Communication | 5 Tips for a Successful Web Project, Part III

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builtmighty

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This blog entry is the third post in our series: 5 Tips for a Successful Web Project. To recap the list:

Understand what Scope Creep is and how it impacts your project
Consider that writing your own content might be harder than you think
Assign a single point of contact for communication/decision making
Make a plan for acceptance testing
Figure out Hosting, Domain Registration and SSLs

Today we are going to discuss Communication.

Everyone has heard the popular saying “Too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth”. Well, the same holds true for stakeholders and projects. There are a lot of ways a project can go off course, but a common derailment is when multiple stakeholders are allowed to provide direct feedback to the development team. The design document is signed by “Person A: CEO”, but is then amended by a change order from “Person B: Marketing”. “Person C: Customer Service” is performing acceptance testing and fails large portions of the project without understanding either the design document or the change order. Then “Person D: Finance” becomes upset because of all the cost overruns, none of which they approved!

To a development team, each Person is a part of the Client. A developer’s job is to do what the client tells them, but when those directives conflict, everyone’s job gets a lot harder. Choose a single point of contact for all direct communication. This person should work within your organizational structure to ensure every member of your team has the information they need to make a positive contribution to the project. Likewise, they can also communicate the shared input to a single source at their development agency. It’s a great way to keep everyone on the same page, thus keeping the project on the path to success.

Next Post: Acceptance testing