Why project management and communication are so vital to a successful website project.
As with any type of project, management and communication are the most important tasks in a website development project. Without standing meetings to go over production and milestones website projects can easily grind to a halt. In addition, without the ability to track the progress and the assets of a project, these types of projects can quickly become ‘he said – she said’ nightmares.
Let’s start by looking into the importance of the standing weekly production meeting.
Weekly Production Meeting
There are any number of reasons why a recorded weekly production meeting is a good idea. From keeping the project on track, to fostering a sense of understanding for the customer, the weekly production meeting is integral to a successful website project.
The added benefits of having them recorded for you to refer to later are obvious. The ability to reference conversations you had at the beginning of a project will help you and your website developer answer some questions that may arise later keeping the project on point and meeting the goals you set at the onset of the project.
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- Keeping the website project on track:
The weekly meeting allows for better milestone setting and milestone tracking. It keeps everyone on the website development project in the loop when it’s time to celebrate meeting milestones and when it’s time to talk about how to avoid the inevitable delays that will arise.
Communicating the delays are important to keeping a great working relationship and fends off the ‘sour grapes’ that can inevitably cause a resentful relationship.
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- Accountability:
Let’s face it, we can all benefit from someone sitting next to us and keeping us accountable for the work we are supposed to do. It’s no different with a website development project. Weekly production meetings keep both you and us accountable for the tasks assigned.
As for you this is very helpful. You have a business to run and it’s hard enough to juggle all the tasks you have to run your company on a day to day basis never mind adding this huge website development project to your calendar. With a weekly production meeting we can gauge your workload and maybe throttle back a bit if you are finding it consistently hard to meet your weekly obligations. Or, in reverse, speed up the process for you if you find you have more time than you thought. Either way, having this weekly meeting to hold everyone accountable is a great idea and a great tool for any professional website developer.
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- Project goals:
We all have squirrel moments – it’s expected and a perfectly natural thing. However, squirrel moments on a website project without a weekly meeting to keep us on track can be detrimental to the project. We have to stay on the path and reach the stated goals as quickly as possible.
Having the weekly meeting can keep us focused by including the review of stated goals and the path to reach those goals. This helps us from concentrating on insignificant details that may or may not have anything to do with the goals you want to reach.
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- Collaboration and Teamwork:
Teamwork is imperative on a website project. Simply put, you and your team know your industry and your company better than your website developer. You and your team are an incredibly important part of the project. Weekly meetings will keep the lines of communication open and foster camaraderie between your team and that of your developer. Camaraderie can spark innovation, team spirit and creativity improving the end product immeasurably.
The constant communication also goes a long way in helping you understand what is happening and why. Just as you are teaching your website developer about your business, they should be teaching you theirs. Your understanding of the ‘whats and whys’ is important to ensuring your buy in for the whole project.
Project Management Software
Now that we understand why open lines of communication on a website development project are so important let’s take a look at the importance of project management software.
Website project management software is an important part of a successful website project. It has the ability to keep the project organized, speeds up the entire process, helps keep the lines of communication open at all times and avoids the hassles of missed phone calls or lost emails.
Ask yourself how much time you waste chasing down emails and phone calls? We’d bet that on a daily basis you hear “I sent that email days ago” or “I did call and left you a voicemail” at least 2 or 3 times each. One of the best features of project management software is that it answers this need effectively.
No longer do you have to worry about whether or not you sent that image over to your developer. No need to worry if it is too large for email. No need to worry whether they got your message with the new company phone number for the website. All the assets are kept very neatly and best of all they are incredibly easy to upload. One click uploading speeds up the delivery time of important website development assets and therefore can help speed up website development time. Plus, and more importantly, it ensures that your development team received the assets.
Another great feature to this kind of software is the ability to start a discussion any time you’d like. How many times have you awoke in the middle of the night with a great idea only to lose it the moment you wake up? We all know the frustration of “If I could only remember.” With website project management software you can instantly start a discussion any time of day or night. The best part – when you start that discussion everyone on the project can be notified so the entire team knows what you’re thinking and can answer at their own leisure. You will never forget that great idea again!
This day and age there is no excuse for a digital agency to not have these tools at their disposal and worse yet, to not utilize them. Without them it can be difficult at best to keep any website development or digital marketing project under control and on target.
