Web Site Project Management
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The feasibility study or analysis is the first activity of web site project management. This is where you do your first reality check. It is the Go/No-Go point.
Before you rush out and turn to project management consulting, please consider this. Your web site will be where your visitors will first meet you. What they find on your site will either make them your customers, or not. So, I recommend you keep your web site project management lean, mean, focused … and entirely within your personal control.
What is project management?
Instead of giving you a static project management definition, I prefer to give you a more active description. A project is a one-time activity. The project manager normally negotiates the following with the project leader, designated within the organization that hired him:
- Goal of project.
- Results to be delivered.
- Budget (including the project manager salary).
- Time limits (start and finish dates, as well as critical milestones).
- Resources.
I am sure you can decide all of the above on your own. There is no need to have to negotiate any of this with anyone else, is there?
Once you have come to an agreement (with yourself), web site project management consists of the following steps:
- Determine the feasibility of the project.
- Plan all aspects.
- Design and build it according to plan.
- Measure results and adjust if necessary.
Only you know (or will soon know) what you want to offer, and how you want to do business. I suggest you avoid trying to explain all that to some stranger whose interests lie largely elsewhere. Besides, you are only at the early stages and you do not have all the answers yet!
It is not rocket science anymore
A small web business is a lot less complicated to start and manage than you might think. The technology obstacles has been overcome in recent years, and building a web site is getting more and more user friendly every year. You do not need to be a programmer or a web site designer anymore.
The marketing aspect - adapted to the web environment - has also been explained away enough to make it accessible to almost anyone. Brain power is all that is necessary, since the technology aspects have largely been automated.
You know more about your products or services than anybody else, period. Therefore, you are best suited to handle your own web site project management.
Building your web site is presently no more complicated than getting your thoughts down on paper in a coherent and presentable fashion. If you can do that, then you are in business. If not, you can learn. It is not rocket science anymore.
Let's do it
You are at the very early planning stage here. You have this great idea for a small business on the web, and you are wisely not plunging forward blindly. You want to know if you can reasonably expect to succeed.
Take a long, hard look at what you propose to undertake. This is where you must be honest with yourself. Try to find reason within your passion! The two together can do wonders for your web business. You need a bird's eye view of what needs to be done and how you propose to do it.
This is where the feasibility study of web site project management comes in.
Many aspects will be rough estimates at this stage but they have to be made to the best of your ability. Use all the information and personal knowledge you already have.
Many questions will arise. This is a good thing, because you will know what you need to find out. Part of the uncertainty and the unknown fade away as you find out more about what your project will involve. That is an important step toward gaining confidence your project and in yourself.
You should try to be as objective as possible throughout this process ... while you let your passion drive your efforts!
A small project management template
The role of a feasibility analysis is to help you find satisfactory answers to the following question:
Is my small web business project reasonably feasible?
Here is a sample of the more obvious aspects you should investigate. Use this sample as your first project management template. It is a checklist for the feasibility portion of web site project management. The quality and reliability of your findings on each of these aspects matter a great deal at this early stage. They will underlie all your future efforts and choices, and prevent you from driving up a blind alley. Identify or determine:
- The purpose of your web site. (… increase visibility for an existing product or service of yours … market a new product or service … in each case you will want to increase your notoriety).
- The domain or field of your intended business activity.
- Your applicable competence and skills.
- The products and/or services you intend to sell.
- The competition.
- The products/services of your competition (their offer).
- How your offer differs from that of your competition.
- How better or exclusive your offer will be.
- How you will actually distance yourself from the competition. What will be your "edge" over them.
- The technical feasibility of your project.
- How and where to get this information. (Hint: start right here, on this site.)
- What (if anything) do you have to know about web site building.
- What you will do yourself and what you will have to farm out.
- What the financial requirements and issues will be.
- What the legal issues will be.
- What the risks are, if any.
- What the advantages and disadvantages will be.
- What you will still have to investigate before actually starting the planning process.
Need help? Here are a few hints.
The WHY, WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE and HOW sections of this site can help you in your investigation. If you have not already done so, I suggest you read them. They will help your thought process and web site project management.
The feasibility analysis is the first systematic research you undertake about your small web business project. You will be planning all the aspects of your future online business on the basis of this scouting activity.
Keep your eyes and mind open throughout this early part of web site project management. You might find that your original idea is not so great after all. However, your research may lead you to discover an even better small web business idea. This one might suit your capabilities better and offer greater potential returns.
You might even discover that an idea you had rejected in the past, is now suddenly feasible. Your early research might help you find out that solutions now exist to some obstacles you had once thought insurmountable.
This is but one of the many advantages of doing a feasibility study. You have much to gain and very little to lose by starting off your web site project management on the right foot.
Stay tuned!
Do come back often. I will be adding to this site regularly.
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