Build a website in...

Rails started the craze of the 'build a blog in 15 minutes' example and since then there have been many 'me-too' screencasts, tutorials and blog posts.

This is not one of those super-exaggerated demos. This is an actual real-world example of 'build an X in Y minutes':

UntoldGood

Timed, from start to finish, this website took 2.5 hours.

2.5 hours for:

• A simple CMS (set page name, and textile content)


• A simple Links application (set link URL, text, and category)


• HTML templates


• CSS


• Deployment

This isn't the most flashy website, but it is exactly to Seth's design spec (he actually came over with legal paper and cut outs and post-its taped to it). It is simple but this is all he needs. It isn't complete. The blog is missing, though we could fake it with the CMS. We talked about a lot of features he wanted, but he gladly accepted my rejection of all but the essential functions for the first cut.

Still, Seth was really happy. His ideas for the site started a mere 12 hours earlier, he called and asked 'what are you doing this afternoon?' a few hours earlier, and here he was with his website up on the Internet. He was making links to his friends' websites when he doesn't know a lick of HTML. He was already honing in on the next set of work for version 2 now that he got his hands on version 1.

I was really happy. I opened a beer and watched Seth fill in the links and tweak the copy through the admin interface. "This is really easy" he actually said out loud. I drank another beer and watched some TV. There were a couple of small tweaks that I made during commercials.

This one was under budget, and more importantly done. "Is that really when you came over?"

3 hours is a magic number in consulting. Nothing happens in less than 3 hours. Even on the easiest projects.

You forget about the overhead of starting anew, or you get sidetracked on a meaningless but tricky and fun challenge programming wise, or you just can't locate those certain docs, or track down that weird javascript bug, or can't remember how to do vertical centering, or scratch your head over an indentation bug, or can't decypher what this old code is actually doing (dang I should rewrite this), etc.

Then ADD kicks in. Reddit calls. I need a drink. New email.

Then damn apache is just not honoring my virtual host directives. Then WTF mod_php breaks mod_python and I can't log into the admin?! Then what is that Postgres password again?

I could go on.

But this one wasn't like that at all.

Conclusions to draw from all of this?

1. Django kicks ass; apps are highly reusable and the admin interface provides an amazing shortcut for CRUD, and the clients love it.


2. Sitting down next to the client to work is both a great motivator and and easy way to prioritize (what can we do while you are here?).


3. Getting your tools, your workflow, and your deployment server as frictionless as possible is incredibly important -- you will know when this has happened and it will feel great.