Establishing a Firm Foundation for Website Projects

Many organizations are keen to take their websites to the next level. They want an updated design, more persuasive content, additional features, or all of the above and more.

Trouble awaits, however, without a solid foundation. Too many web projects blow about like a tumbleweed, without definition or a destination. Eventually, stakeholders in the project get frustrated and either withdraw support or demand a hasty completion, which can sacrifice functionality and quality, often making things worse than they started.

Successful projects, no matter if reworking a website, a kitchen, or a relationship, require a steady hand to: 

Nail Down Project Goals

What, exactly, are you trying to accomplish? You may, for example, want to bring more traffic to your website, encourage more prospects to call, showcase new services, or provide better customer service. Develop one to three goals for your project.

Just as important as what you are doing is why you are doing it. Your website project goals should align with your organization goals. Decide how your project will impact the organization. Reference to why a project is important can gain you critical support when competing interests emerge. 

The last part of goal establishment is defining how you will know if you have achieved your goals. Will you count the number of visitors to your new project page, advertising cost vs. revenue, the number of email addresses you collect, or some other measurable outcome? Whatever you decide, gather baseline data before you start and establish how and when you will check to see if your goals have been achieved. 

Nail Down Project Requirements

A stakeholder is anyone who influences, works on, or has a vested interest in a project. Stakeholders for a website project might include a VP who is paying for the project, a website designer and developer, and the manager of customer service. It's essential that you identify all the stakeholders early on in the project and keep them in the loop. People don't like to feel left out or think that decisions are being made without consulting them.

Next, find out what's important to each stakeholder. The VP might be concerned about collecting solid prospects and staying within budget; the designer, building a website he can be proud of; the developer, coding and testing standards; and the customer service manager, reducing support calls. Build a requirements document that incorporates the interests expressed and implied.  

Finally, share the goals and requirements with all the stakeholders. This is a great opportunity to find out if you are missing anything and gain buy-in. Get positive affirmation from each stakeholder that they understand and support the project thus far and that their needs have been identified and included.  

Nail Down Project Scope

The scope should minimally include a description of the project result and the approach that will be taken to get there. The more complex the project the more length is needed, but even on a simple project, don't skip this step. Too often stakeholders don't share a common vision of the final result until they see it in writing.

It's also extremely helpful to identify anything that is out of scope, meaning activities that may be assumed to be part of the project but are not. For example, people may think that a website redesign will incorporate new text or additional pages. If the project will only update the appearance of the site, noting that can help you avoid trouble later.

Stand Guard

As your project moves forward, people will inevitably come up with ideas for its improvement. Additional pages, design elements, integration with other systems, anything. Recognize these as dangerous diversions from your goal. Even seemingly minor additions and changes can cause the tumbleweed effect. Offer to place the idea on a list for Phase 2 of the project. If that doesn't work, explain that you would have to reexamine the project from the top down to identify all the impacts and regain buy-in from all the stakeholders. Most people will then agree to put the idea on the Phase 2 list.

Nailing down and guarding the goals, requirements, and scope of your project gives you a foundation that is sturdy enough to build a great website on.