At 360innovate, we speak to a wide variety of clients looking for developments of all sizes – big and small. If your organisation is looking for a highly functional web site, it is critically important to get the foundations right – to plan the project and put together appropriate documentation before a single line of code is written.

Building a complex web solution is a lot like building a house. Before the first brick is laid, one would consult with an architect to develop the plans for the building. The architect’s job is take the client’s vision, and transform it into something that is safe, complies with the relevant regulations, and meets the client’s needs.

If the client asks for something inappropriate (for reasons of safety, practicality or whatever), then a good architect would advise the client of this and come up with an alternative that would meet the client’s needs.

Quite often, we see non-technical customers essentially trying to do the architect’s job. In producing specifications without having an understanding of the development landscape, the foundations of a successful development are jeopardised.

The stakes might not be quite as high as in architecture – not life and death in any case – but the risks are broadly similar. Unless you are taking security, the user’s experience, and technical considerations into account, your brief will very likely not be as good as it should be. The developers who work on the project will not be given the start they need. This will be to the detriment of the project as a whole; poorly planned features lead to poorly executed features.

The answer to this is simple – speak to us as early in the project’s lifespan as possible. We will take into account technical considerations, the experience of the end user, and your needs too. We can produce a high-quality specification document that will lay the foundations for a successful project, no matter who your developers are.