Solved Speccing Piecework

[janelo]

Hi folks,

I'm building an Access app for nonprofit orgs that own and operate affordable housing in the US. It is not a sales-oriented model, but more about portfolio analysis (balance sheet accounts, rents, expenses, risks, forecasting); reporting internally and to investors, lenders and government agencies; relationship management; and tracking event deadlines.

I have small-scale and big-picture questions that I'm sure y'all can help me with.

I'm a strange hybrid of developer, SME, artist, and mad scientist in how I built this. I had not built anything in Access for a long time but I have done a lot of work that we could loosely call "business analyst" on systems such as .NET, CRM, Salesforce, Power-BI, etc). With 30 years of industry experience, I was able to intuitively build the relationships, menus, forms and reports in my App. I've also built accompanying Excel tools to help import and analyze data. I have someone working on back-end workflow to import data.

My next step is to polish up the user interface and get help refining front-end objects.

I'm sure I'll be chastised by those who know and use best practices but I can take the heat. I'm here to learn, but mostly to get better at not building this alone. I've started connecting with gig workers to help me with discrete projects, such as creating a search function on a form, sending an email with a report, designing a report from a form, replacing my ham-handed macros with code to better streamline navigation between menus ... that kind of thing.

My first question is about writing clear specs and instructions. Anyone out there who enjoys that part of the process? Are there any formats people use to provide specs or clearly outline a deliverable?

I've started to look around a bit, and have seen a couple threads related to writing specs but I wanted to introduce myself with a started question and this seemed like it fit the bill.

Thanks!

Jane

P.S. This is cross-posted at Utter Access

I'm just getting to know the forums out here and chose this site and UA as my first forays.

 

[theDBguy]

Just FYI, this is crossposted at UA.

UtterAccess.com

www.utteraccess.com

 

[janelo]

Thanks for your reply DBGuy.

Is cross-posting an issue?

Jane

 

[theDBguy]

Is cross-posting an issue?

It could become one. It's better to inform all potential contributors if there's already an ongoing discussion about the same topic to enhance the conversation and avoid wasting time on asking the same questions and giving the same answers in multiple exchanges. It also avoids potential confusion for all parties involved. Just my 2 cents...

 

[janelo]

Ah! That makes total sense. I will edit my post, and thank you for the heads up.

 

[theDBguy]

Ah! That makes total sense. I will edit my post, and thank you for the heads up.

No problem. I responded to your thread at UA.

 

[Pat Hartman]

Best to post actual links in both threads. Since this isn't a technical question, the dual posting is less of an issue.

You can't let a gig worker make interface decisions. You need to send a sample form with the colors, fonts, point sizes, and any other properties you want. It should include default code for security if you have any. It also makes sense to include a working form that shows validation so they can see that it needs to go in the form's BeforeUpdate event and not in a control's LostFocus event. Then at a minimum, you need to provide a sketch of a layout for anything other than a standard edit form.

You can then include tables with data and possibly a query along with a field list and the validation rules for each.

By the time you finish the spec, you've probably spent almost as much time as it would have taken to build the form yourself. If you are going to do a lot of work with a single individual, you can assume a certain level of training after a few forms and eliminate some of the more detailed requirements.

When you are dealing with beginning programmers (and that is almost certainly what you will get at the rate you will be willing to pay), you have to cover all the bases. They won't even know enough to sort the data on a report unless you tell them to. They probably won't actually know how to use Access. They will say they do but they won't

The other problem is integration. Most of my apps have some type of security so new forms/reports, need to be able to validate the security so in order for me to have someone else build a form for me, I would need to send a db with at least three forms - check links, login, switchboard plus any common code modules and variable definitions. The point is, you want the form to work when you import it into the production FE so it needs to have all the necessary structure coded and working otherwise, you have to modify the form. Once you modify it, to include the infrastructure stuff, you can't send it back to the gig worker for modification.

If you can find an experienced Access developer (good luck), you will probably have to pay them too much to make it worthwhile but you'll need to give them higher level specs.

 

[janelo]

Pat, this is super helpful. I'm trusting your experience but at the same time I definitely need help with building and designing forms and reports. I think you are saying that I would need to build that knowledge base with someone before it would become efficient. 100%. That's my aim, and I'm not looking for cheap labor via gig apps, but I want to cast a wide net and hope to catch a few folks who would be a good fit with the project and stick around.

I will share one of my draft specs below and see if that helps to clarify the type of piecework assignment I'm thinking of.

Appreciate your time

Jane

 

[Pat Hartman]

No specs posted.

 

[gemma-the-husky]

I build user validation into a form's open event, but if I wanted a third party to develop something, they could just include a place holder function for my real routine.

Eg
Build this into a form's open event, and just use a boolean const loginvalid to test it.

If not loginvalid then
  Msgbox "Sorry you are not able to use this form"
  Cancel = true
  Exit sub
End if

 

[Pat Hartman]

That's a way. But then you need someone at the other end to find all the placeholders, insert the necessary code, and test the form again. One of my husband's clients was using Indians in India to write code. It was a nightmare. They worked nights writing bad code. My husband worked days fixing it and testing it.

 

[janelo]

Pat and gemma,

Appreciate your replies on this, and your experience. I'm stepping back for a moment to start translating this project into user stories, which will help me with requesting help. Then I can post a draft "spec" for a task and try it out here. It might be a couple-few days.

Cheers

Jane