How to Manage Web Development Projects?

Before we discuss this topic in detail let’s check out some facts and surveys first… 

• According to a survey by Wrike, only 64% of the projects meet their respective goals. Yes! And, poor website development project management practices is one of the major reasons for the failure of any project.
• According to Harvard Business Review on average, projects go over budget by around 27% of their intended cost.
• According to Gallup, only 2.5% of companies complete 100% of their projects in a successful manner.
• According to a survey commissioned by Ruby development shop, New Bamboo over 30 percent of web development teams delivers projects late or over-budget.
• A study on 5400 large scale IT Projects it’s been found that the projects run 45 percent over budget and 7 percent over time while delivering 56 percent less value than predicted
• A interview based on the study of software projects, Geneca found that 75% of project participants lack confidence that their projects will succeed.

All these surveys are enough to reveal that proper project management is really important in every organization. Web development is a complex process and behind the success of every project a better team, planning, and strategy work together. The main motive of every organization is to fulfill customer requirements or desires. Better project management strategy not only saves money but also saves time and reputation in the market. In this blog, we are going to discuss some effective project management tips and techniques for project managers or team leaders. We will discuss some steps in managing web development projects, roles, responsibilities, and some tips to make them successful. 

Project management is all about using the resources in an effective way to meet the requirements of Stakeholders. So mainly there are two important elements involved in any kind of web development project. One is the client or senior leader people who are supposed to use the project and get the benefit of it and the other important element is the resources that you need to complete the project. 

Roles and Responsibility of Project Manager/Team Leader

Every project starts with the roles and responsibilities of a project manager/team lead. Below are some responsibilities of a project manager.’ 

• Gather all the requirements from the stakeholder or the client.
• Define the objective/purpose and scope of the project.
• Planning out all the steps and sequencing the activities.
• Resource Management
• Estimating time to complete the project and scheduling it accordingly considering all the stuff and resources available.
• Documenting the tasks/timeline
• Budget Estimation.
• Analyzing and managing risks
• Creating team, assigning task to them based on area of expertise, and leading the entire team.

Steps Involved in Managing a Web Development Project 

A) Initiation

In this phase, the project manager takes the initiative to start the project. He/she develops an overview of the project and based on the category of the projects and skillset required he/she selects the team. The whole project is given a proper direction in this phase, so this phase is carried out by the project manager very carefully. Let’s discuss the important steps involved in project initiation… 

1. Start with Creating a Business Case: In this phase, a project manager will have to document the following things as specific as possible in a clear and precise manner. 

• Based on the requirement gathered from the stakeholders a simple explanation of problems and opportunities.
• Analyzing the various solutions and the list of alternative ones.
• A short analysis of business advantages, costs, and potential risks.
• Documenting the project requirements and its potential results.
• A short explanation of different solutions for the problem and a quick process to apply them.
• List of required resources, budget analysis and schedule to start the project.

2. Go for the Feasibility Study: This step is carried out after creating the business case and the main purpose of this phase is to list out the possible solution to the problems and opportunities presented in the business case. Here the project manager analyzes the various solution and prepares a document to check if the solution is feasible or not. 

• Research involved in various proposed solutions to business problems or opportunities.
• Identify and list the possible alternative solutions which are fit into the problem given
• Identify and list the potential risks involved in every solution.

3. Make a Project Charter: After creating a business case and doing a feasibility study a project charter needs to be created by a project manager. This charter includes the vision, scope, deadlines, and deliverable of a project. The charter needs to include the following things… 

• Purpose, vision and objective of the project.
• Scope of the project
• Timeframe or deadline for the various task involved in the project (Key deliverables)
• Essential project stakeholders/clients on both sides
• Important roles along with responsibilities.
• Project organizational structure

4. Selecting and Creating a Project Team: Depends on the project category/domain and the skillset required to complete it, a project manager finds the right people and make a team who can work together and deliver the project before the deadline. A job description is required to find the right people who can have specific skillset to complete the project. This description should include all of the following things: 

• Objective and scope of the role
• responsibilities associated with the role
• Required qualification
• Key performance indicators or performance evaluation criteria
• Salary, bonus, additional benefits or perks.

5. Setting up Resources and Office: This step is also important for the successful delivery of the project. A project manager has to take care of the following things… 

• A locations where proper infrastructure can be set up and all the equipment, tools and facilities are available for the smooth functioning of the project.
• Defining the roles and responsibilities of the individual staff.
• Create a standard process of a web development project with a team and the other staff.

B) Appropriate Planning

This is an important and critical phase, especially for large or complex projects. A project manager creates a roadmap and communicates with the team with detailed information. He/she sets the goal, define the purpose or scope of the project, breakdown the project, estimates the costs, identify milestones, and create a step-by-step proper plan for project execution. The roadmap needs to be clear and specific from the beginning to the end of the project. Planning must include the following things. 

• Breaking down the problem into the smaller task, sequencing each task to complete the project.
• Creating a schedule, estimating cost, and setting up performance indicator in order to check the progress in a project.
• A proper planning on risk management.

C) Execution

Once the planning is done, a project manager creates teams and assigns the tasks to the team members. He has to figure out who has to complete what kind of specific task. The entire problem gets divided into the team and there should be a proper collaboration and understanding among the team members so that one can complete their work before time to avoid the delay in the project. A project manager also holds a meeting with the team members and set up a tracking system to check the progress in the project. These meetings also clear the confusion among team members or stakeholders and help in delivering the project without any hassle. Most of the real work occurs in this phase. 

• Resource management
• Time and task management
• Risk management and modification.
• Communication with team members and clients

D) Monitoring

Monitoring goes simultaneously with the project execution where the project manager monitors the progress of the project and ensures that each member is performing well. He/she also checks the quality of the work done by the team members. He/she also tracks the project cost and ensures that the team members complete each task within a specific timeframe along with the desired output. 

• Choosing various KPIs
• Controlling and monitoring communications
• Engagement with clients or stakeholders.

E) Project Closure

This phase includes delivering the project successfully to the stakeholders. Closing the project includes scope verification where the project manager takes feedback from the stakeholders to ensure that whether all the promises are included in the final deliverable or not. A project manager receives a complete review of the project and that shows the entire effort and performance of the team. 

Project Management Tips

Below are some tips which project manager should take into consideration to deliver a successful project to the stakeholder. 

• Understand client requirements and their expectations properly. Clear all the doubts and develop a plan where all the responsibilities are clearly defined.
• Understand the strength, capabilities, and skill set of the individual team members to assign a specific task to each one of them.
• Proper communication with team members and stakeholders. Any changes or additional task needs to be communicated properly and timely to avoid any conflict or risk in the future.
• Choose the best project management tool to run the project smoothly. GitHub, online proofing tool, ProofHub, Invoicely, Gantt charts, reports, customized workflows, etc. are some good online project management tools with a lot of features. These tools help the team members to collaborate with each other.