Experienced web developer required for assessment of development work on our website

[Cornwhaul]

I have been working with a UK based web developer for the last 16 months on some new features for our wordpress/woo commerce website. It is worth noting that the development work on our website has been carried out on an hourly basis, between their other commitments.

Their work so far equates to around 450 hours of (coding?) time / development works which has been carried out over the past 16 months.

I've tried not to doubt their work over this time but I have been growing increasingly frustrated at the lack of progress & more so for the last month, lack of contact/updates. Bear in mind that the developer originally quoted a completion time of under 2 months. Both the time spent on this project & the cost has increased by around 700%

Our business has been treading water for the last 18 months, waiting for this development work to be completed, so we can turn a profit. Unfortunately, financially speaking we are now right at the end of the road.

I am looking for somebody to assess the work carried out by our developer, mainly to put my mind at ease but to also give their opinion on it. Also, i hate to say it, but I may also need a professional witness to compile a report & worse case, a new developer to get this project finished.

 

[fisicx]

450 hours!

That is crazy and almost certainly way too high for anything to do with Wordpress.

What custom work have they been doing?

If you want to send me the details I’m happy to take a look. @Shopclicks will also be able to help.

 

[Shopclicks]

As @fisicx suggests 450 hours and 16 months sounds ridiculous for a Wordpress website. I'd be very interested in taking a look for you.

 

[Mark T Jones]

I'd definitely take up the offers above.

As a broad point, the most common causes of significant overruns in all types of project are:

Vague/ unclear brief

Constantly changing brief

Poor communication.

So perhaps you should start by looking at these aspects

 

[Cornwhaul]

So the development work is basically a shipping calculator, it would perform calculations based on the products in the basket & then show the price for either A) delivery cost taken from a rate of postcodes or B) a calculated value based on time spent travelling via a Google maps API. There are also considerations made for how many items can be combined on to the B option, this is based on size & weight of the items & location of the delivery. The calculator would choose the best method between the A & B delivery methods.

Other aspects of this work include showing the customer the cost of their item including delivery costs throughout the product page, basket & checkout. Also the availability for us to process the order ourselves on the 'add new order' page in woo commerce.

I understand that the calculation aspect is very complex due to the nature of the products (construction products) my understanding as it stands is the calculation part has been finished as of 3 weeks ago, although I did expect this to be one of the first things to be worked on.

There is also front end styling to be done which includes a better product page layout - this has not been started yet.

The original brief was laid out accurately & there was a good level of conversation before anything was started. There have been other bits & pieces carried out by the developer such as a couple of unrelated plugin conflictions due to updates, new payment gateway (migration?) & maybe a couple of other small bits. I wouldn't like to estimate the time spent on these extra bits as I'm no professional when it comes to web development.

I believe he is a good guy, just maybe out of his depth. Our conversations have always been positive but despite me being clear about our declining financial position, there seems to be no urgency & lately a real lack of responses.

 

[gpietersz]

So the development work is basically a shipping calculator, it would perform calculations based on the products in the basket & then show the price for either A) delivery cost taken from a rate of postcodes or B) a calculated value based on time spent travelling via a Google maps API.

Is there anything complex in the routing requirement, or is it just distance from Google Maps?

What has actually been done?

it does look as though you have paid far too much.

 

[fisicx]

I’ve been building Wordpress calculators for years. Even the most complex projects have never taken more than a couple of weeks.

The front end design shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.

As you suggest, the developer is probably out of their depth. It’s also quite likely they have just outsourced the work to somewhere in Asia.

 

[Cornwhaul]

Is there anything complex in the routing requirement, or is it just distance from Google Maps?

What has actually been done?

it does look as though you have paid far too much.

So the routing depends on the product type and location of that product. The API always works out a round trip cost, based on cost per mile. Some products are stored at the office & some are picked up en-route. There are also cost changes based on the type of vehicle that delivers which all needs to be accounted for.

I really can't be 100% sure on what has been done as it's all coding work that I don't fully understand. I can see that the first delivery method has been done & is working but there are no styling changes anywhere. There are quite a few configuration boxes in the backend that appear to be working, this lets us set the cost per mile ect. Just over a month ago the finished project was being uploaded to a test site but there have been delays/issues along the way. As it stands, the test site that I have been monitoring has not changed in atleast 6 months but again, there may be things that I can't see.

 

[Cornwhaul]

I’ve been building Wordpress calculators for years. Even the most complex projects have never taken more than a couple of weeks.

The front end design shouldn’t take more than a couple of days.

As you suggest, the developer is probably out of their depth. It’s also quite likely they have just outsourced the work to somewhere in Asia.

I really hope that outsourcing to Asia hasn't happend. I actually started this project previously with an Indian developer which did not go well. I cancelled after a few weeks, had the work appraised & binned the the lot. According to the report it was like a copy & paste exercise from stackflow.

Starting to sound like I'm twice burnt at the moment.

I would be interested in your services to appraise this work & suggest a route forwards

 

[fisicx]

Send me the details in a PM along with the details of the developer.

 

[gpietersz]

I really hope that outsourcing to Asia hasn't happend.

It happens a lot.

I regularly get approached by offshore developers who want me to subcontract to them, so its very easy to get into.

On the other hand there are plenty of incompetents in the UK too so.....

 

[antropy]

450 hours!

That is crazy and almost certainly way too high for anything to do with Wordpress.

What custom work have they been doing?

You can't say that without know what the project is.

Paul.

 

[antropy]

I am looking for somebody to assess the work carried out by our developer, mainly to put my mind at ease but to also give their opinion on it. Also, i hate to say it, but I may also need a professional witness to compile a report & worse case, a new developer to get this project finished.

That is something we could do, details in sig.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

You can't say that without know what the project is.

The project is a simple delivery calculator and some front end design. Nothing that should take 450 hours.

 

[antropy]

The project is a simple delivery calculator and some front end design. Nothing that should take 450 hours.

You know that now, but that info wasn't known initially. Projects do exist that require 450 hours of coding.

Paul.

 

[fisicx]

You know that now, but that info wasn't known initially. Projects do exist that require 450 hours of coding.

Yes which is why I said almost certainly too high. Looking at their existing site I couldn’t think of anything a building merchant would need that took 450 hours.