What to prepare for when requesting new integrations/development work

There is a lot of work that goes into creating new integrations or special development projects. This article will help prepare you for what is to come so that we can gather all the details and ensure that the process is as smooth as possible.

What to Expect

We want to make sure everyone is coming into this project with the right mindset and proper expectations. When integrating with a new feature, or changing anything to the core code of WSM, we need to be as precise as possible, so please be ready to answer specific questions, and as detailed oriented as possible. 

Along with coming prepared to answer detailed questions, we also want to be transparent in our partnership with our clients. Large projects like these will go through a unique quoting process. 

1. We will start with a discovery call. In this call, we will go through a list of probing questions to make sure WSM has a full understanding of the request. Some questions we will be asking to prepare yourself would be:
   1. How do things work today?
   2. How would you like things to work?
   3. What is the difference between how it is now and how you would like it to be?
   4. What is this feature worth to you and your company?
   5. What pains does this solve?
   6. What benefits would this new feature bring? More revenue? More automation? 
2. After we have gathered all the information, a WSM team member will pass the request to our Business Analysts. Our Business analysts will review and return us a SWAG quote. This is not the final quote, this will be a price range, to give us an expectation of the cost of a project. Once this SWAG quote is approved, the team will start requirements gathering and planning, so we can fine-tune the amount of time it will take to complete the work.