October Blog

How Accountability is related to the Web Design & Development profession. There is no doubt that there is a lot of responsibility and accountability on a web designer and developer. He/She has the ability to impress a client with their skills, communication, getting the job done on time and to the clients satisfaction or specifications. As an example of this, I have a hobby/business site of mine where I found a developer to create a custom Drupal 6 module for my site. He had all the skills and the ability to create the custom module and the opportunity to gain a long-term business relationship with a client (me). I gave him 1 week to review specifications for the project and research everything and decide if it was something he was able to do and wanted to do. After the one week he came back and said that he could do it and it would take him 3 weeks to complete the project. After discussing a few things I hired him and the project began. After the 3rd week I was unable to see any progress, I emailed him numerous times with no response. I told him that if he was having any issues to let me know so we could work through them. he finally responded back a week later and said that he was having some issues but he was certain that he could work them out. To make a very, very long story short; I ended up firing him and doing what needed to be done using CCK & Views. I then hired a gentlemen named Rick Destree from Colorado to do my theming. Rick was a true example of how a Web Designer/Developer should be. His communication was awesome, he kept me up to date daily on what was going on without me having to ask and he got everything completed early. I can’t say enough good things about Rick and his abilities.

I have experienced both sides of this from a client’s point of view, from a Developer who didn’t take accountability for their work and actions to a Developer that was a true professional in every aspect of the word. Who took his work seriously and was accountable for what he said he could deliver.