Project Management 101

Project management is necessary for your website to be delivered to your customer.  It allows you to manage all aspects of development and keep communication flowing with your team members. Not doing this will make the project seem difficult and ultimately let your customer down and all the team members.  If you follow some of the basic principles set forth in our Project Management 101 talk, you raise your chances of success!!

At a minimum, you need a plan.  This plan, however detailed, should at least provide the following:

• Communication Plan
  Know how you will communicate with other via email, txt messaging, online meetings, etc.
  Know when you will meet.  Set at least one day a week to meet at a set day and time.
• Timeline
  Know when the project needs to be completed, then work backwards to fill in all the deliverables such as the framework of the website, content pieces, graphics, scripting for functionality, video, etc..
  Be prepared for things to not always go well.
• Delegate
  Everyone on the team has a role to play, otherwise you wouldn’t need a team.  Use your team wisely by knowing who is capable of what and tasking them.  Once you give someone something to do, make sure they know when to turn it in!
• Status
  Eliminate surprises by having status updates for all to see.  Everyone needs to report to the team lead as to what they have or have not accomplished.  If you find out you still have much to do, reassign people who are done to a task that needs help.

Communication is the key to project management.  If you can all work together and communicate well, there isn’t a project that you can’t handle.