I receive a work inquiry in the form of an RFP every couple of months.  If you're unfamiliar with the abbreviation, an RFP is a request for proposal.  It's a document that a client will prepare and post publicly or send out to potential vendors with the aim of gathering proposals to accomplish a project.  In certain industries, and at certain business sizes, this approach is common.  For example, government projects will often be initiated with an RFP.  Without fail, the RFP's that are sent our way go directly to my garbage folder.  Its not that I'm ungrateful for the opportunity, just that I recognize a waste of time when I see it.  And, though it does have some merit, I don't think it's a great way for a client to get their project completed either.  In this post will take a look at the problems with RFP's and suggest an alternative.

The about us page on any company website is always important. It’s here that you’ll find out about the values of the company, their experience, and the founding principles that influence their work. It’s also where you meet the people who contribute their talents to the business and who you will trust with your project.

So, what does it mean when you explore a Joomla Development companies website only to discover that they don’t have an about us page, or the page doesn’t feature a single team member?

Short answer: It’s not a good sign.

In the Marines, a “boot” is a new Marine and is what you are referred as for the first two years of your service, regardless of your rank.  When I served in the Marines, one of the things that bothered me as a boot was that leadership positions were assigned based upon experience.  The idea was that because the senior Marines had been in longer than the new guys they were more qualified to lead, but unfortunately this wasn’t always the case.  Blue Bridge has been in business nearly three times longer than I was a boot (six years). In reflecting upon my own experiences as a developer and seeing much amateur work over the years I've come to appreciate how important of a factor experience is and how the Marines might have ended up with that simplistic system.  Experience has a tremendous impact on how a project is accomplished and much of the time, that impact is felt directly by the client in their bottom line.