By Jayson Jarmon, CEO, Lux Worldwide
It's not unusual for clients whose have primarily worked in the past with advertising agencies to express some confusion when they see a role called "Project Management" in bids from web development companies.
It's a term that seem fairly self-explanatory to those of us who come from a software development background, but it is not at all clear to those with an advertising or PR background. This is very understandable-in the same way that web development mixes media, it mixes production techniques and processes from different industries. Web Development companies try to borrow what's worked in the past, modifying it to new media development, and also create new roles that are better adapted to the online paradigm.
Those with an agency background work with an account manager and usually don't see a line item calling the project management work type out in a bid. The idea is that account management is "free" to the client. That is, the person or person who are assigned to watch over the project process, see to it that deadlines are met, and serve as the client's main point of contact is offered up without charge as a cost of doing business. That's why it strikes some people as odd when seeing a bid from a web development company that not only calls out project management, puts it front and center in the project process, but then has the gall to charge good money for it. Some take great offense. If some companies offer it for free, why do others charge for it? Well, they are right about this: someone is trying to rip them off.
The fact of the matter is that everyone charges for project management, but some approaches are just a little more, well, honest than others. You see, the agency that includes the project management cost for "free" is simply marking up their other hourly rates to pay for the project oversight. The costs are there, simply hidden in a mish-mash of numbers, obscured in the design and build rates. The bid is simply cooked and the numbers monkeyed-with until the actual cost is reached.
Lux and the other web development companies that use a software development model feel the agency model is fundamentally dishonest, does not help the client understand the actual costs associated with web development work, obfuscates the process, and prevents clients from getting clear and accurate project feedback. The simple truth is managing the communication, scheduling, process, and production of online materials takes time and money, and hiding it behind other work types, or, worse yet, burying those costs in time and materials deals where it can never be clearly accounted for, is just plain wrong.
So, if you see those project management hours in bids for Internet service work, do not despair. All it means is that the service company is being clear and accurate for you, and that you will get an experienced project manager assigned to your project, not some intern that you never meet or who doesn't know his HTML from his BS.
