By: Jerry Grohovsky
Copyright 2019. JPG & Associates, Inc.

Introduction

Regardless if you are a tech. comm. professional working for a large corporation serving internal clients, or you are an independent contractor/provider serving a variety of external clients, the one professional exercise that most agree is extremely difficult to perform with any accuracy is that of doing quotations.

Some of the main reasons may include:

  • Facts that are not readily apparent—or referred to as unknowns.
  • Variable conditions in the product environmental that can change over time, and therefore influence the original quotation.
  • Unknown circumstances which are not readily apparent, but can influence a quotation.
  • Product design is incomplete or in a state of change.
  • The client has not clearly defined basic requirements (e.g., purpose, audience, etc.).
  • The client may think they know what they want, but may have a skewed perceptions and expectations.
  • The client has not made adequate preparations in order to outsource the project.

The exercise of estimating/quoting of tech. comm. projects is hardly an exact science. However, by applying a disciplined approach with the following six steps, you (the tech. comm. provider/estimator) should be able to generate with confidence a more accurate quotation that provides a fairly realistic assessment of the budget that will be required to support the project.

Step 1: Ask Questions, Gather Facts
The very first step in the quotation process is to learn as much about the project as possible. It is recommended that the first step be to set up a meeting with the primary project owner/stakeholder and associated project team members—in-person if possible. At the meeting, you will want to be able to review the following list with the client:

  • Establish primary contact/internal who assumes the role as internal advocate.
  • Establish primary project owner.
  • Establish person who controls the budget.
  • Determine project objective, purpose.
  • Determine audience, primary users, benefactors.
  • If using specific development tools, is the tool choice to the discretion of the tech. comm. provider?
  • Ask yourself: Are corporate guidelines and/or templates required?
  • Is there easy access to product, corporate environment?
  • Determine how secured/unsecured files and information will be exchanged
  • Identify key subject matter experts (SMEs).
  • Identify reviewers.
  • Identify those “all stars” and “internal allies” who can retrieve difficult to find anything, etc.
  • Study the company culture.
  • Learn about any internal processes/procedures that will facilitate progress, and identify potential obstacles.
  • Know the draft and final delivery dates; are the target dates solid or flexible?

Step 2: Educate Client as Needed
Often the client has no prior experience with outsourcing a project to a technical communicator, or he or she is mis-information as to how the process works. Also, the client may think they know what they want, but may not be aware of how the project can be realistically accomplished.
With a new client (internal or external), it behooves the tech. comm. provider (estimator) to scope out the role of the client, and to be aware of how the client is positioning themselves. For example: Does the client know exactly what they want? Have they done their homework? Is their goal realistic? Do they have previous experience with outsourcing a project? Depending upon how these questions are answered, there can often be a “red flag” warning that the client’s expectations and/or goals are drifting in the wrong direction. Therefore, it is important that the tech. comm. provider be vigilant, and always assume the role of expert. The back-and-forth discussions with the client often demand a micro-training approach with the client in order to keep the project “on the reality track”, and avoid potential cost overruns, or other problems caused by a project launch that is launched in the wrong direction.

Step 3: Begin Evaluation
In order to be as accurate as possible, it is recommended that you use the formula approach to estimating costs. This means that the project is broken down into the lowest common denominators of tasks and hours. It must be determined how many hours are required to perform each task.

Due to the fact that there are numerous dependencies and outside forces that surround a quotation, it makes sense to provide a range of hours for each task, with the low end representing a more skeptical scenario, and the high end representing a more optimistic scenario. NOTE: This method is also used in the grand total of hours and the cost calculation.

As an example, development of a software user guide from scratch may include such tasks as:

  • research
  • product ramp-up
  • content development
  • graphics development
  • interviewing SMEs
  • project coordination
  • verification and test
  • ..and so on

Determining hours of effort per task does require experience. However, an experienced technical communicator should be able to call upon their knowledge base as their reference point.

Step 4: Crunch The Numbers

  • Determine what tasks will be needed to accomplish the project; then assign a range of hours to each task–from best case scenario (low) to worst case scenario (high)—or low Xhrs to high Yhrs.
  • From the task list of hour ranges:
    Add up all the Xhrs and all the Yhrs; the total will then give you a grand total range of XhrsT to YhrsT.
  • From the hours grand totals:
    Multiply your hourly burden rate $B x (XhrsT to YhrsT) = $Low to $High cost.
  • Other tips when presenting cost:
    • Establish a minimum of two rounds of changes.
    • Add 15% if doubt is too strong.
    • After doing all the calculations, you may still feel that there are too many unknowns, or that the client hasn’t been able to provide you with enough facts. If you just don’t feel comfortable with the figures, then you may want to propose a different approach with the client (for example, you may want to propose that the project be done “by the clock”, with periodic status reports). This may be better for both parties.
    • Avoid the request for a do not exceed clause if too many unknowns and dependencies exist. If you do agree to a do not exceed, make sure you incorporate a disclaimer that more hours may be required if the original scope changes.
    • There are often common benchmarks for the amount of effort required for various of types of tech. comm. projects, and which are common knowledge to either technical writers, instructional designers, and so on. For example, development of a technical manual from scratch generally requires anywhere from 3.5 to 5.5 hrs/page of effort. The low or high end often depends on the complexity of the product, the amount of content and/or graphics per page, access to product, access to SMEs, etc.
    • It is often common practice in a project quotation to breakdown cost to a more easy-to-measure, easy-to-understand chunk of data, such as: hours per page, per module, per screen, and so on.

Step 5: Create The Quotation Document

  1. Use an easy-to-read format, and type font that is easy to read; use one that is repeatable as a template for future
  2. quotations.
  3. Provide specific definitions of supplier, client, contractor doing the work, and inside contact connecting tech. comm. provider and client.
  4. Summarize the project objectives.
  5. Define team players (for provider and client).
  6. Provide a detailed SOW (Statement of Work) or project review of stops, task, and goals along the project continuum. The SOW should include:
    • Date of quotation.
    • Project name.
    • Tasks that accomplish project are defined.
    • Tools of choice.
    • Account representative and contact information.
    • Client contact name and contact information.
    • Target dates—start, 1st draft, 2nd draft, final.
    • Client responsibility.
    • Tech. comm. provider responsibility.
    • Unknowns.
    • Dependencies or variables.
    • Total cost (hours x burden rate).
    • Disclaimers where needed.

Step 6: Cover Yourself

  • Make sure to include a disclaimer that includes a statement that alerts the client to the fact that any change of scope can impact the original quotation. A change-order mechanism may be used to alert the client. Change orders can be triggered by a change of scope, product change, or other conditions outside the original quotation parameters.
  • If the client requires a do not exceed statement regarding the maximum (or top end) of the cost range, then make sure you also incorporate a change order mechanism.
  • If the estimator views the project as having a lot of dependencies and unknowns, then it would be recommended to include a statement that includes a re-evaluation of quotation at 25-30% into the project to determine if the quotation needs to be adjusted.
  • Once the progress starts, make sure to communicate often. Providing weekly written status reports is an effective way to head off surprises to the client.
  • Be sure to call attention immediately to any new problem pop-ups or obstacles which could affect the timing or amount of effort so that both parties have time to find solutions, or make adjustments.