Dumpy Dooby said:
Umm.... you're a moron. What if the person is already working on a project? What if they have 3 projects to juggle at once? I'm not expecting this site to take 4 weeks to create you fucking douche. Why don't you actually try reading the contents of my post ... then you might see how this site would take 2-3 weeks (tops) to create. I can create this site in 3 weeks, and I'm a noob when it comes to server-side scripting. This is not a difficult project at all. Fuckin' dingleberry.
Cliffs: deadline != expected time to complete. It's a DEADLINE
um...no, you don't have a clue.
right here
# All appointments must be stored in a SQL database.
# Status for all repairs (even in-store) must be in the SQL database.
# Customers must be able to go online and check the status of their repair.
# Customers must be given the option to take a survey after their service is completed, and the results must be stored in the SQL database.
# Site will not have any products or pricing on it at the moment, but there must be room for expandability.
you ask for a database driven app that's exposed to both customers and internal administrators and technitions. and it sounds like you want this database to store job types and status which inevitably leads to inventory on specific jobs and job codes etc. because without those all you have a text area in which the tech types a status...which leads to no uniformity and confusion. I'd assume that in your desire for expandability you'd want a flexible interface which would allow the addition of new parts/job codes/services without an application rewrite. this demands a certain amount of flexibility on the part of the program itself.
basically you want a trouble ticket system, with integrated pricing as a future option, set up and installed for your company.
and then you want
We will require that the developer take on the responsibility of creating the site's artwork (all of the artwork will be owned and copyrighted by our company, however -- you MUST get permission from us to reuse the artwork on another project), with the exception of the company logo.
in my experience the art and design you can get from someone that can build you your database app is going to be ass compared to what you can get from someone that actually knows what they're doing WRT design and art production.
who gives a shit how many sections or pages it has if it's less than 20-40? the processing time for those, if the text is already produced, is less than a day. the hard part is (1) the site art design for a business site (important and graphic designers are the cheapest bunch of people to work with) and (2) tech design, coding, implimentation, and testing...which is not cheap.
it'll take you a week to nail down the requirements, a week to design the app, a couple weeks to code it, another week to test it (function, UAT, and load)...which you're not going to want to rush because customers are looking at this thing, maybe another week to fix the bugs. you're looking at a MINIMUM of 6 weeks, and even that is rushing things, and the developers who can do this can charge $30/hr (if they're wet behind the ears) to $60/hr if they actually know what they're doing.
at $30/hr you've blown your budget in two weeks.
if they have an app and a site they've been working on for a while and can easily customize to fit your environment and requirements, fine...but they'd also be working for much less than they could get from a real company.