Planning a Magento 2 Site Migration.
As a Magento website development agency, we have to answer the two inevitable questions from clients:
"What am I going to need?"
“How much will this cost?”
"When will it be done?”
These questions are often difficult both to answer and to deliver promised result for. Although, experience has taught us valuable lessons in how to manage project timelines and budget.
1. Invest Time Reviewing and Planning Business Requirements
We have our business analyst work with clients to discuss and discover their business needs. This collaboration allows us and our clients to think creatively about alternative lower cost ways to fulfill requirements.
For cost efficiency, we try to keep custom coding to a minimum. We typically pursue the following line of questioning when first addressing a customer feature request:
2. Budget for Quality Not Bargain Basement Prices
In an attempt to win business, some agencies provide low estimates based on developer hours only. This doesn’t budget for the time it takes a quality assurance team and project manager to properly test that your new or updated Magento baby is bug-free. We have inherited many projects that were begun and then abandoned because of poor planning and estimates.
When we estimate, we include time for development setup, testing and doing mock runs of pushing large releases to production environments. This ensures we have an accurate picture of the total time and effort needed to complete a project. We’ve found that this level of accountability is appreciated in the end. We like to avoid $urprises.
3. Don’t Set It and Forget It. Review the Budget Every Day
A lot can change as a team works its way through a software project. Scope and requirements are continuously evolving within an agile project framework. For this reason, we check our budgets every day and are very proactive in addressing possible changes in budget or requirements with our clients. Particularly with previously customized installations, working in an agile project framework can avoid sinking a lot of time into a feature that is resisting the best efforts of skilled developers; you can’t change course if you’re not looking ahead to see the brick wall zooming toward you!
We have honest discussions with our clients about how to shape scope in order to work within their budget. By having these discussions early and often we work to avoid missed expectations and poor quality.
Are You Ready to Start Planning Your Magento Migration?
A Magento migration, or upgrading to the latest version, can be great for your eCommerce business. With any important business decision, it is best to go in armed with information and confidence in your partner. We’ve launched many Magento sites. We know what creates the most successful Magento migrations. We’d like to take credit for our success stories but the truth is, your expectations and prep are as important to the project as our expertise.
Contact us or call us at 513-469-3361 to get started on your project!