what I was after than I did.

Yes, in short I don't need a way of measuring effectiveness or clicks or page visits or anything else that analytics could provide.

What I would like - I'm fermenting my own anyway but wanted to crib and see if there was anything I hadn't thought of - is to present to the company who will be designing the site(s) a list of what we want.

Yes I know we need content.
I know we need it updated and to find out whom.
I know that dates need to be pushed through soonest.

These are all on my project list but not on my requirements document. Call it a document with what we are looking for if you like.


OK

Let's try this another way - because perhaps folks are approaching their answers from a different point of viewing than mine.

I'm project managing the creation of our church website(s). This includes finding teh hosting company, finding the design company (or person), organising the content and the ongoing content. Working out structure of teh site, etc.

What I am not doing is designing the site.

I therefore need to present to a third party our list of requirements or in other words a requirements document.

Trust that makes things a little clearer?

The Stubster.

[flutem3]

Hi, Stu,

I would think that kind of document could not be too restrictive lest you hog tie the designer/s. But I would think money would be an issue.

1. How much are you going to pay for hosting, for software, and to the designer? Is the designer going to do this "out of the goodness of his/her heart" which many, many of us do...and love it.

2. Who is going to maintain the site?

3. How is information going to get to this person?

4. Are people in agreement that the church "should" have a web site.

5. Who will have access to the site?

6. What kind of structure should it have or is that up to the designer?

7. Will you have a secondary person who knows how to work on the site in case of illness of the first person...or more? For example, I am the only person who has ever worked on our site...and nobody else wants to either.

8. Who decides what goes on the web site.

9. Do you need a policy regarding pictures and permission to use them...especially of minors?

10. Are there a sufficient number of people in the church who are computer literate to warrant the time, expense, and energy of building a web site.

11. Is the web site going to emphasize being a church web site or church ministry? Ours, for example, is a church web site even though I think outreach and ministry are the most important things we can do on a web site.

12. Perhaps the most important thing is knowing why you and others are doing the web site.

Carol

[sstress]

Hi all,

My first serious post on the subject of our impending, hopefully, websites (*).

First a bit of background - I don't intend to do the up-front grunt work of designing the (hopefully) gorgeous frontend but will no doubt be involved in the week to week running and updating and certainly involved in the advisory capacity.

For reasons why I don't do websites, see www.redandthewolf.co.uk (http://www.redandthewolf.co.uk) (a production from the drama group I co-led)and www.vinecc.org (http://www.vinecc.org) (this is the main one we are looking at replacing as a by the by).

Anyway, I want to put together a requirements document and before I went about re-inventing the wheel wondered if anyone had already done a similar thing and cared to share their document with me?

That or pointers as to what not to forget, or what I might want to include would be great.

The Stubster

(*) I will likely refer to websites most times as we are going to be throwing up 4 of them. The main one, the Church, will be the biggest and most involved, whilst the second will be an e-commerce front end for the trade business the Church runs (Christian book imports) with possible end user sales as well with teh 3rd and 4th being purely informational and satic page(s).

Hey StubbyD... was reading your post and wanted to offer a structure that I have used for many years for contractual purposes. You can expand on the detail in order to more clearly define your expectations, but (I think) all you will need is a summary of your navigation. I always tell people when attempting to structure or define a website for a designer/developer to "think nav" and go from there. It'll flow out of you like an outline. Here's a typical document I used in my last job (forgive the formatting, its a copy paste from a Word doc):



www.BurlingtonFreePress.com (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/)
Current Overall Site Traffic
Calendar month August 2005: 2.8 million page views, 236,000 Unique Visits


- Proposal -
Website Development & Online Campaign





Homeport




Prepared by Joe Smith
September 6, 2005






















OVERVIEW OF WEBSITE PROJECT


Overview:
Homeport is a new brand name for an existing store. Repositioning itself will be of utmost importance. Brand recognition is extremely low, however, the store and its location are well known. The goal is to promote the Homeport name and to strategically position it as the ?source for your home decorating and comfort needs?. Online at BurlingtonFreePress.com, this will be accomplished with multiple online vehicles including ROS banners, strategically placed banners, and integrating print efforts by leveraging the power of ShopLocal. This campaign will reach more than 200,000 impressions per month, and with the development of a new Homeport website the online marketing tools will be in place. Throughout the next 12 months, it will be imperative to the success of this promotion and branding effort to keep the banners and website up-to-date with sales, new product introductions, holiday promotions, and more. Momentum will be maintained.

SUMMARY OF PRODUCTION PROCESS


- Define web site
- Estimate production costs
- Sign agreement
- Collect content, collateral, images, etc.
- Set up hosting account/transfer domain
- Design initial comp (homepage design). Design will ?set the stage? for the entire site?s look and feel
- Review design with client, revise as necessary
- Cut art and program homepage
- Develop and design sub pages
- Beta testing, final revisions
- Post to live server
- Market and promote website

PROPOSED SITE ORGANIZATION

For ease of navigation and a clean appearance, I recommend that primary navigation elements be minimized, and group elements as follows:

- Homepage (with marketing module)
- Product Showcase (Image Gallery)
- Special Events & Clearance Items
- About Us
- Contact Us/Location

ESTIMATE OF COSTS


Description of Work

Hours

Design and Programming

36




ESTIMATED TOTAL PRODUCTION HOURS


Approx


36 hours


RATE

$50/hr


TOTAL ESTIMATED COST



1800.00



WEBSITE MAINTANANCE


2 hours per month for $50. Hours do not roll over.

HOSTING
A good place to start is godaddy.com. Domain registration is 8.95 per year. A good site hosting plan starts at 3.95 per month. Includes email with your domain name. Feel free to search for other hosting solutions.

ONLINE CAMPAIGN ? BurlingtonFreePress.com

Promote your site with the following high-impact banner campaign.

12 Month Campaign ? 150,000+ Total Impressions
- Header 468 x 60, ROS $450/mth
- Super Giant 250 x 300, Embedded Stories $350/mth
- Custom Banner ? VT House & Home $250/mth (no more than 4 rotations)
- ShopLocal $35/mth

TOTAL $1085
30% Bundled Savings $759.50/mth Save $325.50/mth

Banner Spec Examples, Header and Super Giant
http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/customers/homeport (http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/customers/homeport)

**BONUS SAVINGS** Sign up today! With your 12 month online campaign you receive $1200.00 OFF your website development costs.

FINAL COSTS

Website: $600 One time fee** - Save $1200
Online Campaign: $759.50/mth - Save 325.50/mth
Site Maintenance: $50/mth - Save $50/mth


All content and code developed by BurlingtonFreePress.com becomes property of client upon payment of final invoice associated with this agreement.

I hereby agree to hire BurlingtonFreePress.com to perform all of the above-defined work at or below the price estimated. I understand that anything in addition to this proposal will be considered outside the scope of work and, only after approving additions in writing, will I be billed accordingly.



Client
Date
Online Director ? BurlingtonFreePress.com
Date

________________________

________


09/06/2005

[sstress]

One more thought I had (at risk of talking too much)... I would personally avoid proprietary technical platforms. Stick with open, customizable .Net or PHP apps. Too often we invest in sites that no body can support except for the vendor, and then you find yourself committed to their construct and their invoices. If you find a service that you can plugin at a great price and it supports your needs for now, then do so because you can always cancel it and move onto something else.

I pray your project goes well! Peace!

Michael

[StubbyD]

I pray your project goes well! Peace!
Michael

Many thanks for this Michael - far more comprehensive than my original thoughts, but I'll definitely utilise and adapt.

One question then ... you say to stick to open, customisable stuff, does this include CMS apps as well?

Stu
aka The Stubster

[StubbyD]

Hi Carol,

And thanks for the ongoing answers - excuse my approach back as I'm not trying to be rude it's just my way.

1. No, the designer will not be doing this for free. I thought my other posts had stated this but this is something we don't have the skills for. You've seen my efforts and whilst I thank you for teh compliments you gave them, they are not a patch on what we are looking for and I'm the best code jockey the church has at present (until my son finishes school anyway).

2. 3. and 4. are not issues for this document but are and have and will still be considered.

5. I presume you mean read/write access? If so, again not for this document but there will be a team.

6. This will be a joint effort. The working team under my leadership will put forward our "requirements" and our "house style" and then discuss with the designer what we are looking for.

7. There will be a team - as per q.5

8. Ultimately the pastor and elders but I'm fairly certain that authority will be divested to me.

9. We are already a member of the CCPS (Church Child Protection Services) in the UK and have guidelines in place for that. Again not necessary for this document.

10. Yes - however it isn't just for them. And IMO it never should be.

11 and 12 are perhaps best addressed in a new topic but in short 12 should be a given and I and many others have long thought we need a website but the pastor has also now seen the light.

Not sure what your difefrentiation is between ministry and website but we view teh website as another tool in the ministry toolbox.

Stu
aka The Stubster

[sstress]

Many thanks for this Michael - far more comprehensive than my original thoughts, but I'll definitely utilise and adapt.

One question then ... you say to stick to open, customisable stuff, does this include CMS apps as well?

Stu
aka The Stubster

Hey Stu... I guess I mean focus on the apps that you can support in-house and make sure the apps allow for customization.

But also, take a good look at the app structure to make sure its relatively easy to understand. Some applications can promise the world from a sales presentation, but the actual implementation can be an overwhelming task with very little help/support unless you have deep pockets.

If you have the talent on staff, take a look at developing your own simple CMS in .Net or php (even a cheap godaddy hosting account will support that).

Start very simple and grow from there. Keep in mind, if this is the first time your church is going to be using the web to deliver content, they won't be very saavy. It will require a slow culture change. Oh sure, they'll have a ton of ideas, but usually won't be willing to support it.

Most of the time, it'll go something like this: "Hey, I read that blogging is big. Build me a blog".... 4 weeks later you'll finish your hard work setting up a blog and then do a presentation and maybe even some training on how to use it. 4 weeks after that.... "Hey how come there is no traffic on my blog? No one ever posts to it?" And then you'll realize that the person who asked you to build the the blog has only updated it twice. But he/she will be convinced that its your lack of skill, not their lack of effort.

Education is extremely important. Be patient! Maintain those expectations.

Culture change takes time. Give them simple tools and once they prove they can master simple site updates, then begin to add new features... slooowwwly. ;)

I'm sure that's more than you asked for... but I hope it has some value.

Michael

[flutem3]

Thank you, Michael,

That was not more than I needed to know. I forget that four years ago I did not have a computer and was just beginning to entertain the notion that I should get one with some of the money Dad left to me when he died.

I certainly have had to learn. Your comment about changing the culture within the church is what struck me. Thank you for phrasing it that way because that is certainly what has to happen. We will have had a web site for three years in January, but we do not have a particularly literate congregation...so instead of banging my head against the wall, I need to do more teaching.

Now that I am able to go to church some times, that will be somewhat easier to do. Until this summer I was physically unable to get into the church. Other people just cannot "pitch" and teach your own product like we can. We know it best...and usually care about it and see its value the most.

Thanks again for your wisdom. I am a patient person in general, but I have lost it time and time again. Now, I will approach the situation in a bit wiser way thanks to you.

Carol

[StubbyD]

Culture change takes time. Give them simple tools and once they prove they can master simple site updates, then begin to add new features... slooowwwly. ;)

Don't I just know this ....

I'm into my 3rd decade in working with IT and it has taken me until about 3yrs ago to move my church from 2 or 3 disconnected PCs (and growing) with only one having internet access and then riddled with virus and spyware to having a proper*** networked setup with daily updates of AV, firewalls on all PCs and a shared internet connection with remote support as and when required.

As to the web though I have a very strong ally in this - my pastor, he wants it and he's driving this change and it's funny, but when the pastor gets behind things they usually happen :)


*** Almost proper network - the then person in charge of IT on the office staff has a poverty mentality (as in there is no sense to it and if he could save a penny on the product but pay more on the postage he would) and got someone who'd read up on how to do CAT5 cabling to run cables, etc - this despite me being consulted and saying do it porperly first time and other stuff. When it came down to it, over half of the cables had problems!