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How to get a derailed development project back on track?

by Tspringer
2 replies
I am really in a bad fix and am struggling to determine the best path to move forward so I am seeking opinions and ideas.

I am not a developer. I am a business owner and entrepreneur. I have a very detailed and specific business plan and model along with exhaustive documentation relative to all of the technology required to enable this business model.

A VERY brief history of how I got to the mess I find myself in now: I posted a detailed project on the wordpress job site (twice really) and hired a developer from the respondents. He reviewed all of my documentation and we discussed the project at length before agreeing to a contract. He assured me the project would take no more than 2 weeks. 2 months and $1800+ later no actual functionality had been developed and it was apparent this was not going to change so I fired him and moved on. No refund, lots of apologies - basically he did not know how to do what he said he could do so I was ripped off. So I moved on.

I created even more detailed project documentation such that EVERYTHING involved was precisely documented. I contacted about 25 of the developers who had responded to the original job posting and evaluated in depth 7 of them before hiring what I thought was the best of the bunch. He absolutely assured me - PROMISED to the ends of the earth, he 100% understood the project and would have it complete in 6 days. Now - 39 days later - none of the actual core functionality can be tested. He promises progress and documentation - over and over but I have to date never received any of these promises.

So I am ripped off a second time, another 39 days and $750 lost.

What the heck can I do? The first "contractor" was so bad that when the second one started everything done by the first was deleted and the project was started from scratch. The second contractor -- "I think" -- did make some actual development progress but not enough for things to be actually tested. But some stuff is there including design work and such that is fine.

Hiring yet another developer to try and figure out everything the second one has done and build upon his efforts would seem to be better than yet again starting the entire thing from scratch. BUT - how could I know that another contractor will not basically be pulling the same basic scam game as the first 2?

Is it realistic for a developer to be able to evaluate a WP site along with all the plugins being used and then evaluate the code and supposedly partially completed custom plugins that integrate it all? Where could such a GURU be found?

Getting ripped off - not just once but twice - really sucks but I have to get this business pushed forward and at this point am at a total loss as to how this can be accomplished. ANY suggestions are much appreciated.

Here are most postings on this project including a job posting on Upwork. This gives some background on the project at least.

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/...this-all-work/

https://wordpress.org/support/topic/...o-set-this-up/

https://www.upwork.com/ab/applicants...32/job-details
#back #derailed #development #project #track
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Anthony
    Two issues.

    A) anyone that tells you they can get an app like that going, tested and ready in 6 days is lying

    B) More importantly I think you are having and going to have a problem from trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

    this project is not that hard. Its basically authorization, ecommerce and content management but trying to put an app inside of an app is a potential nightmare.

    Thats what you have with wordpress. I've said this many times over the years here. Wordpress is great if your goals are aligned with the various plugins available but its a pain when you want to do something a little different and I mean even a LITTLE different.

    Build it from scratch using the right language and it would probably be done, tested and ready to in a couple of weeks. Break the project into steps (and thats where freelance sites suck) and pay for each feature completion.

    personally I'd forget about wordpress. When you want to do something different, as you do, the programmer has to worry about building out the feature you want AND how its going to made to work inside WP.
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  • Profile picture of the author ohio1975
    Are there any non performance clauses in your contracts? There may VA's out there that are well versed in WP and can do an analysis on the code.
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