5 things to help make your new website project a success

In my career I’ve been through many different projects in different industries both working with “in-house” teams and with agencies. In this article I’m going to talk about some of the things I’ve found that make for a successful project.

1. Well defined goals

Whether you’re building a new website or rebuilding/updating an existing one you’re probably doing it for a reason.

Take some time to think about your reasons and how you will measure whether the project has been a success.

Perhaps you want to increase the number of people who submit your enquiry form? Maybe you just want people to spend longer on your site? Whatever the reason or reasons, document them and make sure that your project team are all aware of what you’re measuring.

Then you can use them to measure the success of your project.

2. Ubiquitous language

I’ve been in many projects where the terminology used by the client or stakeholders didn’t match up with that used by the development team.

When the you talk about a “widget” developers might be thinking about website widgets (ways of displaying dynamic content) but you might mean a product that you sell.

Early in your project, and throughout, whenever a term is used that has specific meaning to you, make sure you define that with the developers. They’ll thank you for it. If someone uses a term that you’re unfamiliar with, ask for clarification.

Work to get every person involved in your project speaking the same language and using the same terminology to mean the same things.

For example, when I worked on a project for a publishing company my predecessor had created an object in code called “Book” … the publishers told me that there was no such thing in their world. They called them “Works” and “Editions”. A single “Work” or title by a particular author could have multiple “Editions” identified by their ISBN. This clarification helped me build massive improvements to their website and project because I had a better understanding of their systems and their data.

3. Good communication

You may think this one goes without saying — but I’m saying it anyway. I’ve seen too many projects where clients were impossible to pin down for meetings or third party companies would miss important meetings.

Good, open communication between everyone involved in your project is the key to ensuring that things keep moving and that no one person involved is working in the wrong direction.

If you have 3rd party companies that need to do work (i.e. your CRM provider, an external IT services company, etc.), make sure that they understand the project and that they are allowed to communicate directly with your other project members. If you find anything that is a barrier to open communication, try to reduce or remove it.

4. The right tool for the job

Many projects I’ve worked on in the past have been hindered by the client already having their heart set on a particular piece of software (i.e. their preferred CMS) or technology stack (i.e. PHP vs .Net).

In many cases, and where there is not a commercial concern, these decisions should be left to your project team to allow them to select the best tool for the job at hand. For one thing, if they can use the tools they have the most experience with you are likely to get a much better solution but also, your choice may take more effort to integrate with your other systems or may not provide you with the most optimal solution for your users. Trust your project team and the specialists within it.

5. Don’t be afraid of change

As a project unfolds changes are inevitable. You might come up with something that you hadn’t thought of earlier. Your project team may discover that a particular integration is required that wasn’t known at the start.

In most cases you should work with your project team to identify these kinds of changes early on as they can, if left unchecked, increase the time and budget required to complete the project.

If you do find something that you just can’t afford to include, or that can’t be done in time for your deadline, don’t worry — there’s always a phase two!