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Its common knowledge that a detailed briefing leads to better results.
That's probably why you're compelled to spend excruciating hours with
your boss, trying to understand how exactly he or she wants a task to
be accomplished! Seriously, only through this interaction would you be
able to understand what's required of you. Otherwise time and efforts
of all are likely to go waste.
Briefing is fine when you're
face to face with the one giving you the job, because you can clarify
your doubts there and then. But, what'd you do if you need to explain
the project to a distant programmer? Write a good project description,
of course. Need
for project description
Today, with outsourcing at its peak, the need to write a good
project description has become as important as the project itself!
Consider this scenario you want to give out a writing project at a
freelance site. The project involves providing text for a website and
you ask for bids simply by stating "writer needed for writing four
pages of website on canine pets". Well, you launch your project and
start getting the responses. Someone quotes $80, that is, $20 a page,
but some are ready to do it for $20, that is, $5 a page! Why is this
so? Well, this variation is because of the inadequacy of the project
description. The description was so generalized that the bidders got
confused. The bidder who bid $80 thought that he'll be writing for a
quality website and bid accordingly, whereas the one who bid $20
thought it's another run-of-the-mill project and quoted the customary
$5 a page!
Hence, the importance of a good project
description cannot be understated. Your description should not only be
self explanatory, it should also convey what you exactly want done. Of
course, writing it requires some application of the gray matter.
Writing a project
description Before you
start punching keys, pause. There's no crashing hurry to get the
project off your chest. Sending a half-cocked project will only elicit
clarifications from the bidders or get bids that could get you
confused. Both would waste your time and energy in clarifying things.
Such descriptions can also discourage bidding from some excellent
writers, as they may find you all confused about your own
project!
In order to prevent any loss in regards of good
workers from bidders, analyze what's to be done. For example, for a
writing project for a website, you can include these suggested
points: 1-Give the link to the website, so bidders
can see its standard and focus. This'll clear their minds on how to
tackle the project exactly.
2-State the
purpose of the project and why you want it. For example, "we are into
retailing sports jerseys and would like to promote our site to attract
potential customers and encourage them to order our jerseys online" or
some such words.
3-Give as detailed a
description as possible of the project, of course, within the
constraints of the space provided on the webpage. However, be mindful
of the fact that a longer description does not necessarily mean a
clearer one. In case you're not able to disclose much about your
project, provide minimal information to spark interest. Once you've
been able to elicit some response from the bidders, provide for a Non
Disclosure Agreement (NDA). Once this is accepted, provide the bidder
with a complete and thorough description of your project.
4-Mention your budget. Most freelance sites have
this under a separate head, but you can mention in the text of your
description too, what you can actually afford. This'll attract the
right kind of bidders.
Although, you'd be asking for
the time they'd take to complete the project, you should yourself be
realistic about it. This way you'd not jump for joy, if someone offers
a seemingly impossible deadline, he or she'd probably not adhere to
it. Writing a good project description is an art,
but not a very difficult one. If you follow these few steps, you'd
certainly succeed in attracting the best programmers your money can
buy!
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