This might sound really rudimentary and it is. But sometimes, if you don’t have a checklist to work things through, you forget and that could cost you in actual dollars. This becomes awfully apparent when you hire developers/programmers. Because every feature, tweak or improvement you want could take a gazillion steps and background coding to make it happen. Even when it looks simple on the front end.

Just last month, I hired someone to do some work on a desk top software and I *thought* I had asked for a particular feature to be turned off in my original job spec. Well, needless to say, it was not done and now looking back at all our communications. I didn’t write that in Ugh! Now, I have to re-hire him with more $$, more time wasted.

So here’s a tip for you, other than writing everything down, whenever you hire a developer it’s always a good idea to map out as completely as possible how you want the system to work. The best way is if you can actually chart out a process map. I’ve worked some technical projects for others and a process map can be invaluable because once you know the big picture how the software should work, a developer can give suggestions based on their experience. They also have a better understanding how to quote your project so you end up with less issues where they will have to ask you for more money because “It wasn’t in the original specs and thus outside the scope of work”.

Look there will always be things we discover in the middle of the project and we change, modify or backtrack that will be out of the scope but those are inevitable. I’m talking about the stuff we know up front.