Author: Maneet Puri

Web project management is the most critical, yet undermined aspect of a web design and development project. Project management is what determines that the design and development processes are running smoothly and working to achieve the desired results.

Here are some important tips for website project management.

Define Clear Objectives

The success of a project depends on how well it is able to cater to the requirements of the clients. Therefore, define clear goals and objectives for the project at the very start. This would let you streamline the design and development processes accordingly. Get a clear understanding about what the project is about, what you want the outcome to be and how will you measure results for it.

Ideally, create a document for the same listing all the concerned points and give a copy to all the concerned parties, the design team, the development team and other important decision makers. This would give you a blue-print to formulate strategies on.

Detail at the Right Level

The project should be planned at an appropriate level of detail and format. One of the common mistakes project teams make is that they draft out a list of individual ‘to-do’ lists and pass it for a project plan. This creates utter chaos after sometime.

The project plan should reflect reality, be easy to update by all the members of the team and help to track the progress of the project. Ideally, break your project into various development stages and define milestones for the deliverables.

Provide Risk and Issue Management

A risk is a potential situation that can go wrong and an issue is something that has already gone wrong. A good project manager should know how to estimate risks and have steady solutions for issues that come up during projects.

It is very important to plan in advance if you do not want to be caught completely off-guard by potential issues. Estimating risks ensures that you have solutions at hand if things were to go wrong or any unexpected or unforeseen circumstances come across. A risk management plan should be an essential element in your project management plan.

Have a Project Board

For every project, there should be a project board that includes an official sponsor (someone who decides the amount of money that is to be spent on the project), a business expert and a technical expert. The project manager should gather enough information and recommend things that can be decided by the board.

Without a project board, the project can go haywire as too many people try to be in control.

Finish Well

It is important to finish a project well and make it known to all that it is finishes. Many clients don’t realize that the project has come to an end and keep on coming back with requests and requirements even after they have been send the final invoices. You may also have realized that there are uncompleted things even after the website has been launched.

To signal that the project has ended, send out clear signs. Apart from sending final invoices and archiving the files, also wrap up the documentation, support structure handover and training.

About the Author:
Maneet Puri is the managing director of LeXolution IT Services, a premier web development company that specializes in offering a variety of web design services in addition to search engine optimization services. "