projects
Every project has it’s own special needs and challenges, but here is an outline of some basic steps and my approach.
Look like TMI? You might want to just skip to the project examples ›
Not enough? Download a sample work plan (waterfall) ›
Team building: It all starts with identifying and pulling together the stakeholders and team members. Then it’s time to do that strategy thing. At the outset we’ll get all the players on the same page and figure out a communication method that works for everyone. It’s both harder and easier than you think.
Planning: When you are building a website you need to do more than plan out what will be in it and where, you need to plan the project itself. In real world terms, not some cookie cutter MSProject template. Your project plan will be as unique as your organization and goals and will fit you to a tee.
Sometimes you don’t even know what to plan for, which is when I, or one of my technical partners, can advise you of your options and what steps to take.
Process: I’ll make sure each project has all of the collaboration tools and documentation it needs, and not one bit more. That’s how we’ll keep things moving forward smoothly. If you need to migrate or develop new content, I have tools and guides to make that easier. Or a writing partner that can polish your web content for you. And I will keep you up to date on time and budget all along the way.
Design: Over the years I have come up with a methodology that helps organizations make informed decisions during the design phase. Having great mocks ups to look at helps, of course. But understanding design thinking provides an opportunity to go deeper and create the communications that really connect with your audience. And if branding is involved, I have some special tools for that too.
Deployment and Coding: Being something of a perfectionist, I’ve delved fairly deeply into front end coding. Things like WordPress sites and Email templates I may build myself if it makes sense.
For Drupal sites, custom development and complex DNS and hosting issues, I’ll bring on one of my trusted technology partners to advise and do the work. At which point I usually learn something new.
QA: No matter who does the hands on code I’ll be checking on everything along the way and tasking your organization with proof reading too. If it’s a big hairy system, we can bring on professionals that know how to hunt and communicate bugs to developers in the proper nerdy way that means they get fixed right.
Maintenance: After the site launches everyone wants to take a break. But your site still needs care and feeding, so I’ll provide a simple How To guide for common tasks in case you forget. I can hook you up with some maintenance pros to keep things up to date on the back and front end if needed. And keeping your CMS software up to date is not just a nice thing to do, it’s a security mandate.
So if this sounds good to you, please get in touch and see if I might be the right project partner for you.
