Functional Specification

There are so many on-line services available now that creating a new Web site doesn't necessarily require any new software; it just requires putting existing software together in a particular way. The trouble is, there is a lot of this software available, and it's not always easy to specify your requirements clearly before approaching a Web developer.

For example ...

  • If you're selling products on-line, you need a secure payment system. But do you also need an affiliate program, digital product delivery service, recurring subscriptions, manual transaction facility, etc.?
  • And do you need a full merchant account with a bank; or can you use PayPal, StrataPay or some other such system?
  • If you provide password-protected access to some stuff, what sort of protection do you need? Is it one password for everybody (but then what happens if they cancel their membership), or an individual password for each person, or a password per group?
  • And do they all get access to the same resources; or do different passwords give different levels of access?
  • What sort of analytics and Web statistics do you need to track? You can ask for a lot, but if you're not going to use it all, there's no point paying for it.
  • What sort of reporting do you need?
  • What do you need in order to integrate your on-line service with your office administration packages (MYOB, stock control, calendar, CRM, etc.)?
  • What Internet marketing strategies will you use to promote your service? Will they be advertising-based strategies, reputation-based strategies, or a combination of the two?

and, most importantly of all ...

  • What other questions haven't you thought of, but are important to ask?!?!?

That's where this Functional Specification service comes in.

The first step in this process is to create a "functional specification", which is simply a document that describes the requirements of your project in detail. You can then take this to a Web developer, confident that you're asking for what you actually need.

The functional specification also group features into "Must Have", "Nice To Have", and "Future Enhancements". This helps you prioritise your objectives; and you can use this to ask your Web developer for different pricing options.

The functional specification also offers examples of Web services that can do what you need, but without necessarily prescribing them. For example, it might say that PayPal is a suitable payment option, but (say) Clickbank is not - and with the reasons why. Again, this helps your Web developer understand more about exactly what you need.

What's in the package?

This is not just a single session, it's a series of three touch points.

1. Requirements review

I'll ask you to put together an initial list of requirements - based on whatever ideas you have. This can be a broad outline or a lot of detail, but obviously the more detail you provide the easier it is for us to use.

That will help us both prepare so we get the most out of our time together.

2. Consulting Session

We then conduct the consulting session itself, which is available in one of two forms:

  1. A one-hour telephone or Skype session, a recording of the session, and a written transcript of the session. OR
  2. A three-hour face-to-face consulting session.

3. The Functional Specification

I'll then write the functional specification and send it to you for review. Of course, if we need to change things, we'll do that until it matches your requirements. You can then take this to a Web developer for quoting on your project.

Here's How You Get Started

Your investment depends on whether you take up the phone consulting option or the face-to-face consulting option:

  1. Telephone/Skype consulting: $1,500 plus GST.
  2. Three-hour face to face session: $3,000 plus GST.

E-mail or phone me (details at the bottom of the page) and we can decide together whether this package is right for you.