Standard Problems in Web Project Management

May 4, 2005 | by Lukasz | in Web Developlment Process | 3 comments

I thought that in the development of a website the most important is the quality of the final product. As it turns out that's not a good benchmark for judging a successful web development project. There is several other characteristics for every successful web development project:

• project is completed on schedule
• any changes in the schedule are mutually agreed on with the client
• project is completed within budget
• if the scope of the project changes during the cycle, change orders are initiated and separately billed for

There is several things that can go wrong on both the clients and developers side that will hinder the above and cause the project to be less successful. Let's review them...

Issue #1: Client is not responsive or not reachable

There is many breeds of clients. Some like to micromanage the development project, while others simply want to stay out of it and let you handle everything. None of the extremes is very helpful. There is several methods you can use to mobilize your client to communicate with the project manager on a regular basis. Firstly, you should start using a web-based client extranet/project management application, such as BaseCamp. In this way the client will have a convenient channel for communicating with the PM or the rest of the project team and reviewing project progress. For clients that are not computer-saavy, the best solution is regular meetings. For those meetings you need to come prepared with a set of specific questions that you need answered or problems that need to be resolved.

Issue #2: Client does not deliver on time

The project manager carries the most responsibility within the team. He is responsible for setting up a realistic schedule, which should be closely followed to assure that a project can be completed on time. A schedule is essentially a collection of major milestones with their deadlines. Milestones are usually associated with deliverables. The completion of certain milestones, like content delivery is the responsibility of the client. Therefore the client needs be hold accountable for any milestones that are not completed by them on time.

Why is the delay of the project schedule a major problem? If your a web development company, you most likely work on several projects at a time. Therefore the time of the various team members needs to be scheduled for particular tasks at a particular time, so that all the deadlines can be met. By delaying a milestone within a project with a delinquent client, you completely disorganize the schedule of the team member who is responsible for the consecutive milestones.

Issue #3: Client constantly changes requirements

The so called scope creep is the most financially unpleasant problem to experience for a web development company. Scope creep occurs when the project requested functionality exceeds the initial requirements, for which you have quoted in the proposal or project plan. Changes within the project requirements are often justified during the development process. It is essential however to initiate a change order for any major extension of the requirements. A change order is an amendment of the original development contract with the client, that introduces new costs for all the added requirements implementation.

Frequent changes in the requirements can be avoided by:

• writing a project plan based on a thorough survey of the clients needs before initiating the development process
• building and collaborating with the client on a website blueprint that addresses site structure, content structure and navigational paths of the website

Issue #4: Project team fails to meet milestone deadlines

If you have an experienced project team and there are no problems with the completion of milestones by a client, but you're still failing to meet project milestones, you must have a scheduling problem. The project manager must consult the project team's calendar before setting up a schedule for a project. It is essential to determine when a given team member has time to work on a given task and setup the milestone deadlines for the new projects according to that.

A well thought out schedule will be respected and used by the team as their main guideline for what to do on a given day. Web based project management apps like BaseCamp give you the capability to setup milestones and assign them to team members, as well as keep track of their completion date/time.

A new article series about project management will be initiated on WAL very soon. It will focus on the details of managing a web development project from start to finish.