4 ms·

I'm wondering if it's really a good idea to have such wildly differing requirements be fulfilled with one just proposal. Let me elaborate: you're asking a pote

by akie 14y ago

I'm wondering if it's really a good idea to have such wildly differing requirements be fulfilled with one just proposal. Let me elaborate: you're asking a potential bidder to be fluent in information architecture, and back-end development, and systems architecture, and design. Those four disciplines are so far apart that I would be very curious to see if you can select one company that does all of them equally well. And if you do happen to find one, it would be interesting to see if they really can deliver top-notch quality in all of them. If you ask me, you'd be better of recruiting a separate design, possibly accompanied with an appropriate information architecture, and then start to think about how to do the back-end development and systems architecture. Not only is this a separation of concerns (hooray!), I also think it will get you a bigger pool of applicants, they will also be more likely to be world class in their field. No-one is world class in all those fields at the same time, and trying to find one company that is will most likely get you an 'average' result in at least one area.

jnoller 14y ago
Thank you - I don't disagree with you, honestly though, the overhead of trying to manage those separate entities will quickly outstrip the time and ability the volunteers who are evaluating and managing this process have. If a given company feels it is lacking in any single area, I encourage them to include other specialists in that area as part of their bid - for example, if they're awesome back end designers, but can not do front-end design, I would expect them to find a trusted designer to work with them as part of the bid. Even though this effort is funded, the management of it, the evaluation of the designs/etc is all volunteer based. We can not chase multiple contractors :( That said, the design people/firms I spoke to about this seemed to understand this and stated they would do as I outlined above.

by akie 14y ago

jnoller 14y ago

Thank you - I don't disagree with you, honestly though, the overhead of trying to manage those separate entities will quickly outstrip the time and ability the volunteers who are evaluating and managing this process have. If a given company feels it is lacking in any single area, I encourage them to include other specialists in that area as part of their bid - for example, if they're awesome back end designers, but can not do front-end design, I would expect them to find a trusted designer to work with them as part of the bid. Even though this effort is funded, the management of it, the evaluation of the designs/etc is all volunteer based. We can not chase multiple contractors :( That said, the design people/firms I spoke to about this seemed to understand this and stated they would do as I outlined above.