O.P.M. (Other People's Messes)

Submitted by John on Thu, 04/09/2009 - 12:45pm
in

It's Tuesday afternoon. Do you know where your web developer is?

Not a week goes by where I don't get a call from some damsel in distress or some suit'n-tie in need of a fixer (re: Pulp Fiction’s Winston 'The Wolf' Wolfe).

The narrative goes as follows:

Exposition (Soundtrack: plaintive violin music - maybe an oboe)

  • I need x, y and z changed on my site
  • my site used to work but now it's not
  • I spent $[insert obscene number of dollars here] and it needs to be finished
  • Help! I had a site and it's disappeared

Rising Action (bring in cellos & theremin)

  • my developer isn't answering my calls and his mother threatened a restraining order if I don't stop calling
  • my nephew can't finish because he had to go to college
  • my developer has taken all my money and move to Antigua
  • my developer is being held by Somali pirates

Climax (bombastic brass with thundering tympani)

  • Help!!
  • ARRRRRGGGGHHHHH!
  • I'm so embarrassed
  • I changed his diapers and wiped his nose how could he be so irresponsible and leave me by going off to college?

As reality settles in and the falling action arcs downward as I'm being asked to preside over the dénouement. Will this story end in catastrophe or resolution?

I can pretty much always help but be aware, it can be expensive to clean up other people's messes.

It doesn't have to be this way. Good web development is hard work but it doesn't have to be root canal.

Here are a few tips to avoid the more common problems I run across:

  • Get a web professional developer.
  • Did I mention you should get a professional? Would you hire a high school mathlete to file your taxes? A college English Lit major to develop your marketing program? Would you trust your nephew to create your company's brand? If you answer yes to any of these questions you’ve just crossed into to the world of “you get what you pay for”.
  • Make sure your developer is qualified and reliable. How well do they answer your questions? Are they willing to speak plain English and explain things in a way that any intelligent business person can understand? Check out the sites they've already done. Ask them what parts they actually worked on (design, programming, html, css). Get references - oh, then call the references. Ask their references about how the development process went and what the follow-up was like. Ask them how the developer handles changes or questions or service issues.
  • Protect your domain. Remember – your domain (www.yourcompanyname.com) is part of your brand and you own it. If your developer registers it for you make sure it is registered in your or your company's name with your e-mail address as the contact and that you have access to it (registration service login id and password). Once the site is up and running, log in and change the password. Any upstanding developer will understand.
  • Likewise, your site is your property. You paid for it. Make sure you have access to the site (ftp login, user id and password) and that you know who is actually hosting the site. The idea is to know how to get access to your site and all the files in the event the developer is no longer available.
  • Educate yourself on what technologies are being used. You don't have to know how to program php or code html but have a general idea as to what the key elements are and how they relate to each other. You might not be able to change your car's timing belt but you have a general idea as to what a transmission is and what a battery looks like.
  • If part or all of your site is being done in Flash (an animation / application authoring tool), make sure you get the source code. If you don't, then it's possible that only the original developer can make changes.
  • If you're developer is using a Content Management System (CMS) find out what it is and who maintains (updates) it. Be aware of proprietary CMS's or proprietary anything. There are reputable developers with great proprietary systems but there are also guys who've developed a half-baked unsupported system that will leave you locked into their system until you decide to do a complete rebuild.

Need a fix? Call us.
Better yet, call us first.