Back of the envelope price and time for this software project?

January 14, 2009 8:08 AM

Roughly estimating the price and time for a custom document management system?

I'm interested in getting a ballpark figure for a software system that would shepherd submitted articles through the editing process of an academic journal. We'd write a very detailed spec sheet before we solicited bids, of course, but the essential functions are assigning and tracking electronic documents among 30-60 managers and editors. At any given time, there might be about 20 articles in the hopper at various stages of production. Don't worry about the printing itself (we use a regular publishing suite for that); this is just for editing actual text and PDFs. I'm envisioning a database with a basic intranet-style frontend for editors and a backend for the folks who assign them tasks.

If it's not already clear that I've never contracted for a piece of software, well, I haven't. Right now, I'm trying to evaluate the project myself, and sell it to my coworkers. I'm looking for a ballpark figure, so while I'd appreciate a referral to a forum or similar, I'd appreciate a rule of thumb even more. Thanks a lot, and if I've missed a key term I'll happily reply to the thread.

posted by electric_counterpoint to computers & internet (6 comments total)

A lot depends on those detailed specifications. On the lowball end, there are any number of free 'CMS' tools which could be roughly coddled into that general task in maybe a month. On the higher end, custom software development for a web based app that does workflow tracking, e-mail notification, access rights/control, timestamping, auditing, reporting, archiving, versioning...could be a six month task, possibly more.

Multiply all time by 1.50 if you don't have good specifications, or if your specifications are contradictory or subject to change.

Multiply all time by 2 if you don't have buyoff from the 30-60 managers and editors.

Figure $100 an hour for a competent developer. Multiply all time by 1.5 if you spend less than $100 an hour.

Add another month if you don't have servers capable of handling a database, network capable of handling the extra load, a web server capable of adding more throughput, an existing development model (revision control, managers who understand developers, etc.)

So best case scenario -- you are really great at writing specs and have a simple task which open source software can be shoehorned into, buyoff, and infrastructure -- 160 hours @ $100 an hour.

Worst case scenario -- you are terrible at writing specs, hire someone's nephew who knows about the facebook, have no buyoff and no infrastructure, keep changing your mind and rewriting the business case -- maybe 3000 hours at $75 an hour.
posted by felix at 8:39 AM on January 14 [1 favorite has favorites]

Felix, that's exactly the kind of info I need. Thankyouthankyouthankyou!
posted by electric_counterpoint at 9:02 AM on January 14

Other factors to consider -

Are you flexible on the detailed specification? Depending on the sophistication of who you hire, the person may review your specs and present an alternative. For example, if you forgo these 2 requirements, you'll gain this functionality and I'll be able to use an off-the-shelf software at significant savings.

You can hire a "code-as-told" person or you can hire a slightly more experienced and consultive developer. Considering your experience level in contract software builds, I'd strongly suggest the later.

Also, budget 20% for first year software tweaks. Budget 10% ongoing software maintenance after year 1.
posted by 26.2 at 9:15 AM on January 14

Yeah -- a few more points -- as 26.2 states, you need to think about what happens after the software's delivered. Generally you had to compromise on one or two key items just to get the thing out the door. What happens next? Who develops that? Who supports it, who trains new users in the system, how do bugs get fixed when they pop up? Do you have a support team or a development team that could pick up the work the contractor did? What's your plan in case of fire/emergency/server crash for getting the app back up and working again? For that matter, daily backups? Weekly? Monthly? Etc.

You might check out various open source CMSes to see how they fit you before you go looking for a developer; some of these things could be easy to implement with just a business analyst. Check out for instance http://php.opensourcecms.com/ -- I've never used it, but a cursory glance suggests it could be valuable for your situation. Good luck.
posted by felix at 12:47 PM on January 14

As felix says, "there are any number of free 'CMS' tools which could be roughly coddled into that general task." Here are a few of them:

• Alfresco
• Epiware
• Knowledge Tree
• OpenKM

posted by PueExMachina at 6:58 PM on January 14

How sure are you that you need something custom for this?

I don't want to shill here on AskMeFi, but what you're looking for sounds pretty simple. A document management system, web based, with versioning and a workflow component. The company I work for sells a product that does exactly that (and I know we aren't the only ones.)
posted by mazienh at 9:32 PM on January 14