How To Make The Right Technical Task For a Web Developer

Let’s imagine, you have come up with a good idea for a website or an app. You have the image in your head, you reach out to designers and developers to help you with it. Suddenly you hit an obstacle - they require a Technical Task (TT). You may try to look for someone else, who will work without the TT, however, you will be disappointed and simply waste your time and money. Without any Technical Task, no designer or developer will perfectly understand you and your requirements.

So, what is Technical Task?

TT is a written agreement between the client and contractor, which enables to bring the client's wishes to correlate with the capabilities of the developer, and is capable to settle all possible conflicts and save time. It’s a document that you can rely on in case a conflict or a major disagreement arises. 

In short, TT helps you to:

• understand the kind of website/app you need;
• define the deadlines and tasks to demanding the contractor complete the full project according to the TT;
• get a better idea of the project’s features and layout based on prototypes developed in the TT.

Who writes the TT?

At first glance, one may think that the TT has to be written by the customer him/herself. However, not every customer has a technical understanding of how such projects are done, to be fair he/she doesn’t have to know. The client just has the idea and wants to have it fulfilled. So, instead of learning the cryptic language, the customer can simply write the TT with the technical team. This is the most convenient option to save both time and money. Altogether can easily lead to a common vision and understanding of the goal.

Another option is to contact an agency or a hire professional to write the TT for you as a separate paid task/job. Then provide it to the technical team that’s going to work on your project. 

To be fair, practice shows that it’s more practical to write the TT with the developers and designers directly, as they will put more effort to understand the whole process in more detail. 

Website Brief

As a starter customer is normally asked to fill out a website design brief to provide proper terms of reference. The brief contains some questions to simplify and fasten the process. It helps to break the task into manageable parts, clarify the overall requirements of the client, outline the key info for accomplishing the tasks, and synchronize the customer-contractor expectations.

A well-thought-out brief can serve both as a basis for the Technical Task or as separate terms of reference. If you have some doubts and you don’t fully know how to execute your idea, the brief will map out the right direction you need to follow.
 
Main Points and Stages of Technical Task Development:

• the main reason for creating the website - attracting traffic, increasing sales, expanding the customer base, etc.;
• the company’s mission, target audience, and presented products (manufactured or sold);
• how customer-contractor communications will be handled;
• website or design references for the project;
• the company’s corporate style or the idea of how it should look, if there is one (including colors, slogans, fonts);
• the brand logo (if there is one or if it needs to be designed);
• content creation (specifying whether it’s part of the job or not);
• the draft proposals, insights - texts, photos or videos, and any inspirational materials.

Stages 

After settling some main points and requirements of the customer, here comes the second part of the TT development process:

• setting and determining the main requirements of the client (single-page application, e-shop, landing page);
• preparing and drawing up the technical task for website creation, finalizing the requirements, and searching for mismatches there. If the technical task has internal mismatches, the development and design teams won’t be able to give a quality product in the end. Therefore, the mismatches should be removed before the implementation;
• to get the approval of the technical task by the software development company/team. The reason is that some requirements can bring some difficulties and others can be simply unnecessary. There can be different options for task implementation. To clear up misunderstandings and remove mismatches, it is necessary to discuss the nuances of the development with the technical team before drawing up the final version of the technical task;
• finally, all the slightest details are specified including deadlines and the cost of the work with the consideration of its complexity. As a customer, you should keep in mind that due to the possible insufficiency and some technical changes, there can be also a change in the cost.

Next, the technical team starts the process, and the customer’s partner and co-authors. They collate all the relevant information, study it, ask questions if necessary, and prepare a summary TT. The customer can then see what their website or app will look like and get a better idea of how much it will cost. 

The team demonstrates every stage of the job so that everything is clear and understandable to the customer. Afterward, they set priorities together: how to build the website, how to launch it in stages, and how to follow up on it to make sure the business takes off. The process lasts until the project is fully ready to launch. Then both sides can be proud of their success.