The In-House Development Budget

The motivation for in-house development is often a desire to save money. The false assumption is that the work can be done internally at a fraction of the cost. Often, a project bid received from an external developer is significantly higher than expected. At this point, individuals in the production department may start to imagine that they can do the work internally for the amount originally envisioned. Starting a large project based on this assumption can be a recipe for disaster. A better reaction to this scenario would be to reexamine the original estimate and interview the developer to better understand where the production costs lie. What often happens is that the purportedly high bid sways management to approve internal production for a project that is underbudgeted. Three months later, instead of going live, the site is still being tested and debugged with another three months estimated to completion, and management starts to realize its mistake. This situation benefits no one, least of all the production personnel who may have lobbied to do the work internally.

If you start a project without adequate resources being budgeted, it will require additional unbudgeted resources later. The project reels out of control, quickly escalating toward serious problems. Therefore, you should be especially careful that internal projects carry adequate budgets. Err on the side of overestimating for safety s sake.

Realistic Expectations

Clients often underestimate the cost and effort of developing a website, sometimes drastically. Inexperienced clients naturally...