Writing Web Projects

 Writing a Proposal for a Web Project

If you are working as Project Manager or Consultant or Senior Experienced

Developer, It is quite common that you will be asked to write a proposal for new
project. It is always challenging to come up with a proposal to develop a new
project for a client‘s Web Site. When competing for web design and development
or marketing contracts, a professionally presented development proposal most
often decides whether you lose or win the business.

In the past, going through many written proposals that were reviewed and
approved by the client. Project team also delivered the product on the basis of
Proposal Approved successfully.

I just wanted to share proposal writing experience with you by writing this
article. When putting together a basic web site proposal, you should include the
following elements:

 Executive Summary:
 Describe the Business Problem statement and Vision/Scope statement
here.

This element can have sub elements as follows:

 Objective:

Describe Business Problem statement and Project. Vision/Scope statement.

 Timeframes & Price :

Describe the tentative start and end date of the project.

Also, list out the factors on which the schedule and cost of the project will
depend.
For example, if the team does not get feedback or approval from client
within specific time, both the schedule and cost of the project may be
affected.

“Describe why do you think your project team will be execute this project and
deliver it on schedule and within budget successfully. “

Write some positive points of the company over its competitors.

 Company Profile:

Describe the company background or company history, business

qualifications, technical skills, past achievements and contact details.

 Scope of the Project:

The business you are submitting the proposal for, your understanding of
their products and services, the target market, the goals of the web site
and a rough outline of how you will achieve them.

This should also includes requirements which are excluded from the
project and assumptions for the project.

 Proposed Solution:

A description of the style of the site you are proposing. Elements from the
client’s current branding you will utilize or new elements you will
develop.

 Special Considerations:

Such as globalization, security, performance or other issues pertaining to

the business, site or target market that will need to be addressed.
 Current Architecture:

A detailed description of the architecture of the current system and its

shortcoming.

 Proposed Architecture:

A detailed description of the architecture that will be used for the project.
Also, describe how it will solve the current business problem(s). It should
be explained clearly with the help of a Flow Chart(s) or a Visio Diagram(s).

 Web site flow chart:

A diagram showing the different pages of the site and navigational

structure.

 Flowchart Description:

A detailed description of each web page, how it fits in with the overall
web site theme and the project element it addresses.
 Proposed technology:

A detailed description of the technologies that will be used for the project
like .Net framework, Web Services etc.

Also, Describe how the proposed technology will be the most suitable for
the project.

 Development Timeline:

This should be a description of each stage of the web projects’ development,

the estimated completion date of deliverables/milestones and notes
regarding client consultation and information/feedback from the client.

It should be clear that the schedule and the cost of the project will be
affected if there will be change(s) in the requirements or delay in the
feedback or approval from the client’s side.

 Delivery Schedule:

This should show the delivery date and mode of the delivery for all the
deliverables/milestones for the project.

 Gantt Chart:

This should show the Gantt chart prepared for the project.
  Project Management:

 Project Management

This should be summary of project management activities that will performed

by the Project team.

Project Key members like Business Delivery Owner and Project Manager will be
appointed.

The project team will develop the project. It should be mentioned here that
once the proposal is approved then the team can process the design of the
project.

Also, it should indicate that the client should give feedback/approval on time,
failing to do so may delay the schedule and the cost of the project.

 Project Plan Management

Here you can give details of the Project Management tools will be used for
Project Management like MS Project, MS Excel, Project Monitoring System etc.

 Project Management tools if available should provide :

 Project Setup
 Capturing Actual Effort
 Bug Tracking
 Quality Data Analysis
 Project Metrics Reports
 Employee Training Plans
 Weekly Status Report
Describe how Weekly Status reports will be prepared and sent to the client..

 Monthly Project Status Review

This should explain how the Monthly Project Status Review will help to monitor
the progress of the project. It should also explain how the strategic issues like
customer satisfaction, staff training, change control, risk management and
deviations from company procedures will be reviewed.

 Project Quality Management

This gives detail description of Quality Processes and control to be followed
in all phases of the project.

 Quality Objective

The detailed description of Quality objective is explained here, like:

 Deliver a product that meets and exceeds expectations.

 No schedule slippage.
 No P0 bugs are found during the Acceptance testing phase
 Formal technical review

 Describe the detailed description of the technical review plan for the project,
like Code Review, checking for adherence to standards and naming
convention.
 Software Testing

Describe the detail description of Software Unit Testing planning and Test Cases
creation.

 Standards

Explain the standards and processes that will be followed throughout the life
cycle of the project.

 Enforcement of Standard

Explain how the team will follow standards in the Project Life Cycle.

 Bug Classification

Explain how bugs will be classified for the project like P0 for Critical, P1 for Non
Critical etc.

 Project Communication Management

Here you can give a detailed description of the communication that will be used
for interacting with the client for his/her feedback and approval.

 Email

Here can you write details like email will be primary mode of communication
and will be used for sending project documents to clients for his approval.
 Telephonic Conference

Here you can explain how teleconferencing will be used to keep the project on
track and in good health.

 Project Risk Management

This will have detail description of Project Risk Identification, and assessment
and their mitigation plan.

 Project Related Risk

This should explain risks associated with the project like increasing or changing
requirements from users, delay in client’s feedback/approval.

 Project Life Cycle

This should give a detailed description of the project life cycle model that will be
used for the project with diagram. eg. Waterfall, agile, spiral, incremental etc…

 Project Organizational Roles and Responsibilities

This should explain the roles and responsibilities of the project team of your
organization and that of the client.

 Team Structure

This should show the team structure of the project in hierarchical fashion and
also shows its interactaction with the client’s project team. Also, it should depict
who reports to whom.
 Project Configuration Management

This should explain the scope of the configuration activities for the project. This
should explain how controlled items will be stored and versioned.

 Configuration Items

You can give the list of all the items which have been identified as
configuration items for the project like functional specification, detailed
design, source code etc.

 Change Control Procedure

This will explain how team will handle change requests for the project.
Template is given in the appendix.

 Reporting Procedures

This will explain the reporting procedure for the project: who will report to
whom and how issues will be escalated in case of conflicts and problems.
 Documentation:

Here you can give a list of documents that will be prepared and delivered
to the client for the project. Like function specification, detailed design,
user manual etc.

 Project Costing:

A descriptive breakdown of costing phase wise or deliverable wise and a

total quote including an end date before the price will need to be re-
calculated. Clients usually do not pay for a project in advance or in full.
So, describe how much payment will be due after each phase or
deliverable.

Ensure you take into account the business related items including travel
time, electricity, telephone and consumables.

Bear in mind that things rarely go strictly to plan in web projects and
delays can be expected. Also, the cost of the project is dependent upon
the complexity of the task and the competency of the
developer/designer. In your eagerness to gain the contract, you may lose
money if you quote too close to the bone. Time is money.

 Acceptance:

This should give a detailed description of the Acceptance guidelines and

rules for the project.

 Acceptance Criteria

Describe the Acceptance criteria for the product to be delivered.

 Performance Guarantee

This should explain how the project team ensure that the product has no
performance issue. Also, it will handle post production product related
performance related issues.

 Acceptance Performance

Describe who will develop the Acceptance test plan, also describe that it
would be the client’s responsibility to acknowledge, review and approve
the delivery as complete and acceptable within 2 weeks of when the final
delivery being made. If rejected, the team will rework the software to
requirement.

 Warranty Support:

Describe how long the team will support the product after the final
release. Usually it is 30 days after acceptance or deemed acceptance of
the product. General Terms and conditions:

 Expectations and commitments

It is not unusual for web projects to be delayed due to clients not

supplying feedback or content necessary to complete sections. It is just as
important to be clear in what you expect from your clients as well as
explaining your commitment to them. Conflict resolution issues and
feedback mechanisms should be described.

Your clients will need to know what will occur if they do not supply
information when requested, or request changes mid-stream and the
action that you will take if you are running behind in the project yourself.
 You need to be clear on payment details and consequences of failure to
pay for the services that you provide.

 Mock-ups (samples).

Be careful not to give too much away, just enough to give the client a
good idea of what the site will look like. Ensure copyright notices and
intellectual property statements are in place.

 Ongoing web site maintenance.

Summarize an offer of ongoing site maintenance or the implications of the

client deciding to update or maintain the site themselves after it has been
established.

 Proposal Validity:

This should explain until when this proposal will be valid.

 Disclosure:

You should make it clear that the entire project will be performed by your
company, if an external resource is expected to become part of the team then
it may be necessary to revisit costing based on effort redistribution.

The above points are usually sufficient to put together a professional web
design proposal for a small to medium web based project. It had worked for us
for many projects.

Be prepared to give a presentation on the proposal to the client. Most of the

clients prefer to have a presentation on the proposal to ensure that they
you’re all on the same page. Also, first you need to release a draft version of
the Proposal document and send it to Sponsor/Stakeholder so that if they
want any changes, you can easily negotiate with them before releasing final
version of the proposal. You should also ensure that the Proposal should
address all the concerns/issues the client had laid down.

Also, many clients like to negotiate with cost and schedule, so be prepared to
do some heavy revisions to satisfy your client and find the middle ground
where all parties feel comfortable.

Some clients wants the Proposal documentation in certain format, respect

that as well.

Additionally remember that some companies will ask you for proposals purely
to use as a comparison against another company that they are interested in
hiring; so try and limit the amount of time you spend on the draft until the
client gives indication of serious interest.
Appendix A :

Change Request Form

Customer Name :

Contact Name :

Project Id :

Project Manager/Leader(offshore) :

Project Name :

TO BE FILLED IN BY CLIENT :

Priority :

(Urgent, High, Medium, Low)

Initiated By :

Change Required :

Reasons :

Effort and Impact :.

Affected Modules & Documents :

Costing :

Decision : Approved / Not Approved : By : Date :

TO BE FILLED IN BY OWNER:

Request No :

Date Received By Offshore :

Effort and Impact :

Affected Modules & Documents :

Costing :