Introduction
The ultimate goal of this article is to understand the best practises to do processing in a web development/consultancy company. This is just a guideline and it may vary according to people and companies.
Background
There are few things to be aware about web project that I am sure most of you already know, at least the ones working on them.
Budgeting and Scoping
- Account Management are always pushing for selling, but is not always able to quantify the amount of work needed in a web project.
- There are different kind of projects, depending from size, business impact and budget. Usually Account Management try to accommodate all of them, and to do it without getting overbudget is sometimes very hard.
- Men hours always depends from person to person, the same job can be done from different people in 2 or 3 days, according to their knowledge and speed.
Solution:
Get the development people involved in it; use your producer or Project Manager to define your delivery and costs.
Main development Phases
The main phases in a web project are:
Scoping -> Concept -> Development -> Delivery.
Scoping:
During this phase we collect all the requirement and we need to have clearly defined the objective of the project.
Concept:
The concept is usually based on the "creative brief" given to the Creative Team, usually more than one concept are proposed to the client. This step is not needed if an already defined concept is used.
Development:
The development part means the day to day work on the project, from start to finish, during this phase the people involved in the project are coordinate by a Project Manager or Producer usually.
Delivery:
Once the deliveries have been approved we need to prepare them to be published properly, all the deliverables should be tested (QA) before sending them.
Before the Scoping if necessary a strategic plan/ media plan should be done, usually for big online campaigns or big web development projects. This plan should involve not just marketing people but also creative people that can help choosing the media for the campaign.
The Way to go
As I already said do not take it as a perfect guide on how to run web project, but this is just an article outlining some best practice that usually work in web development.
1)Draw a Project Plan
2) Get the right people involved not too many not too few.
3) Work as a close team, monitor performance and amends.
4) Don't change people during the project.
5) Stick to the timelines as much as you can.
6) If you have a problem and can't solve it in house, outsource it.
7) Always add time for contingency, just in case things go wrong.
Problems always arise in projects and the team needs to as much flexible as possible sometimes. Resources is always a big issue, be aware that usually they are not assigned just to a web project, so sometimes you may affect other project if you overuse them, free resources as soon as you don't need them.
Some interactive agency have developed their own processes, but most of the time these processes are done from a cost effective use of the people in the company. From my experience the simple is the process to get the people the better. Adding bureaucracy to processes it just add problems to the manageability of the project.

About The Author

Giuseppe Mormandi is the founder and creator of Virtusportal.com, a site providing tips and useful links to people working in web projects.He is a Project Manager, expert in web development. You can find out more at www.virtusportal.com.