In a previous article we looked at some core approaches to follow when you want to develop a website. The four core approaches we identified were (1) Outsourcing – Get website developers to do the job (2) Insourcing – Employ a website developer (3) DIY with tools – Buy a website creation paxkage (4) DIY from scratch – Learn how to program. The question now is – Which option is best for me?
We must stretch at this stage that the four options identified above are by no means an exhaustive list. In decision making the generation of alternatives from which to choose is a very important part of the process. In this article, however, we will focus on the development of decision criteria.
The key questions to ask in developing decision criteria are:
1. What factors should be taken into consideration in making this choice? , and
2. What is the relative importance of these factors?
In deciding which option to choose the following factors may be important to consider. For simplicity purpose we will limit these factors to only six, but there may be more.
(a) The cost of development
(b) The time that it will take to complete the development
(c) The management time that will be required in the development process
(d) The measure of control that you / management will have over the continued management or maintenance of the web site
(e) The look-and-feel (image) of the website
(f) The technical “efficiency” of the website
The factors above now need to be converted into proper decision criteria statements. This can be done by restating each factor with the following statement: “Whichever option I choose must …” The result of this exercise may look as follows.
Whichever option I choose must…
(a)… be the cheapest.
(b)… take the shortest time to complete the website.
(c)… require the least of my / management’s time.
(d)… give me / management the most control over the maintenance and management of the website.
(e)… result in the best look-and-feel for the website.
(f)… ensure that the website initially and in future is technically sound.
With the above statements one can now evaluate each option against the criteria. Before that is done, there is an important task to undertake. In his Animal Farm George Orwell’s pigs concluded their commandments with the following: “All animals are equal but some are more equal than others.” The same applies to decision criteria.
In order to place a value on the criteria, a simple technique can be followed. Firstly ask yourself which one of the criteria above (or the criteria that you yourself have formulated) is the most important to you. If you decide that the cost factor is the most important to you, give it a value of 10. Next ask yourself which of the remaining criteria is the least important to you. Lets for now assume you decide that the control factor is the least important. Assign a value of 1 to that factor. This does not mean the criteria is low in importance. It only creates a relative scale against which you can value the other criteria.
The next step will be to evaluate the remaining five criteria against the highest and lowest valued criteria by repeating the process above. Ask yourself which of the remaining criteria is the second most important, and when compared to the highest criteria, what value will you place on it. For example, if you decide that time to completion is the second most important you may assign a value of 8 to it. Should you decide that look-and-feel is the second least important, you may assign a value of 3 to it.
Once you have completed the above process, you may end up with a list of valued criteria looking like this:
Whichever option I choose must…
(a)… be the cheapest. [10]
(b)… take the shortest time to complete the website. [8]
(c)… require the least of my / management’s time. [7]
(f)… ensure that the website initially and in future is technically sound. [5]
(e)… result in the best look-and-feel for the website. [3]
(d)… give me / management the most control over the maintenance and management of the website. [1]
With your valued decision criteria in place you will have established a sound framework to make a “scientific” decision. In the next article we will look at the process of how you can now evaluate each option against these decision criteria. This is extremely important – never compare options with each other. Options must be compared against the criteria in order to avoid “decision blindness” – an affliction that strikes people who continually pursue alternatives while losing sight of the goals or objectives.
The process above may look laborious and complicated at first glance. However, it provides a very important principle that is true for all decisions. This principle simply dictates that you define goals or end results that your decision must achieve before you blindly make a choice.
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