advice

[Ninjakreborn]

I want to find out about something, if I was to try and build this.
[a href=\"http://www.basecamphq.com/\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.basecamphq.com/[/a]
something on my own, how long do you think it would take to build, a client is wanting me to create something like this in php, and I like the idea, I am just trying to get a rough quote, any advice on pricing this, or how long it would take, for instance, I could program the forum functions, or use bits and pieces of a few 3rd party forum scripts, I want the php code I do on this to be real secure, and have good performance, so it will take a little longer to check over my code, any advice.

[obsidian]

you [b]do[/b] realize what all is involved with [a href=\"http://www.basecamphq.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.basecamphq.com[/a], don't you? you referred to coding pieces of a forum and/or using 3rd party scripts to piece it together... that really doesn't seem like a feasable solution to an all-inclusive project management system like this. you're talking, most likely, about [b]months[/b] of development time. you're talking about having a huge grasp on the evolution of AJAX and comparable technologies. then, you're talking about replicating what a full team has taken months to release. i don't have any idea how long something like that would take me, and i'm coding 8+ hours a day. break down the pieces (or have your client do that part), then tackle pricing each piece individually. once you have a rough estimate on how long you think it will take, double it! yes, that's right, double. if you quote them that large figure, and you fall short, they're only happier. however, if you underquote (especially on a big project like this), you'll have some very unhappy clients to deal with.

good luck on the undertaking. i'd be very interested in seeing how things go for you.

[Ninjakreborn]

Sounds good. I like the way you work, I will set this up that way then, I appreciate it, a different approach.

[poirot]

I agree, a lot of people think these kind of scripts can be done in a blink of an eye, what's not quite true.

Something apparently simple may reveal itself to be complex as you go into the details. Each detail may take you a lot of time;

And as you know, in programming the smallest mistake can ruin everything. What may mean hours of fruitless debugging.

That's a great site though, the idea is very good. I may try to code something like that in the future.

[Ninjakreborn]

I will be more careful then, that's why I wanted to ask here, before I dug my teeth into something, I will do it in my spare time, should I price at around
$20,000
or higher

[AndyB]

[!--quoteo(post=379412:date=Jun 2 2006, 01:42 PM:name=businessman332211)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(businessman332211 @ Jun 2 2006, 01:42 PM) [snapback]379412[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]I will do it in my spare time, should I price at around $20,000 or higher[/quote]
higher, [b]much[/b] higher unless you want to work for $5/hour.

[trq]

Honestly, if your here asking these questions you dont have the skills to complete this project. If you knew your skill set and what was involved you would be able to make time and price estimates. Its not at all fair or accurate for us to contemplate a guess.

[Ninjakreborn]

it's just that like 4 developers I talked to said it could be done in a weekend, if they really wanted. It confused me, at first I knew what was involved or thought, I was thinking around 20k, for about 4-5 weeks worth of work, then my client said I was crazy and his developer could code it in a weekend, then I asked some others they said 3 weeks was a possibility, and a few others said it was fairly easy, I got confused so I told my client to screw himself, and I dropped the project. By what I can gather he was trying to rip me off.

[kenrbnsn]

I would keep an eye on the web looking for the new site. If it doesn't appear in a month of two, you'll have the satisfaction of knowing that the client really couldn't make it happen in a weekend.

I had a client like that once, although they backed out halfway through the project saying I wasn't giving what they wanted, although they kept approving the intermediate steps. They said they had a "friend" who could complete the site in a week and they wanted the moeny they already paid back. Since I had coded the site in PHP and their "friend" didn't, they didn't take my code, but I saw screen scraping attempts on the sample site I had put up for them. The site was never completed. The domain was never renewed. I wonder if the "friend" is still a friend... This client still doesn't have a web site 3 years after this happened.

Ken