Going Pro - Your First Paying Client
Part
V: Project Management
Creating a detailed outline of how the project will be tackled and what will be done at each stage is the first step to effective project management. This can be quite a difficult thing to do when you begin creating sites but it is absolutely vital for both ensuring that you get paid properly and for good client relations.
In general site creation can be broken down into 5 distinct stages.
1. Pre-purchase Information Gathering
This is when you will get from the client as detailed a picture of their requirements as you can and is what you will largely base your quote on. Among the things you need to establish are:
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What will be included in the site
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What functionality is
required
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How copy and images will be provided and who will create them
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The goals of the project
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How maintenance will be handled
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What budgetary constraints apply to not just design but to issues like post build promotion of the site
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Whether or to what extent you will handle these post build issues
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How the site will be hosted
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How additions during the build phase will be handled
By the end of this phase you will be in a position to provide a quote and, if it is accepted, ask for a deposit. Bear in mind that you may have to complete this stage for sites that you do not eventually get to build. Quoting for projects is, for most of us, an unavoidable overhead. Be sure that you cost this fact into all projects.
2. Design and Planning
This site involves working closely with the client to come up with a satisfactory design and planning how the content will be presented. In all sites one of the most important parts of this stage is designing a site architecture and navigation system. For the client this phase involves gathering content and getting it into the agreed format for supply to you.
3. Building and Testing
At this point you build an actual site and, with the client, continuously test and refine it as you go. This stage will include adding all the functionality required, creating or working with images and copy, ensuring that code is correct, adding meta tags, alt tags and so on and generally honing the site to get it into shape for public viewing.
If usability testing is undertaken, and some level of user testing really does benefit every site, this is the time to start as obvious problems and deficiencies can be worked out before the site goes live.
4. Launching the
Site
This stage may overlap somewhat with the last in some cases but primarily involves the publication of the site so that it can be viewed by the public, dealing with any teething problems that arise, submission to search engines and directories and ongoing usability testing.
5. Maintenance and Updating
Some allowance may have been made for this in the original quote, but in any case the details of how maintenance will be undertaken, who is responsible for it and how it will be paid for needs to be defined clearly as part of the over all project definition.
If a content management system is used or if the client will be updating using FrontPage then a training and/or support element may be included here also.
Once you have defined what is involved in the project and what will be done at each stage it can be very useful to create a flow chart which outlines each task that needs to be completes, who is responsible for it a time scale for its
completion.
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Part VI: Taking Care of Clients
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Part IV: Contracts and Getting Paid
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