Rangpursoft

Planning

Assembling your project team, If your company is small, a single person can be responsible for the project, while you may require a project team to tackle your website if your company is large. Determine your project team by evaluating which of your staff has valuable skills to contribute, has management support and is authorized to make decisions on their own. Your team will be responsible for many decisions and approvals during the next stages, and your project can stall if every issue is handled "by committee".

Your project team should review and continue the analysis into the requirements of the website. More detailed analysis may be required depending on the complexity of the project. If your company is streamlining internal processes using the website, consider a staff survey to help you identify process bottlenecks or useful functions that might have been overlooked initially. A web development firm or consultant can assist you with this process if internal time or resources are not available.

Managing build or buy, One of the first decisions your project team will need to make is: will your site be built internally or will you need to hire a website development firm? Your decision should be based on the resources that are available and on the complexity of the project. If your team decides to outsource the project, they can begin to itemize the specific requirements of the site for the purpose of putting together a request for proposal. This proposal should detail your:

•     Target audience groups
•     Required functionality
•     Specific performance goals
•     Required development platform or programming language
•     Future or planned functionality
•     Timeframe

You may also choose to include a budget in your proposal. Responding developers and firms will find this useful as it helps them determine how they can then maximize their deliverables and provide recommendations on how to proceed in order to meet your requirements. They might suggest a phased approach if your requirements exceed your budget or help you to scale back some of the non-essential features of an application. Circulate the request for proposal to between four and six firms. Of these, reduce the results to two or three firms for a final detailed review. Include each step of the review process in the project timeline.

Websites are long-term investments in terms of both time and money. A strong partner will complement your internal resources and provide you with a proactive vision for the future of your website.

Establishing publishing policies and processes

It may seem early in the process, but this is the time when you need to consider the ongoing content maintenance of the website. Equally important, you'll need to establish content publishing policies and processes that emphasize high quality standards. Some of the points to consider include:

    What content will require regular review to ensure that it is current and who will be responsible for conducting this process?
    Who will evaluate the user interface, site usability and future changes?
    What documents will be published on the site and who is responsible for converting, validating and managing the publishing process?

Scheduling resources and time

A website development company will provide you with a project timeline and schedule. If your project is being handled internally, it is wise to create a schedule for tracking project process. Establish milestones and set deadlines for when project phases are to be completed.

Keep in mind: if you operate a busy company, managing your website build is generally considered an additional project on top of your already heavy workload – it can easily become your lowest priority, delaying the project indefinitely. Ensure that your project maintains high priority by setting and meeting milestone deadlines and by ensuring that enough human resources are assigned to the project to handle reviews and approvals as necessary. A simple website can be completed in three to four weeks. A complex e-commerce site with various internal processes may take six to eight months or more.