Planning a Web Project
by Amy Kerr
In this article:
The Team
Another key consideration in planning the project is the team. It is important to define the roles for each person who will be working on the project. Try to work out their relationships in advance. Keep in mind that every project is different.
There is no standard number of people on a Web development team, so the roles defined below do not necessarily represent individuals. For example, one person might have several roles on a small team or several people could perform a single role on a larger team.
Project Manager
Primary responsibilities:
- Writes high-level functional specifications
- Makes sure project achieves objectives
- Gathers user requirements
- Designs site hierarchy
- Manages budgets and schedules
- Coordinates workflow
- Communicates problems/concerns to management
Designer
Primary responsibilities:
- Manages visual aspects of the site
- Creates early prototypes for evaluation
- Develops navigational aspects of the site
- Maintains common visual themes and styles across the site
- Incorporates visual themes and styles from parent site, if applicable
- Contributes to functional and technical specifications
- Contributes to site hierarchy designs
Developer
Primary responsibilities:
- Writes detailed technical specifications
- Recommends appropriate technologies bases on functional specifications
- Develops the site
- Maintains the server hosting the site
Usability Engineer
Primary responsibilities:
- Coordinates audience analysis
- Performs usability testing on prototypes and final designs
- Recruits appropriate users for testing
- Collects and reports data
- Recommends changes to design
- Contributes to functional specification
- Contributes to user requirements
Writer
Primary responsibilities:
- Develops content for the site
- Defines relationships (links) between content
- Contributes to functional specification
- Contributes to site hierarchy designs
Editor
Primary responsibilities:
- Ensures content is consistent in style and voice across the site
- Checks site content for grammatical and spelling errors
- Ensures terminology is used consistently across the site
- Ensures content meets user requirements
- Defines categories for information
- Contributes to site hierarchy designs
Tester
Primary responsibilities:
- Tests links across content
- Tests full functionality of user interface
- Tests content and functionality on multiple platforms
- Tests content and functionality on multiple browsers and versions
Overlapping responsibilities
You may notice that many of the roles have overlapping responsibilities. For example, several roles contribute to the functional specification, creating the site's hierarchy, and defining the user requirements. In most cases, the roles have different perspectives. The contribution of each role is essential to the success of the site as well as general morale on the team. If any team member feels his or her recommendations are being ignored, it will adversely impact the entire team.
Successful teams recognize that no one person is ultimately responsible for the structure, design, or usability of the site. Of course, on paper this philosophy is easy. In real life it can be more difficult. When there are disagreements, it is important for everyone on the team to review the site's overall objectives and priorities. It is the Project Manager's job to make sure the objectives are clear and accessible. It is easy to get caught up in details and lose the bigger picture of the site's purpose.
Most importantly, everyone on the team needs to be involved in audience analysis. Attending usability studies, especially during early prototyping, can provide insights to everyone on the team and prevent disagreements about how users will interact with the site.
To top
|
