A Solid Project Plan Will Save You Time, Money and a Whole Lot of Frustration!
Too many organizations start their projects by diving into implementation activities without taking the time upfront to build a solid project plan and schedule that guide their teams to successful delivery. Rather than making them nimble, skipping this critical step almost always ends up in delays, increased risk of project failure and overall confusion over who needs to do what and when.
Project management in its simplest form can be boiled down to one statement in our opinion: “List the work and work the list!” While it involves a bit of planning, skill, dedication and persistence, throwing your organization into a major initiative like launching or relaunching a website without the appropriate planning can end in disaster.
Every project should start with understanding your objective and what success looks like at the end. Once you know this, you can identify all the categories of work that are required, the individuals or teams who are required, and the order and timing of each component required. Throw in an experienced Project Manager to keep it all on track and manage the risk, and you have a winning formula that will take you from point A to point B (or C or D or E) in the most cost- and time-effective manner possible.
What Does Good Project Management Achieve?
At the end of the day, applying project management discipline and a bit of due diligence at the beginning of a project supports successful delivery in many ways:
1. Manage scope – A clearly defined scope upfront is key to identifying the right tasks and people to be successful. It also allows you to understand when “scope creep” starts to push your teams into other activities that can throw you off track and substantially increase the project cost.
2. Manage cost – Without a solid plan, organizations cannot create a valid or realistic project budget. In this case, it shouldn’t be a surprise when costs start running over an uninformed guess!
3. Ensure alignment across teams – A comprehensive plan provides a clear blueprint to ensure you have the right people and teams working towards delivering the same objective.
4. Manage risks – Understanding all elements of your project allows you to assess potential risks and design mitigation plans to avoid “surprises”.
5. Communications – A consistent communication plan helps ensure teams, stakeholders and clients are always on the same page.
6. Procurement – A good plan ensures you know when you require the assistance of third-party vendors to deliver portions of the project.
7. Successful delivery – When every aspect of a project is carefully planned and managed, projects are delivered within scope, on time and on budget
8. Quality assurance – Thorough testing before going live is critical. Things like link behaviour, content, design, device rendering, eCommerce – as a few examples – can make or break the client experience and determine whether they stay on your site or click over to your competitor
But Launching a Website is Simple so we Don’t Need to Plan, Right?
The one-word answer to this question is: WRONG!!! An effective website is your company’s digital calling card. It attracts business and is a key component to attracting the best talent to your organization.
Launching a website is a series of complex activities that can be grouped into multiple categories. Each category or project component has many steps, owned by many people or groups, that all must be delivered at a particular time based on all the other activities that are also required. Get this wrong and failure to launch is inevitable.
Here is just a sample of some of the high-level areas involved in launching a website:
1. Project Preparation
2. Website Layout
3. Vendor Selection
4. Content Development and Integration
5. Website Design
6. Website Development
7. Back Office integration
8. Go-to-market planning
9. Testing
10. Go-Live
11. Communications – Internal and External
12. Analytics
13. Maintenance
If it sounds confusing, stressful and daunting, that’s because there are so many little things that can stop you from a successful implementation, wasting significant time and money and providing a less than stellar experience for your internal teams and clients. The good news is there are many professionals out there who can help you ensure you have a solid plan to successfully deliver your objectives!
Lépine Marketing, is a full-service agency with the teams and experience to deliver your marketing and business development strategies, including the launch of an effective website. We have a track record of managing the successful delivery of effective websites that helps you stand out against your competition.
