Taking on a website project can be daunting. It requires a lot of planning and organisation, including setting deadlines, allocating resources, and staying on top of tasks.
But don’t worry—we’ve broken down the process into 4 key steps that will help you stay organised and on task. We’ve got loads of experience in web development, so we’ve learnt a lot along the way.
Here’s how to manage a website project from start to finish.
- Step 1: Establish Your Goals & Objectives
- Step 2: Create a Project Plan
- Step 3: Monitor Progress & Make Adjustments As Necessary
- Step 4: Review & Celebrate Successes
- Resources to help you manage a website project
Step 1: Establish Your Goals & Objectives
Before you do anything else, it’s important to determine what your goals are for the project. You should have both long-term goals (what impact do you want the project to have?) and short-term objectives (which tasks need to be completed in order to reach that goal?). This helps keep everyone on the same page and ensures that everyone understands what needs to be done in order for the project to be successful.
Step 2: Create a Project Plan
Once you know what needs to be done, it’s time to create an actionable plan. This plan should include all of the tasks that need to be completed along with timelines and deadlines for each task.
It should also include who is responsible for each task as well as any resources or tools needed for completion. Having a detailed plan makes it easier for everyone involved in the project to stay organised and on track. At this stage, it’s also key to set internal project stakeholders.
This step might also be the point at which you look to outsource the project. Building a website takes a significant amount of time, effort and skill. You might not have resources internally to handle such a large-scale project or you may want to hand it over to a vendor that has proven experience in web development to ensure great results.
Step 3: Monitor Progress & Make Adjustments As Necessary
At this point, you’ll start working through your plan one step at a time until completion. However, it's important not to set it and forget it—it's essential that someone is monitoring progress throughout the entire duration of the project in order to identify any issues or roadblocks early on so they can quickly be addressed before they become major problems down the line.
This is true whether you’re building the website in-house or via an external agency; you’ll need a stakeholder from your side to liaise with the agency to check they’re hitting project milestones and on track for completion.
Additionally, if new information arises or changes need to be made mid-project, make sure they're documented and communicated clearly so everyone stays up-to-date with any new developments or adjustments being made along the way.
This is really important if you work with a web development agency, as it needs to be a very collaborative process. We work closely with clients to make sure they’re informed and aware of every step of our process, with regular touchpoints to discuss any issues or changes.
Step 4: Review & Celebrate Successes
Once all of your tasks are complete and your website is live, take some time at the end of your project timeline for reflection and review so you can see what went right, what went wrong, and where improvements can be made in the future.
A website is never done! There will always be new features and changes to continually optimise for your end users.
Once all of your feedback has been collected and discussed amongst team members, don’t forget to celebrate your success! Everyone worked hard throughout this entire process; make sure everyone feels appreciated by recognising their efforts.
So how do you manage a website project?
Creating a website project is no easy feat—it requires planning, organization, dedication from team members, attention to detail...the list goes on! Following these four key steps will help ensure that everything runs smoothly throughout every stage of your website development process so that you can enjoy success when your site goes live!
By setting clear objectives upfront and developing an actionable plan based on those objectives, you can ensure that your website is built on time and within budget while also meeting all of your goals along the way.
Still, feeling overwhelmed? Don’t worry; there are plenty of resources available online that can help guide you through this process. Take a look at some of ours below…
- Website Grader Tool: Check how your current site is performing so you know what to fix
- Website Brief Template: All the key things to consider when planning a website
- Ultimate Guide to Website Performance: How to get the most out of your new website
