How to properly write specs for a website?

roydan · Sep 7, 2021

I want to set up a website which is well above my abilities.
I'm in the process of writing the specs for it, to sent to a few developers to get their estimations.
I wrote a document that I think I'd understand, but not sure if a developer without my vision of the functionallity would.

Do you have any examples for a document you recieved in the past that you think is a good example for good website specs?
If not, any tip will be appericiated.

Thanks.

timothywcrane · Sep 13, 2021

I have used "back of the napkin" sketches and I have sent in a several volume set of docs on top of doing a presentation... every scenario is different. You can usually gauge a job of any size by first throwing your ideas into a mind map (Freeplane is FLOSS). When you think you have everything you need... export it to an .odt or .doc document, open it up in your word processor (LibreOffice Writer is FLOSS and works best with .odt) to make it as professional as you need it to be. You can even go back and export parts of your mind map as an image file or markdown... so making a whole set of files to present your ideas is not that hard.... just get all the info first... with a mind map in front of you, you will now know "what you do not know"... so you can go find it. Not only will you have a better spec sheet at the end, but you will know more as well. It is often when they start "asking you things" you can't answer that the price goes up dramatically...

roydan · Sep 13, 2021

timothywcrane said:
I have used "back of the napkin" sketches and I have sent in a several volume set of docs on top of doing a presentation... every scenario is different. You can usually gauge a job of any size by first throwing your ideas into a mind map (Freeplane is FLOSS). When you think you have everything you need... export it to an .odt or .doc document, open it up in your word processor (LibreOffice Writer is FLOSS and works best with .odt) to make it as professional as you need it to be. You can even go back and export parts of your mind map as an image file or markdown... so making a whole set of files to present your ideas is not that hard.... just get all the info first... with a mind map in front of you, you will now know "what you do not know"... so you can go find it. Not only will you have a better spec sheet at the end, but you will know more as well. It is often when they start "asking you things" you can't answer that the price goes up dramatically...

Thanks a lot for that!

How to properly write specs for a website?

roydan

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timothywcrane

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roydan

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