Hey all.  I'm in the process of creating an online website to sell
(through third-parties) learning products.  The interactive components
of my site are as follows:

*An online discussion board - Like UBB or vBulletin which would allow
users to discuss subjects, talk about specific learning products, etc.
*E-mail newsletters - The ability for individuals to sign up for
newsletters on a variety of subjects
*An online "store" - This would be a directory of learning products in
a # of subjects where users could browse by category or search the
database.  Users would also have the ability to rank and review
products.  Users would not purchase products directly through the
store but rather would link to external third-party sites and order
the products through them.  Essentially this store would kind of be
"Amazon lite".

I have a few questions related to the development of my site and I am
hoping there might be someone experience here at Google Answers who
could offer some advice.

Question #1: I have several different options for solution providers. 
One option is to go with a person who is developing an entirely custom
solution in CF/SQL.  The benefit is that it will have the user
management piece built in so that a user will have a single log-in for
the purposes of posting to the message board, managing e-mail
newsletters, ranking/reviewing products, etc.  The potential downside
is time to market (the technology is still in development) and
performance (since the technology is relatively unproven).

Another option is to outsource to someone on a site like elance or
Guru.  I have used these sites in the past and have been VERY happy
with the results.  However, in the past it has been for such things as
graphic design which are not "make or break" to the success of a site.
 With the database, I need to be more careful.  Elance and Guru offer
excellent ways to review a provider's work history.  However, very few
of the portfolios that I viewed on those sites had projects similar to
what I am envisioning.  The key here is probably the user management
system which would tie the message board, e-mail newsletters and store
together.

The final option would be to contract it out to someone I know who
could mix off-the-shelf software with custom work.  The benefit over
elance or Guru would be that I would know the person and communication
should not be an issue.  The downside is that I'm not sure that I
could find someone with as much raw talent as I could find on elance
or Guru (given my relatively limited circle of friends).

So that's question #1.

Question #2: Any suggestions for the development platform or anything
I should be careful about.  MySQL (or PostGRESQL) seems to be a good
option from a database perspective.  A friend recommending designing
the schema, etc. in Visio prior to developing the database.  Several
people have recommended to have code samples of the prospective
developer reviewed prior to awarding the contract.

Are there any specifics that I should be thinking about as try to
determine who will develop this for me?

Question #3: What might be a ballpark cost for this?  I realize that
it's hard to say without knowing more details.  However, anything is
better than nothing.  A few people I've talked to say something in the
$3,000-$7,000 range.  Does that sound about right?

IMPORTANT: I realize that this isn't your typical Google Answer
question.  I don't have a lot of requirements for an acceptable
answer.  However, one requirement that I do have is that whoever
answers this has had some previous experience in this area.  Ideally,
it might be someone who has designed systems like this in the past. 
That's really what I'm looking for.  Advice from someone who's "been
there, done that".

***Please post your proposed answer as a "comment" or "question
clarification" first and I will OK it before accepting it as an
answer.  This will prevent me from having to re-list the question if
someone does not understand what I am looking for.***

And of course, please let me know if you have any questions.  Thanks!

Hi, 

I am working in the software development industry for last 8 years and
I had been part of many commercial projects on different platforms. I
have led projects and served as architect in different projects.
Hopefully you would find my answer practical, interesting and fruitful
for you.

Solution in CF/SQL:
===============

Two risk are already mentioned by you which are 
1) The potential downside is time to market (the technology is still
in development)
2) Performance (since the technology is relatively unproven)

I my personal opinion these are big risks, which will create problems in future.

I tell you my experience. I had been part of projects in .Net
Environments (when these technologies were new and with bugs) and RDP
tools (http://www.transcomsoft.com/rdp/). If you look at the demo and
feature of these two products then these are extra ordinary and
wonderful technologies but when you go for actual customised
development then life is not that easy and simple initially. You are
faced with bugs, updates and sometimes things don't work as told in
documentation.

So it would be risk to plan a business on something which is not
mature yet. I would go for something, which is tested and pretty
stable.


Outsourcing: Unique features and user pulling Web Site:
=========================================

It is a good option, but you need to find someone who has experts whom
can provide graphics and ideas to attract users. For Internet
websites, being unique and attractive in terms of services and
presentation is the key ingredient. However I have come across many
teams, which do the routine work (by copying ideas from exiting
website) and don't work much on creativity.

Propose following regarding this issue.

Ask the team to perform research in the same business and come up with
their own ideas.
If idea is being copied from somewhere else then do mention the source web site

Set objective as this website graphics should be unique
Set objective as this website graphics should be following some
referred GUI standards etc

After getting this input from the development team, you can develop
your requirement and present those to the development team for further
details in the decided direction.

In this area, careful reviews and precautions can help only since you
are mostly depending on the creativity of the graphics and GUI
developer.

I have performed research like this and provided satisfactory results
to my clients but ofcourse these efforts take extra time.

Development and Deployment Technologies:
================================= 
I prefer freeware technologies for such projects due to cost and
customisation factor, If I were to do your project, I would go for
technologies like PHP, JDK, Struts, ANTS, MySQL or PostGreSQl,
Eclipse, Apache Web Server etc. I would prefer to use stable and
tested version of these technologies. I have not done exactly the same
project as yours but I have done all your mentioned things in
different projects of mine and I am using above-mentioned technologies
successfully.

There are other very good technologies but those are very costly e.g.
tools provided by Oracle and IBM. Tools selection ofcourse gives us
rapid development but it is very costly and it totally depends on your
budget for deployment and development environment.

If I were to outsource such project then I would like it to be
developed from scratch, since in that way I would have more room for
creativity, if I use totally automatic tools/wizards like things (as
present in Oracle development and other Microsoft products) then i run
the risk of similarity.

Development and deployment environment decision depends on the
requirements and client's budget limits.

User Management System:
===================

I think this system would be pretty standards as all of such sites
have; however administrator view of the system would be little complex
and difficult to implement. But rests of the mentioned systems are not
that easy to develop, those would have almost same level of complexity
(my experience).

Development Approach:
==================

In my opinion every project takes it due time to be stable no matter
what process or technique you adopt and many times wrong project
management techniques fail the project frustrate the stake holders. In
my experience one should follow the strict rules of Software
Development Life Cycle and this would make the life easy for each
party. Quality of deliverables would be extra ordinary at each stage.
I suggest you to follow the following software life cycle in strict
manner.

Requirement Analysis:

Analysis experts should perform a through research to enhance your
business idea further and prepare
detailed requirement specifications. Reading this document you should
know exact details of web site/application features. You should only
approve that document if it satisfies your requirements. This document
should be updated against your comments until and unless you are
satisfied.

Prototyping:

Graphics designer should prepare a comprehensive prototype for the
requirements in the requirement specification document and that
prototype would also be sent to you for functional and graphics
approvals.
You should approve prototype if it satisfies your requirements. This
prototype should be updated against your comments until and unless you
are satisfied.

Design Phase:
Get designed whole application/website before you actually get coded
something. Only database design would not resolve all the problems.
Design your website/application and get performed multiple technical
reviews by third party to enhance quality of the application or
website.

Design is the most important step, which is often ignored for small
projects, this causes many problems in future.

Coding Phase:
Code your website/application and get performed multiple technical
reviews to enhance quality of the application.

Testing Phase:
Perform thorough functional and technical testing of the application
to ensure stability in the end product.

Deployment for Acceptance:
After testing and fixing of application/website application should be
deployed for your approval. And you would finally use it and approve
it

Payments:
=======
Always pay when you accept something, Like if you have approved 25% of
the project then you should pay 25% only. We only charge our clients
when they are satisfied and happy with they deliverable and my be you
can do the same of ask for the same.

Project Cost:
=========

Whenever you ask somebody for cost, always ask them for the estimated
FPA (Function Point Analysis: It s a measure for software development
effort) count for your project (In my opinion getting the idea a team
should be able to count FPAs) and their FPA size. This is how it works

FP (Function Point) is a unit measure for software development effort
(like metre is unit measure for distance)

Each FP is equivalent to some man-hours  (for example 10 FP project
may mean 100 man hours if a FP is equal to 10 hours).

Different companies may have same FPs for the same project but they
would have different FP sizes since each company or a group has
different software development procedures, software and techniques.

After getting man-hours FP size and FP count, you should ask them for
their per hour charges for your project. This would solve the cost
issue.

This is very systematic way but very difficult, However many companies
and software teams use heuristic approach and do projects on fixed
cost basis. I adopt both approaches depending on the client
requirements.

Your Cost
========

In my experience, you have been given right cost estimate  (5000 US$
to 7000 US$). I have done and managed such kind of projects within
same limit providing excellent quality and satisfaction to my clients.

I could provide you more specific information that who can do projects
for you but I am restricted by this service since they don't
appreciate personal contact, However one should answer in such a way
that you get clear idea and information to go ahead. I would love to
talk to you to provide you more information but I don't know how to go
about it. I will be happy if you find my comments useful for you and
If could be more helpful for you.

Regards,
Tobascus2002-ga

Wel to answer question #1 go to this site www.shnforum.com an dmake a
free account and down load the free forum wich is way better than the
forums you mentioned and then go to forum.snitz.com/forum and they can
make a store mod for you there, but every thing else in in the
download. also visit www.airdromeprojects.tk to view a sample forum,
mine. hope this helps

1. The front-end design is already done (for the most part). You can
view it at http://www.truthaddict.com/beta/ So that's taken care of.
It's the back-end database design and technology that I'm concerned
with now.

I understand this and I have visited your website.

2. I'm in the process of putting together tech specs right now to
outline to the developers what I'm looking for. I'm wondering if you
have any advice on what I should make sure to include in the tech spec
or perhaps have any samples of this type of document that you could
send to me.

I follow Volere Requirements Template version 9.0 and IEEE
standard(IEEE-STD-830-1998) (for technical and non-technical)
Requirements Specifications Guidelines and these are the best
Requirements Specifications document templates and guidelines I have
come to know so far.

3. One quote of yours that was a little concerning was the following:
"however administrator view of the system would be little complex and
difficult to implement" What do you mean by this?

Normally designers and developer think/view user management as all about 

* Sign up
* Sign in
* Sign out

But I consider it more than that since a user in the admin role should be able

* To define, update and delete reference data (for example different
types and categories etc)
* To block other users
* To define user with different roles etc
* To generate and view different sort of statistical reports
* To maintain and view website billing information
* To generate messages for all the registered members
* To verify marketing add submitted online by other businessmen
* etc

But ofcourse this depends on the client requirements that what level
of user management is required.

4. I'm leaning towards outsourcing the project through Guru or elance
as I have had very good experience doing so in the past. However, one
concern I have is that it's not as easy to tell through the feedback
mechanisms provided by Guru and elance as to the quality of the
designers. With web design, I could view the portfolios and have a
pretty good idea as to the quality. However, with database design it's
less transparent.

In my opinion Quality is always assured with effective reviews (from
different perspectives) for each documents/deliverable/prototype and
it the organisation process, which forces reviews at each level. You
should always ask for complete development plan from the development
team.

I review different documents from different perspectives such as

* If I am reviewing a requirement specifications document, I would
review it from client's point of view, with reference to existing
website of same business domain, from developers point of view with
reference to standards (such as attached templates), from
documentation point of view for clear understanding of subject and
from next phase requirement's point of view (for example next phase
could be building prototype after Requirements are finalised)

* If I am reviewing a prototype, I would go for following
verifications/question such as

* Does it cover all the requirements in the approved RS document?
* Is it following referred GUI standards?
* Is it following proper and required navigation technique
* Does graphics and web site/project structure compliments its basic
theme and purpose
* How are colour used in the website according to business theme
* So and so

All these reviews either from technical point of view or for
non-technical aspects should be sent to clients.

Remember that you should have each and every document mentioned by the
planning. Otherwise certain things would be abstract for you.

5. As to the PHP/MySQL thing, I'm leaning in that direction as well.
However, I'm not really aware of any enterprise level companies that
use that kind of technology. I realise that switching later is a
possibility.

However, I'm wondering how costly that will be. What do you think of
the scalability and enterprise-capability of PHP/MySQL?

To answer these questions of your, I would refer some websites as well

Cost:
=====

PHP, MySQL, JDK, Struts, ANTS, Eclipse, Apache Web Server and Linux
are freeware technologies; you don't need to pay anything for these
technologies. These are not only freeware but also open source and can
be downloaded from various reliable Internet websites

PHP Usage:
==========
http://www.php.net/usage.php

What it can do
==============
http://www.php.net/manual/en/intro-whatcando.php


Comparison with other languages:
================================
http://www.php.net/manual/en/faq.languages.php

Scalability
===========
http://www.onjava.com/pub/a/onjava/2003/10/15/php_scalability.html
http://geekphilosopher.com/MainPage/webPHPIntro.htm

Enterprise Using and developing their solutions in PHP and MySQL
================================================================
Only see these few web sites from PHP usage point of view, these
companies are providing enterprise solutions in PHP

http://www.zend.com/news/zendpr.php?id=64
http://reamdaysoft.com/