Website Project Management

Article Index
Website Project Management
Planning Your Website
Get It In Writing
Communication
Content
Website Traffic
Maintenance and CMS
Picking A Design Agency
All Pages

website project mamagement All too often, getting a website built is an experience somewhere between chaos and torture. But it doesn’t have to be that way. We have put together a booklet that provides tips that will help your next website development project go more smoothly, saving you time and money. It is literally be worth its weight in gold because – you know – it doesn’t weigh very much.

Topics include:

And now - by popular demand - we have posted the complete book content here on the site for your enjoyment and education.

Planning Your Website

Building a website without planning is like telling your surgeon that x-rays are a waste of time – just start cutting and let’s see what’s in there. We’re not saying we’re doing surgery here, of course; it’s really more like rocket science. And as we all remember from grade 4 rocket science class, a lack of careful planning can get really, really expensive in the end.

So what do you need to cover here? You almost can’t do too much planning, but two elements are essential: determine why you’re doing the website in the first place and who you’re doing it for. The “why” is the mission or purpose of your site. What do you want to accomplish and how will you know if you succeeded? Make it measurable. The “who”, meanwhile, is your target audience. Really get into their heads. Every decision you make should come back to these fine people: what content and functionality do they need? What design style will appeal to them most (as opposed to your CEO or the designer)?

Don’t downplay the importance of the planning stage. Be prepared, willing and joyously happy to pay for planning. Every penny you invest here will pay off in the final product.

Get It In Writing

Want to avoid most potential issues in the website development process? It’s pretty simple, really: get your project detailed in writing. Always. Never assume that just because your developer is your best friend or cousin or spouse that you don’t need a contract. Chances are that you won’t ever have to use it in a legal setting, but that’s not the point.

Putting it all on paper means that all aspects of the project have been carefully considered and agreed upon by both sides. Everyone gets clarity on what is involved in the project, what is not, who is responsible for what, etc. It should be detailed enough that you never have a conversation that includes the phrase “Oh, I thought you meant...”

Bottom line: you get what you paid for. Speaking of which... be up front about your budget. I know what you’re thinking: “if I tell them that my budget is $10,000, the quote will come back at $9995.” OK – maybe, but think of it like a car. Your budget will determine what make and model you can afford, as well as what extras you get. Likewise, your website budget will determine the scope and features of your website.

Communication

Ask around with the question “why do you hate your web developer so much?” and you’ll get a wide variety of answers. Put them on a couch and go deeper and at the root will almost always be a communications issue. It’s a lot easier to deal with issues or delays if you’re kept in the loop, so make sure your developer keeps you informed of how the job is progressing (on time? on budget?) and if anything is needed on your end.

How do you ensure this happens? Your developer should have a project manager assigned to you whose responsibility it is to keep you up-to-date. This communication should happen regularly and in a format that works best for you (in person/phone/email). Additionally, you should be comfortable with their communication style; do you clearly understand them and vice-versa?

Another mechanism you can use to aid in communication is a project management website. These are now pretty common within larger web development companies. They allow you to log in 24/7, see project progress, view and contribute to discussions, upload files, view proofs, etc. It’s a great tool: ask your developer if they have something like this for you.

Content

Ask ten designers what the number one cause of delay in a web project is and nine will immediately answer: “content.” The tenth will hesitate for a second, then say “content.” Don’t underestimate the time and effort that content creation will take. Late content delivery will not only delay the launch of the site, it may also increase costs and make your developer really cranky.

On the other hand, don’t just rush content through to meet deadlines. It’s the most important element of your site. Sure, the design is important, but if you don’t have relevant, well-written content, your users will move on to somewhere else.

It’s important to note here that people read differently online than off. In fact, people typically do not read at all in the traditional sense; they scan. This means that simply re-using your brochure content online will not be effective. It must be formatted to incorporate headers and subheaders, bulleted lists, links, etc. Find a writer or copy editor that understands how to best present information on the web.

Content will probably be your biggest contribution and responsibility to your website project. Have a plan. Allocate adequate time and resources. Be prepared.

Website Traffic

The wise Mr. Costner once said, “If you build it, they will come.” He may have been right about baseball-playing ghosts, but he was wrong about website traffic. Don’t make the mistake of thinking that the website project is over when the site is launched; you’re only halfway there. The best website in the world isn’t much good if no one sees/visits it.

There are lots of different methods to drive traffic to your website: offline marketing (brochures and ads), getting incoming links from other sites, social networking (Travelocity, Facebook, etc.) But the biggest source of traffic is likely to be search engines. Whether it’s search engine optimization (building or editing your site to maximize search engine ranking) or search engine marketing (ad words), do not undervalue this form of marketing.

But you can’t stop there – this is an ongoing process of review and improvement. Get set up with a good statistics package such as Google Analytics. Use it to see how many people are coming to your site, where they’re coming from, what pages they’re viewing and lots more. Finally, use this information to refine your site content and promotional efforts to improve your site traffic.

Maintenance and Content Management Systems

Many organizations make the mistake of assuming that their website is done on “go live” day. This is only true if the site never changes and your customers do not expect updated content. After the site launch, it’s important to have a plan (and budget) for ongoing maintenance. Otherwise, you’ll end up with a stale and out-of-date website that may end up being worse than not having one at all.

Now you can just have your developer do the updates for you (and they’ll be happy to take your money), but in most cases you will be better served by a content management system (CMS). A CMS is a system that allows you to update your website yourself with little or no technical skill. There are a wide range of CMS’s available. The most basic may only allow you to update news or calendar events. At the other end of the spectrum, enterprise-level CMS’s allow access to all content, including images, menu items, new pages – you name it.

So why go with a CMS? In a word: control. If your site is easy to update, it just might actually get done – and it will be cheaper and quicker than farming it out.

Learn more about content management systems and the CMS that Idea Market uses...

Picking A Design Agency

Hopefully the preceding pages have helped identify some of the things you’ll want to look for in a website developer. Some other important considerations include:

Do they fit in with your budget and timeline?
What does their design portfolio look like? Are you happy with their style? Do they have knowledge and experience in your industry?
Are they truly interested in understanding your organization so that they can offer you a solution uniquely suited to you?
How stable are they? Do they have a team of developers that can work on your project? How long have they been around?
Do they keep up with current best practices and technology? Ask them about things like web standards and AJAX.
Do you have a good rapport with them? Are you going to enjoy working with them for a few months?

And hey, if you’re not sure and need some “help” making a choice, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . We’d be more than happy to help point you in the right direction.