The Needs Assessment is as much a process as a final product.
It provides a
clear picture of an organization's needs, a roadmap for success, and
helps our clients avoid the costs of bad technology purchases.
Most
"website development" companies will just take a list of features and
give you a price for implementing them without ever finding out how
those features fit into acheiving an organization's goals
We've found that a good way to approach it is to
first figure out what you are trying to accomplish, with whom, and then based on the unique needs of a client come up with affordable solutions that can be leveraged over time and
provide a solid platform for growth.
In
a nut-shell, we interview the client and help them figure out what they
need, then we put together a detailed report with a list of specific
items that turns a nebulous list of website features and requests into
a document that we can use to develop a proposal and viable action plan
for an effective online system.
We begin the process by meeting
with the organization and everyone who needs to/wants to have input,
and I run a Needs Assessment Workshop. During the workshop I interview
everyone as a group, or individually (whichever works for them) to
gather the information necessary to develop a comprehensive plan. We
determine the audience, organizational goals, organizational needs, and
any other relevant information.
Then we take that information,
combine that with follow-on research and our experience developing
similar systems and put together a comprehensive, strategic plan that
will detail the various stages of development, action items, and
specific features that they need for their online system.
Once
that is complete I meet with the client to present my findings and The
Needs Assessment Report. The report contains a detailed breakdown of
all of the information gathered in the workshop, a Roadmap to Success,
and a detailed RFP. At this point we can also provide pricing for the
implementation of all, or stages, of the Roadmap to Success.
The client can take the RFP, which any competent developer will understand, and shop that around to whomever they ant.
In every case where we've done one of these for a client
we end up learning a lot more about what is really needed and are able to put together a list of features/requirements that truly meet their needs.
If you'd like some
more information about our Needs Assessment and Requirements Analysis services,
click here to send us an e-mail or give us a call.
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Nuts & Bolts Interactive, Inc.
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301-946-5400
PO Box 1841
Silver Spring, MD 20915
Serving the Greater Washington D.C. Metro Area
Rockville, Gaithersburg, and Northern Virginia
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