Marcus Richards
Find out why robust project management is essential for an effective design process.
When running a business, specifically in the world of website design, it is a must to have the strongest and most effective process for managing the projects you take on. Web development can soar or smolder based on the efficiency and detail of the management involved.
Creative Brand Design, a leading London website design agency, has developed an incredibly efficient project management process that allows them to ensure every detail of design and launch is covered. In the below article, they are going to let you in on the inner processes of their web design project management, and the specific benefits they can provide to your business. Keep reading to find out more.
Project management preparation
Website project management describes a specific process that can be used to work a client design. To facilitate this process some preparation needs to be done. One of the most vital tasks is to assign a project manager (PM), the person that will be in charge of the whole process. Additionally a project management methodology such as Agile needs to be chosen, along with project management software for the whole team to use.
The planning stage
The next stage after preparation is the planning stage. This is where it’s vital to communicate effectively with the client on what it is they want from their website design. Indeed, the critical benefit of completing through work in the planning stage is that it helps to reduce the risk of miscommunications, wasted time, and unhappy clients later on.
Picture found at Pixabay – License CC0
With this in mind, using a combination of face-to-face client meetings along with some carefully worded written questions can help your PM and team define precisely what it is their client is looking for. The written portion of the questioning process is particularly important here because it provides evidence of the clients to both parties going forward.
Once you have the information you need from your client you can use it to create a specification for the website you are building with your team. In turn, this will be the foundation of your project plan.
With that in mind, you will need to make sure the questions such as what the project deliverable is, how they can be broken down into specific tasks, who will complete each task, and how much it will cost. Stay alert for dependencies at this point in the project – tasks that depend on another being completed before they can start.
After coming up with a project plan you will need to get your client to sign off on it. Then you can begin to use your project management software by opening a new project and populating it with tasks.
The building stage
Once the planning stage has been completed it is time to begin the building phase of your project. This is where the website design team will primarily be concerned with developing the design, layout, content, and functionality of the site that is being created.
At this stage, project management will focus on two critical goals. The first is making sure that the project management process that has been chosen is kept to by all members of the team. While the second is monitoring the progress that the team is making. In particular, those in charge of project management will need to be on the lookout for anything that is getting in the way and stopping the progress of the tasks at hand. Issues can be flagged either using the project management software in use or in one of the many team meetings that will need to happen at this stage.
The optimisation stage
Once the building stage is completed, your team will move on to the optimisation stage. This is all about making sure that the website built works as effectively and efficiently as possible.
Best project management practice here includes adding optimization checks to your software as tasks. Additionally, as each team member discovers an issue, get them to add a task to your project management software to ensure nothing is missed.
The finalisation stage
Once your team has optimised the website on which you are working it is time to finalise the project. Unfortunately, the finalisation stage can be the one at which there are the most hurdles. This is because it is relatively complex and includes initial testing, as well as other in-depth tasks such as the site going live, client training, and marketing and SEO activities.
The good news is that strong project management will make sure that your team stays on task, and isn’t confused or overwhelmed by what is expected of them at this stage.
Just remember that when it comes to any issues that need resolving, each task should be assigned to your project manager who can then review and reassign them to those with the necessary skills to resolve them.
Don’t forget to add other important tasks to your project management software either including integrating the site with apps and analytics, uploading it to its domain, running training for the client on how to operate it, and the like.
The launch stage
The final stage of the web design process is to launch the site you have been creating. Of course, using projects here is essential because it can ensure that this important stage goes smoothly. Tasks to add to your project management software here will include more testing. This time with a focus on things like security and SEO.
Once any issues uncovered are resolved you can hand over the site to the client. Tasks for this stage will include securely passing on login details and creating the completion report.
Additional tasks for the team to complete here will be to review how the process went and identify any ways to improve it the next time around. Indeed, by reflecting on every project with the information given by your team, and collected throughout the project management process you will be able to constantly improve your web design method and results ensuring not only happier customers, but happier and more proud team members as well.
Final thoughts
The benefits of strong project management for the web design process are many and include better-defined goals, improved efficiency, and better teamwork. Strong project management also provides you with the best foundation on which to review and improve your process, ensuring better websites and customers that can’t help but be delighted not only with the end product but the experience they had with your business getting there.
