Project management is that the key to a successful web design project.
Whether it’s a replacement website design, adding on new website developments or mobile app development – Great project management is what keeps your project not off course, meets deadlines and keeps you updated with progress every step of the way.
If you've got worked with BridgeWeb before then you'll of spoken with our project manager Rehan who is commonly described as “detail orientated” “thorough” and “the best PM we've got ever worked with” – it's these words that show just how important project management and a good project manager to execute upon the project plan is.
In this article we are visiting cover all areas of project management right from the weather of great project management, too bad project management, samples of typical project milestones and describes the advantages of why great project management is significant to saving you time and money.
Elements of great Web design & Website Development project management
Great project management doesn’t start after you conform to act with a project, it begins at the primary point of contact you've got together with your chosen web design agency.
If you have got no experience with working with an internet design company, then your questions will likely fall under 2 parts:
-Is what I would like possible: am I able to have this functionality and do that and that?
-How long will this take, what do I want to produce you and by when?
The first question “Is what I need possible” is sometimes easily managed by any member of the team from an internet design agency, whether that be the sales rep, project manager or a member of senior management.
Talking about your project from a top-level is sometimes done over the phone to urge a sympathize with the sort of requirements that you simply are searching for.
But once your project is known from a top-level and costs are all on the table then it's the following stage at a face to face meeting where your project manager will really inherit the image.
Include your digital Project Manager from Day 1
It is important that your project manager is involved from the primary meetings and a wise project manager knows this. are often} firstly to assess your chemistry with the project manager and secondly if people are involved at the first stage like sales reps or senior management then it can be very awkward and disheartening to possess the large guns extended to urge your business and so leave you are feeling deflated once they step back once the contract is signed and hand you over to someone you have got never met before.
Whilst a part of that's true, it can feel really disheartening and everyone about money, but the thing to recollect is it's actually the project manager who is that the real big deal within any project.
Why?
Because it's the project manager who will understand your project, your requirements and have the key to unlock all of that for you in one single incredible project brief.
It can feel great having an agencies brass come and visit you and nod their head about what can and can’t be done and sell you the deal and obtain the contract signed.
But they aren’t technical people and that they often don’t have the skill set to manage and execute your project plan.
That’s why it's important that your project manager should be there from day 1.
-to grasp your requirements and therefore the possibilities of getting it done
-to run you thru solutions and other alternative routes of doing things that you simply might not remember of
-to work out the fuller picture
-To be the same face from day 1 who you'll judge has your best interests at the bottom and knows you, your requirements and your project timeframe inside out.
Break your project into 3 key phases
In the early stages, a decent project manager is going to be spending plenty of your time with yourself or whoever is to blame on your project.
Typically, the conversations will initially be around a combination of website design and website development before being narrowed all the way down to just web design and just website development.
Your project is going to be attenuated into 3 key phases:
-Pre-Project
-Design/Development
-Post-Project
The pre-project phase is what really sets your project on the right track and unfortunately is commonly the foremost neglected stage of a project.
This stage is quite where a timeframe is ready – It’s where a deadline is ready and it’s also where that deadline is proven that it'll be met.
During pre-project, your project manager is going to be expanding on your initial project brief and building it into what’s called an SRS (Software Requirement Specifics) – this can be a precise road map of all of your requirements and might be attenuated into a Design SRS and a Development (technical) SRS.
The design SRS includes all the fine detail on your design requirements. Colours, Assets, Fonts, Pages required are all included in a very design SRS.
Documenting your web project for clarity
A design SRS is way quite that, it'll be weakened page by page and every element, each call to action, each button colour is all sort out so anyone with design experience could pick it up and know exactly what elements are required on your designs.
A technical SRS is where all the individual page functionality is documented. looking at your project size it’s common for an SRS to exceed 80-100 pages in
total.
A technical SRS will again allow any web developer to choose it up, read it and follow it and develop your website.
The Design and technical SRS is that the chalice and foundation of your project.
A great project manager also will include time frames in your SRS, so you recognize what to expect and when. An SRS is dampened into sections and this then wont to build a weekly plan, so you recognize what to expect and when.
Without an SRS your project could go seriously off-target.
The great benefit to an SRS is that it irons potential future issues out before your project has even started.
So many web design companies sell an excellent dream, yet when it involves it, they find themselves increasing their price mid-project, missing timeframes and causing their client many other issues, purely because they didn't pre-plan their project correctly.
Great project management = Excellent finished product
Our experience has shown that by spending more and longer on the pre-project management section of the project that the output is of far higher quality, better than the client imagined, on time and within budget – this is often all thanks to proper pre-project planning.
The purpose of pre-project management is in order that your project manager leaves you in little question what so ever about you may be receiving at the project competition stage.
If your project has been pre-planned properly then your project manager will at the tip of the week or on certain dates, provide you with regular updates on what’s happening together with your project.
During the first weeks, your project manager is updating you on your designs – as designs typically tend to be completed and signed off before the online development stage starts.
Your designs are the key to your whole project and it’s not worth moving forward to the event stage until your designs are signed off.
At BridgeWeb we use invisionapp during the planning stage to present to you your designs – This software allows us to present the designs in a straightforward to manage fashion in order that you'll click through like a true website and click on to depart your feedback.
Once your designs are all signed off, they've added to the technical SRS which is then signed off by yourself, and therefore the development stage starts.
Typically, a development process will start with the designs being converted to HTML – this is often in order that the weather of your designs eg images, text and links all become real, interactive, clickable and readable by Google.
As this goes on your Project Manager is going to be available for updates at your request and in fact, report back to you with updates to make sure your project is not off course.
Website project management tools
There are plenty of tools available on the marketplace for web designers and web developers to use to assist better project management of your design & build and to help with reporting to you on a weekly basis.
Basecamp – one of the leading project management tools on the market that allows simple communication and tracking of tasks.
BeeWits – Built with web designers and web design and development project management in mind, BeeWits allows you to start off a project type quickly, e.g WordPress, set tasks to make sure you lay out all the weather of your project and are
clear what to try to do next and allows reporting at a look of all tasks therefore the team and client can see if the work is finished, on time, or late.
Invisionapp – As mentioned previously this software is ideal for presenting designs and conveying user experience elements without coding up the designs. Collecting feedback in a very simple way and allowing menus and buttons to all or any be linked up, Invisionapp is ideal to deliver a prototype to your client.
Monday.com – Our favourite piece of project management software. Monday.com allows projects and individual tasks to be founded, colour coded and date specific. this can be the best software for web developers looking to boost their project management and put all their sprints in situ.
Project Management for Web Design & Web Development
Whether it's web design project management or web development project management – getting it right, with the help of tools built for the duty and a honed and perfected project management process is commonly key to getting your digital project right.
The way that the team at BridgeWeb manages an internet design project is made on over 18 years of experience and allows us to ensure a finished project to your exact spec and offer a reimbursement guarantee of all of the digital projects that we deliver.
This article is an element of our 4-part series into project management and getting your website right from day 1. the aim of this mini-series is to produce you with the
the ideal process you'd bear to urge your web project on the right track from the outset and not cost you money or lose you time mid-project.
Part 2 of this series are released shortly and can specialize in samples of bad project management – providing you with the flexibility to identify the warning signs before your project goes wrong.
