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Developing Effective Websites: A Project Manager`s Guide Roy

1. Integrated Product and Process Development 183 Encourage Robust Design and Improved Process Capability The use of advanced design and manufacturing techniques that promote 1 achieving quality through design products with little sensitivity to variations in the manufacturing process robust design 2 a focus on process capability and 3 continuous process im provement are encouraged Variability reduction tools such as ultra low variation process control similar to Six Sigma and lean agile manufacturing concepts should be encour aged Event Driven Scheduling A scheduling framework should be established that relates program events to their asso ciated accomplishments and accomplishment criteria An event is considered complete only when the accomplishments associated with that event have reached completion as measured by the accomplishment criteria This event driven scheduling reduces risk by ensuring that product and process maturity are incrementally demonstrated before be ginning follow on activities Multidisciplinary Teamwork Multidisciplinary teamwork is essential to the integrated and concurrent development of a product and its processes The right people at the right place at the right time are re quired to make timely decisions Team decisions as a result of risk assessments should be based on the combined input of the entire team technical cost manufacturing and sup port functions and organizations incl
2. Scheduling deadline Budget personnel Equipment Figure 1 1 The project management triangle time task and resources the site is to go live The schedule relates to the nature of the task as designed and the available resources people and equipment As a rule the more re sources available and the simpler the design the faster the task can be accom plished but only to a point One might suppose that a project that takes one year with only one person working on it would take six months with two people and one month with twelve In practice however adding more people does not re duce the amount of time at the same rate a point of diminishing returns occurs when the overhead of communication and administration to coordinate the myr iad of people and activities negates the increased work actually being performed For example during the development of an expanded highly interactive version of a map publisher s website the development team included more than one dozen internal programmers artists and content editorial personnel as well as external website developers With so many team members it became increas ingly difficult to coordinate their activities and ensure effective communication to avoid wasted and duplicated effort With the release date approaching it became evident that some of the individuals were working at cross purposes thereby actually slowing down the development process The only solution possible
3. 773 539 1973 Fax 773 539 1957 E mail AESlein aol com a internet Figure 8 7 Example of final site design Home page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Design by JMC Studios lt www jmcstudios com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc pages because of their insistence that the page be presented exactly as designed on every browser and screen resolution The only way to accomplish this was to simply display the whole page as one large bitmap graphic which turned out to be more than 500k in file size When they saw how long it took to download they became much more receptive to a more flexible HTML based design Once the general motif has been approved and an HTML home page built you are ready to proceed to build out the website INVOLVING USERS Underlying all of the design and prototyping efforts described in this chapter is an unwavering focus on the user or customer In Chapter 5 we discussed 126 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide School Assembly Guide Microsoft Internet Explorer _ Fle Edit View Favorites Tools Help Links lBest of the Web Channel Guide Customize Links ee 2 ee es ee Se Back Forward Stop Refresh Home Search Favorites History Mail Prnt Edit Address ja http yAwww schoolassemblyquide com categories html z Go l Categories Performer List Contact Us Home e Samantha s Amazing Ani
4. A Server sends back correct page to ISP 5 ISP sends back correct page to client Figure 2 4 Static prebuilt Web pages Dynamic Web Pages Web Server Empty Page Templates D 1 Client requests page from ISP 2 ISP requests page from Web server 3 Server finds correct prebuilt empty page template 4 Server pulls out empty page template 5 Server queries database for raw data 6 Database provides raw data 7 Server fills in template with raw data creating page on the fly 8 Server sends back on the fly page to ISP 9 ISP sends back on the fly page to client Figure 2 5 Dynamic backend database driven Web pages 20 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide and databases can provide it On the user s end a database would allow more re liable searching than a static Web site Users search for bands playing country music or another favorite type of music The search function is merely a query on a database and the server software is the engine behind it A database allows many functions that are impossible on a static site For ex ample let s say you want to invite users to submit their e mail addresses in order to receive new product announcements Users would submit the required infor mation in a form and the server software would send it to a database where it could be stored or exported enabling e mail marketing to self se
5. IPPD evolved from concurrent engineering and is sometimes called integrated product development IPD It is a systems engineering From DoD Guide to Integrated Product and Process Development Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Acquisition and Technology 1996 179 180 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Disciplined Approach Product and Associated Processes Requirements Development Processes Customer Figure App 3 1 A generic IPPD iterative process process integrated with sound business practices and common sense decision making Or ganizations may undergo profound changes in culture and processes to successfully im plement IPPD IPPD activities focus on the customer and meeting the customer s need In DoD the customer is the user Accurately understanding the various levels of users needs and es tablishing realistic requirements early in the acquisition cycle is now more important than ever Tradeoff analyses are made among design performance production support cost and operational needs to optimize the system product or service over its life cycle In order to afford sufficient numbers of technologically up to date systems cost is a critical component of DoD system optimization Cost should not simply be an outcome as has often been the case in the past Thus cost should become an independent rather than de pendent variable in meeting the user s needs Alt
6. Publishing with Winding Trails sections The Riding Trails site will not be in these templates but should be designed with some consis tency to the rest of the NCC site Budget Under 10 000 Schedule We can be flexible Most of our content still has to be gathered so we need time before development starts Would like to have some templates to work with in late December We don t anticipate having a new site up until late February Attachments URLs for reference Sample design pieces PROPOSAL READING TRAILS WINDING TRAILS WEBSITE PROJECT Background The National Cycling Club NCC wishes to create a website for the Winding Trails publishing imprint including a home page and associated screens also including a subsite entitled Riding Trails as described in the NCC document Project Description Reading Trails Website attached The NCC has requested a proposal from Twin Oaks to design and develop Web pages for this National Cycling Club Winding Trails site Responsibilities include screen design graphic arts development and Web page authoring Apart from the Reading Trails subsite screens must be designed to fit the NCC template in use This template makes use of Microsoft NT Active Server Pages technology to provide predetermined HTML frame templates in which to display the Winding Trails Reading Trails site pages Description The site will consist of approximately 17 screens and page templates with associ
7. and hence funding If funds are not available to conduct the analysis any funds approved for actual development are likely to be wasted Examine desired functions and features as well as users technical re quirements such as platforms browser versions and use of plug ins Gather as much reliable quality information about website features as you can Talking with one person in the marketing department for 30 minutes about what features he or she would like in a proposed online catalog is not sufficient even if that individual is the vice president of marketing On the other hand holding a day long brainstorming session with six people from the marketing sales and customer support departments can give you a pretty good start in for mulating design requirements Not only do you hear various viewpoints with this approach but the participants themselves also often generate new ideas and may even arrive at a useful consensus regarding the priorities of various pro posed features The most obvious place to start the analysis is with potential users All man ner of discussions and communications with them are valuable Some of the most common methods are surveys both mail and phone focus groups and individ ual interviews Analysis and the Project Plan 59 Surveys Surveys by phone mail or e mail are valuable for obtaining statistically signifi cant amounts of data from a large prospective user base With a survey you can cont
8. s Guide Investment and Core Functions Matters of expediency tend to point toward outside website development There is much less administrative work in the form of reports meetings approvals performance reviews job descriptions to justify new staff and so on The main problem in developing a site internally occurs when it grows beyond the normal workflow capacity and staff responsibilities New staff must be recruited hired and managed Equipment working space software tools and communications infrastructure including Web and server access must be arranged These re source and logistical issues can consume a great deal of managerial administra tive and technical support time that while not directly related to running the project itself drives up general operating expenses for the company and delays development progress The external developer can simply do the work and manage its own per sonnel The equipment communications and staffing issues are generally the re sponsibility of the external developer in house managers do not have to arrange for rental computers or write up endless justifications and paperwork to purchase equipment Instead they can adopt the much more convenient role of consumer purchasing development services as needed rather than dealing with the time consuming logistics and details required to directly manage a large and perhaps temporary staff In house website development is full of hidd
9. velop a workplan A workplan is a document that essentially details the three factors of time task and resources for the particular project The time factor is embodied in the project PERT and Gantt charts milestones and development schedules The task what needs to be done is derived from the requirements specification The resources are the estimates of people equipment materials and outside services necessary to develop the product and the associated costs Only by planning these three factors in detail can the full scope of the proj ect come into focus Envisioning the individual dimensions forces you to think through most of the issues consider them from various perspectives and antici pate the details and concerns that may arise Figures 5 1 and 5 2 The format and content of the workplan will differ greatly from one project to another depending on the specifics and complexity of the project The work plan may range from a single page document for a simple website like a three page Web home page site to a multivolume marketing development and implementation plan for a large scale dot com business The plan should be as complete as necessary without being too detailed Although planning is neces sary and important you should not go overboard in writing the workplan Re member that the goal is not to create the perfect workplan but to plan out the Cost Number of relatively equal features Figure
10. Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later SCHEDULING By now it s no doubt apparent that scheduling the programming phase is also a black art if not a wild guess One rule of thumb is to take the initial estimate and consider it to be not merely a best case scenario but quite possibly an insanely optimistic one with a probability teetering close to zero To quote again from Frederick Brooks s The Mythical Man Month All programmers are optimists Perhaps this modern sorcery especially attracts those who believe in happy endings and fairy godmothers Perhaps the hundreds of nitty frustrations drive away all but those who habitually focus on the end goal Perhaps itis merely that computers are young programmers are younger and the young are always optimists But however the selection process works the result is indisputable This time it will surely run or I just found the last bug 138 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide So as a practice you might as well take your initial estimate and double it better yet triple it to take into account testing and debugging The ambiguity of the schedule is another argument for close tracking throughout the process You should keep the technical specification current and pay steady attention If you watch the progress and keep your eyes on the goal you will more accurately es timate the completion date as the project moves along The incred
11. Analyst Marketing Rep Figure 6 1 Team members and functions members working on it for six months or more The roles depicted in Figure 6 1 must be covered whether some individuals have responsibility for more than one role or work with others to fulfill a single responsibility Please note that the term Webmaster is not included in these descriptions be cause of the ambiguity in usage It may refer to any of the following roles de pending on the organization Content Editor HTML Author Designer Technical Lead Marketer Team Leader Project Manager First and foremost on any website development team is the team leader usually the project manager This person has ultimate responsibility for the project out come Administrative responsibilities will vary depending on the person s rank within the organization Regardless on a daily basis this person must function as a first among equals not strictly as a manager Although the team leader coordi nates the efforts of team members he or she is often not the direct administrative manager of those on the team Therefore the team leader must gain the respect of The Web Development Team 79 the team members through example rather than by managing them by adminis trative decree Leading a project team differs greatly from managing You can manage by decree but cannot lead by decree Drawing from superior experience or knowl edge managers may give orders to subordinates Lead
12. Time and Materials Sometimes considered a wet finger in the wind estimate the time and mate rials method is not always precise but nonetheless is useful for e quickly sizing up a project e developing a baseline with which to compare other estimates e assessing resource needs With a thorough knowledge of the design and a good idea of how many people and what skills will be needed to carry out the project you can estimate costs for payroll equipment and outside services Overhead testing and administrative support must also be considered Again as a hedge bet multiply the estimate by some safety factor say 15 percent as a buffer against the unknown expenses that are sure to occur In addition to encouraging a clear assessment of resource needs the time and materials method is quick and not easily dismissed It will get you in the ball park and show whether the application as designed will cost closer to 5 000 50 000 or 500 000 It is often surprising to see how fast the costs can add up Imagine a website design with dozens of static content pages also featuring interactive Java applets that tracks frequent user login and usage and provides a custom online survey Will it cost 5 000 50 000 or 500 000 Such a site would require a small development team of at least four people e g programmer artist HTML author editor project manager tester working for six months at an average yearly salary of 75 000 4 pe
13. and hardest to fix and therefore should be worked on only as time and money permit Although not an exact measurement tool this method is a good way to establish a rough order in which the defects should be worked on however this rough order should not be followed in lockstep Sometimes arbitrary decisions have to be made given the unique qualities of a particular project Quality Assurance Testing 147 TYPES OF TESTING Several kinds of testing are appropriate for websites including the following e functionality testing ie unit integration regression compatibility e layout testing e load testing e link testing e usability testing see Chapter 9 Functionality Testing Functionality testing refers to the testing of programmatic features and is most appropriate for sites of higher complexity that contain features such as database access dynamic page generation and Java applets namely features that require actual programming rather than HTML page building Unit Testing Functionality testing should start at the source namely by the programmers who write the code When programmers test their own code module by module it is referred to as unit testing Each programmer tests his or her own modules thor oughly and does not start a new module before testing and fixing the previous one The programmer tests not simply by running the code a few times to see if it works but rather by feeding the code common uncommon and
14. at this point was to reduce the project staff to only those who were essential to the completion of absolutely necessary tasks By doing so the project was able to pick up speed and finish on time albeit with the minimally required content and functionality Project Management in Three Dimensions 3 You may also have experienced this effect of more resources slowing down development when working on a project that has fallen severely behind schedule Management seeing a problem decides to solve it by throwing more people at it This actually slows the project down further at least temporarily as the new comers get equipped trained and worked into the process The work often is not speeded up appreciably even after these new recruits have been assimilated be cause of the increased overhead for administration and communication within the team Some tasks by their nature take longer and depend heavily on the talent skills and experience of the individuals performing them Software program ming is the best example where the effectiveness of different programmers can vary by several orders of magnitude An experienced creative programmer may complete a task in a few days whereas another programmer lacking experience or motivation may need several months or may be incapable of completing the task at all Even a particular individual s temperament may be more or less well suited for a particular task In some situations a programming t
15. different profit margins It s not the same as installing a muffler A better tactic than simply comparing bids based on price is to request a de tailed analysis of how the firm will accomplish the task in a prospective devel oper s proposal including tools personnel equipment and testing It may even be appropriate to pay the developer a small sum to help defray the costs of de veloping such a detailed proposal Generally the better and more well thought out the proposal the higher the quality of the developer and the more seriously he or she will take the website project One real aspect to consider in choosing a developer is geographical location Theoretically an external developer may be located across the country some times even in a foreign country and still get the job done In such a situation however it is difficult to hold face to face meetings which are generally an im portant way to build and maintain rapport among team members Distance can also become a significant inconvenience because of time zone changes Given the large number of development houses located on the West Coast this time zone change can make a big difference for companies located in Eastern states The three hour time difference shortens the available time for telephone conferences Although this communication gap can be eased with e mail and voice mail it still does not replace the rapport gained in face to face meetings Once a manager has narrow
16. it is almost impossible at the beginning of the project to determine ex actly how many photographs will be needed Unplanned purchases of content rights could cause huge variances in the budgeted versus actual costs METHODS OF COST ESTIMATING Again cost estimating should be an ongoing process throughout the life of the project The accuracy of the estimate improves as the application progresses because the number of variables decreases You can approach cost estimating in two ways 1 Setting the budget ahead of time and designing the site to meet the budget 2 Designing the site and then developing a cost estimate based on the design Realities of organizational life usually point to the first approach Although the second option might be considered the correct way money matters even in website development For example a marketing department may have budgeted 50 000 for a website and then goes to a Web development team essentially ask ing What can you produce for 50 000 You should know which approach is in effect and avoid assumptions After designing a site and providing a cost estimate you will often hear back that the cost estimate is too high If the comment means anything more than a negoti ating stance it reveals that a budget is already in place information that unfor tunately was not shared with you A good first question when asked to design a site is What s the budget If you can learn that a
17. may be performed internally or contracted out as appropriate This mixed approach is probably the healthiest method because it keeps vendors competitive helps educate internal staff and gives the company a wider choice of production alternatives The larger the project however the more internal project management time is needed to co ordinate the workflow and communication between internal and external per sonnel Whether you are on the vendor or the client side make sure the other party is creditworthy and that the relationship can be managed toward mutual benefit SELECTION PROCESS Carrying forward the marriage metaphor it should be obvious by now that spe cial care should be taken during the courting process to ensure that yours is truly a match made in heaven A thorough discussion of vendor selection and negoti ation is beyond the scope of this book however some basic points can keep ven dors and developers out of a bad relationship The first step for the in house manager seeking a developer is to call around and get recommendations That s not to say you should hire your buddy s col lege age son who s fantastic with this Web stuff Those days are long past if they ever existed Look for referrals of companies with experience in building the type of site you re planning They don t necessarily need experience in the same industry More important is the technology underlying the site The nuances of various ind
18. need to keep a tremendous amount of detail in mind so you can evaluate the rip ple effects of various decisions For example how will adding a particular feature affect other features Site navigation Data preparation Testing Will incorpo rating a nifty new JavaScript function require users to have the newest version of the browser To make intelligent decisions you need to know a lot about the project in general and the design specifically The team needs well rounded rep resentation of the various disciplines e g programming testing design and free and open communication If you try to produce a website with the functional area approach people down the line need a huge amount of information about the work to be per formed and that information must move along with the work In fact the com plexity of the required information will slow down the project So many handoffs open up many opportunities for miscommunication and mistakes A website development project does move from an analysis phase through the design phase prototyping various production versions testing and is fi nally posted and goes live This apparent step by step process may tempt you to set up an assembly line approach and move the project along in linear fashion In reality however these phases cannot be so cleanly separated They are often in terrelated and they may need to be repeated in part or in full as new information or ideas emerge The product desi
19. worked with them in the past if at all there are risks involved Techno logically you always have options as to how a task is accomplished Past decisions limit your options and suggest certain directions and methods Nonetheless you have choices How will your site accomplish the functionality you re planning In your answer are the seeds of your technical design documentation 3 How will your site look and feel Style counts First impressions mean a lot Your creative people set a tone for the site Graphic designers and copy writers will work in tandem to give your site personality As the project manager you will review other communications from the organization You wish to design a site that is appealing to your target audience and consistent with the marketing message of the organization You may wish to use the Web medium to explore a new design direction but even so you will not want to stray far from existing brands and logos In your answer are the seeds of your creative design documentation DEVELOPING THE CONCEPT Specialists on both the technology and creative end will work simultaneously on the project The project manager must coordinate the efforts In the early plan ning stages the project manager has identified strategic objectives for the site with key stakeholders In order to answer the basic three questions outlined pre viously the project manager has gathered information from others around the 114 Developin
20. 5 1 The cost to implement each successive feature increases exponentially not linearly 64 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Number of features Time Figure 5 2 As the number of features increases the time required to implement each successive feature becomes proportionately longer The first few features can be implemented relatively quickly but eventually the time required to implement even one more significant feature takes inordinately longer because of the ripple effect project in enough detail to foresee significant issues and deal with them At some point the analysis must end and the development must begin In fact sometimes perfecting the workplan can become an excuse for not starting development or a way to actually procrastinate making a decision on the project itself While primarily the responsibility of the project manager the workplan should be viewed as a jointly produced document that represents the consensus of the var ious decision makers on the project The project manager will be in a much stronger position if all interested parties have had input into the workplan and agree with it beforehand than if it is presented for approval without their prior input In fact the process of developing the workplan helps achieve this consensus Putting it all down on paper makes the assumptions and expectations more tan gible visible and subject to much less interpretation and misund
21. Authorware which allow interaction with users Real Audio or Real Video Enables streaming audio or video Not all users can or want to install plug ins Unless you are sure that your audi ence is accustomed to using a particular plug in you should try to avoid the extra step Do not use content requiring a plug in gratuitously because you may lose potential viewers Look for a strong argument that your message or service demands a plug in and then make it as easy as possible for users For example be sure to clearly indicate that a plug in is needed and give users simple instruc tions on downloading it WEB DEVELOPMENT TOOLS In the early days of the Web pages included little or no formatting modest graphics and little if any sound or video The Web promised that anyone could become a publisher Indeed a rudimentary level of HTML was easy to pick up for anyone accustomed to word processing One of the first best selling books on HTML Teach Yourself Web Publishing with HTML in a Week by Laura Lemay 28 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide fulfilled its promise for thousands of readers As new versions of the HTML stan dard evolved and more capabilities were added however even the experts grew weary of coding in a text environment Now almost everyone uses a Web authoring program to some extent These tools offer novices the opportunity to build a feature rich site without writing or even knowing HTML Kno
22. STANDARDS Although you can be realistic and accept the fact that the site will probably be released with some remaining bugs this view in no way condones lax quality control standards You should commit to fixing as many defects as possible be fore posting a site even to the point of refusing to post a site that is untested or is known to contain many significant errors If time pressure is extreme and one or two defects are obscure or relatively harmless it may be acceptable to post If a 152 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide website contains a misspelling in the main body of the title screen it may be harmless but it is certainly not obscure so it must be fixed If the same mis spelling is buried at the bottom of the page in a picture caption it might not be se vere enough by itself to hold back the whole site The criteria for when a site is ready for posting and the relative importance of various errors are determined on a situational case by case basis however every bug is a potential source of em barrassment that saps the credibility of the website so try to maintain high stan dards and not succumb to pressures that would have you post a site before it s ready 1 Going Live and Beyond So you ve made it through the development process through testing and debug ging and you are satisfied with the website You re more than ready You re dying to go live Your client is even more
23. The collection of customer information can be controversial touching on social and political aspects of information privacy Some privacy advocates are lobbying for legislation that restricts what information can be collected and establishes rules on how it can be used Industry groups suggest self regulation in response It has become standard for companies to post some sort of privacy statement that discloses what sort of information is being collected and how it might be used ENHANCEMENTS Eventually mini projects will spring from the routine content updates and technical fixes of maintaining the website Troubleshooting and debugging might lead to ideas for new software and functionality Customer feedback may lead to many changes that go beyond what would be called maintenance such as the fol lowing e Creating new sections e Reorganizing existing sections e Restructuring the site e Revising navigation bars or other graphical interface elements e Adding new database driven features Perhaps from the outset you have planned your website to develop in stages with new functionality scheduled for introduction several months after launch Websites tend to evolve through user interaction Eventually you ll want to re spond to what s happening on your site and give customers more of what they like or perhaps simply a fresh new look If what you have planned is a complete overhaul of the site then you re back to square
24. a project back on schedule In fact decreasing the quantity and complexity of features is one of the most effective means of achieving the schedule This technique must be em ployed judiciously though to avoid impairing the basic usefulness of the appli cation Sacrificing a feature that is central to the site s objectives is too high a price to pay to make a deadline Why the Date The project manager will benefit by understanding why a particular delivery date was chosen Was the July 1 deadline a drop dead date because it correlates with anew product release Or was the date selected because the human resources de partment is experiencing a personnel shortfall and wants to start making a good impression on prospective hiring candidates If the latter situation is the case then a week or two may not make much difference Was the go live date as signed by someone with intimate knowledge of the sales cycles for products high Scheduling 31 lighted on the website Or was it set by a junior accountant to make it easy to track cash flow in the production department Your knowledge of the rationale for the deadline will help you make decisions or recommendations for adjusting it Importance of Deadlines Although deadlines can be onerous they are also beneficial and are in fact an important element in the development process Deadlines force you to set dates for the completion of intermediate tasks milestones which help
25. a site by giving it to a couple of teenagers to pound away on for a week after school Proper testing in cludes designing a comprehensive test plan to ensure that the site has been thor oughly tested Conscientious and detail oriented personnel then work the plan Good software testers are hard to find and external professional testing services can cost nearly as much as external programming services Include such testing services in the original project cost estimates so that the project budget will allow for such expenses Outside Testing Companies Testing companies can develop test plans help identify platforms for compati bility testing and test on machines with various display configurations In addi tion they are knowledgeable in providing detailed test reports that isolate and identify defects so programmers can reproduce them Quality Assurance Testing 151 Testing is a good task to have performed at least partially out of house through an external organization Doing some testing out of house results in a more independent and objective evaluation If testing is done in house the testers are often under subtle pressure to curtail their efforts or lower their standards so a site can be released on time however outsourcing does not absolve in house development staff from the responsibility for managing the testing process and keeping records In addition companies that specialize in such testing provide an essential cross chec
26. a strate gic point of view For example depending on the complexity of the site and the business objectives a sensible strategy may be to plan for some enhancements after the launch Regardless the nature of websites is that they require updating What distinguishes a Web project from media like print publishing or video pro duction is that there is virtually no end to the product development cycle The time to consider maintenance issues for the site is early on in the technical plan ning phase not after the site is launched For instance when planning a database driven site you may want to develop administrator tools that will make it easier for nontechnical people to import new content into the database The technical specification speaks to the techies and engineers developing the site and documents their planning The first decision is what platform and server software to use for the site The development of the site from prototype on out should take place on a Web server with the same operating system and server software as the final live site The server should be accessible to members of the development team but not to the general public This server is referred to as the development environment The server that hosts the live site is called the production environment The technological specification addresses what technologies to use for de livering the functional requirements such as Java Perl Active Server Pages Cold Fus
27. allows you to obtain and allocate resources with relative certainty to incorporate the 15 percent safety factor and to possibly add features to the design later if necessity or opportunity arises Design First Estimating If you have designed the site first independent of the constraints of a budget you can choose among three strategies for estimating costs 1 time and materials 2 feature and data costing 3 contractor proposals By developing two or more of these estimates simultaneously and compar ing them to each other and to the cost of similar projects in the past you can often obtain a relatively accurate range of the costs required to develop a given website Past experience can do much to inform such estimates Capturing detailed cost information for website development requires a significant investment and commitment by the organization however measuring development costs deliv ers a clear benefit when it s time to estimate the next project To approach some degree of accuracy you need to refer to thorough and detailed cost measure ments from comparable projects 50 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Accurate cost estimates can be promoted by performing a postmortem on completed projects This activity helps uncover hidden costs charged to a project e g overhead materials equipment rental administrative costs which can amount to a significant portion of the total development expense
28. assert that project management software is necessary or useful only for large projects like building a nuclear power plant or erecting a dam across the Colorado River however with the exception of small simple projects of short duration most Web projects benefit from project management software and many require it Project management software allows you to structure the workflow delineate tasks assign task durations and dependencies and show the ripple effects of delays at various points They can also calculate the critical path of task dependencies and provide various reports and charts to help you ef fectively focus your attention and energy Project management software programs typically offer multiple views of a project the most common being PERT and Gantt charts PERT charts are diagrams 32 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide that show the individual project tasks connected by arrows marking the depen dencies between those tasks Gantt charts show task durations organized on a timeline Project management programs also provide various histograms and other reports Some views are essential and others can be extremely helpful in a given situation You can usually sort the tasks according to various criteria Grouping tasks by whom they are assigned to for example might make you aware of individuals who are overcommitted or underutilized Listing the tasks that were supposed to have been started by a particula
29. conditions of termination Typically tight schedules constrain website development and the time spent ne gotiating the development agreement and obtaining approvals can eat up avail able time The developer cannot afford to be put in the position of starting later but nevertheless being held to the same completion deadline One way to address this situation while avoiding working without a contract is to start with a simple letter of agreement which gives the go ahead to start work possibly defining cer tain steps in the analysis and planning stage The letter of agreement is later su perseded by the full development contract 104 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide SCHEDULING AND DELIVERABLES Contract Milestones Many agreements are structured so that the developer is paid a predetermined sum by the client at specific milestones such as delivery of the design specifica tion the Alpha version the Beta version and the final version The contract de fines deliverables with specific objective criteria on how the milestone is determined to have been met Nonetheless as often as not some disagreement about this occurs between the parties such as whether a version submitted as Beta by the developer is accepted as Beta by the client Obviously the definition of the deliverables is an important section of the contract An unfortunate but unavoidable situation for the developer is that the client decides when the
30. domain name into the URL field of your browser your request goes to a DNS which routes it to an IP address in a process called name resolution DNSs reside throughout the Internet to set up a sys tem for name resolution There is no central repository of Internet domain names Any number of companies can register your domain name Most have web sites that allow you to search the Internet to see if a name is available Various whois services can help you search for information on names and their owners Technologies of the Web 15 User requests www whitehouse gov Routes request to proper IP whitehouse gov address within domain Name Server Request may travel to other name servers on the Internet depending on host s network configurations Figure 2 3 Domain name server DNS and IP routing See the Yahoo category Computers and the Internet gt Internet gt Domain Name Registration If you do not have a domain name registered for the site you re devel oping you should start the process early on You don t want to be caught late in the development process and still waiting for your name registration to be processed A useful web resource for this is Domain Buyer s Guide lt www domainnamebuyersguide com gt APPLICATION PROTOCOLS The primary application protocol at work on the World Wide Web is HTTP hypertext transfer protocol HTTP is the common protocol that enables any browser e g Netscape Internet Explo
31. eager Before you flip the switch how ever you may have some planning and preparation and yes quite likely some more testing to do On the technical front you will address both the server and the Internetworking connections Also after you ve flipped the switch you may be scrambling around to make sure all systems are working You ll continue test ing and make sure you have a techie or two at your side and alert the other team members to carry their pagers Launching the site is not an end to the project but rather a transition from the development phase to the maintenance phase You or your client will follow many of the procedures described in previous chapters to manage mini projects for maintenance such as updating and adding new content and per haps new features as well You will continue to test and troubleshoot Eventually you will take on major enhancements that qualify as projects themselves THE DOMAIN NAME SYSTEM AND IP ADDRESSES In Chapter 2 we discussed the Internet protocols and how they make it possible for data to move through multiple networks and workstation platforms The ad dressing system of the Internet is called Internet protocol IP Every machine on the Internet is assigned an IP address Servers have stable IP addresses which are a series of number sets separated by dots e g 192 4 153 90 Domain names give a more human interface to IP addresses If you re in New York City and want to visit O
32. end of that range they will have done so knowing they are choosing to be optimistic Outside development firms should be prepared to quote a fairly firm not to exceed estimate for the initial site development Maintenance Costs Regardless of the size of the site it must be maintained on an ongoing basis or it will eventually lose its effectiveness The cost to maintain a website is real and must be budgeted if the site is to have a viable future The cost may run as little as 100 per month for monthly hosting fees on a site with minimal updating by employees already on the payroll Or it may require hundreds of thousands per month to finance the ongoing efforts of a full department to keep content up dated answer e mail maintain a database build new features and process e commerce transactions Wherever you are on the spectrum of maintenance without estimating and budgeting for these items and their associated costs up front you may lose the chance to obtain the necessary funds later Estimating Costs 47 COST OF COST ESTIMATING According to some researchers most software projects are actually out of control from the beginning if only because the resources and skills to accurately measure the size and progress of the application are lacking in most situations The exer cise of measuring bears a cost itself but is rarely part of the estimate Without ac curate measurements the true scope of development activity and actual pro
33. even unex pected inputs to make sure it handles them correctly and does not malfunction This technique is the most cost effective and efficient testing method and is a way of promoting quality at the source Programmers who are willing and able to thoroughly test their own code module by module after each is written generally find defects faster than other testers and are able to fix them in the shortest time Unit testing stops problems before they can crop up in other mod ules and it prevents other testers from having to spend time finding isolating and documenting these defects then retesting for them later regression testing to make sure they were fixed Requiring programmers to thoroughly test their own code can be difficult to enforce however for several reasons First most programmers like to write code not test it Some see testing as monotonous work that is not part of their job Sec ond programmers are often under extreme pressure to produce usable code as fast as possible Therefore the emphasis is often on quantity rather than quality If programmers are on a tight schedule there is little chance they will want to spend extra time thoroughly testing their own code instead of logging the com pletion of that module and starting work on a new feature 148 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide You should do your best to encourage programmers to take the time to test their own code thoroughl
34. flat organizations Some will claim that Web development projects are inherently out of control and in fact defy the lin ear studied approach of project management We believe that an out of control approach is a matter of choice Web developers do not have to be the victims of their process They can choose to be masters Woven throughout this book lending context to every aspect of develop ment are the three dimensions of project management Time Resources and Task Connected like the three corners of a triangle restricting one dimension con strains the other two or conversely investing in one lends license to the others Any Web developer can tell stories of meeting with a client who cannot ar ticulate the task what they want to accomplish We just need to be on the Web ix x Preface may have been the most common strategic objective for corporate websites in the mid to late 1990s The best developers could guide the client to a clear objective if only by writing a proposal Even so a project with such beginnings is getting off on the wrong foot Time and resources will fill the vacuum of a vague task Nonetheless Web development challenges project management principles because it is at its essence an iterative process Between us we have 40 years of experience in developing products for print video CD ROM and the Web Clearly the processes long in place for print and video do not fit the Web devel opment environm
35. fluctuations and the other jobs provide the developer with a depth of experience that can also benefit your project however a developer who is too large for your project may not be as responsive as a smaller one If a large developer falls behind schedule on someone else s multimillion dollar job while yours is only a 15 000 Web presence site the manager may be tempted to pull resources off your proj ect to get the larger one back on track Make Valid Comparisons When comparing developers and development proposals try to make sure you compare them fairly and are not comparing apples to oranges One developer s 100 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide 50 000 bid may be very different from another s One developer may be willing to build the site using the technology of your choice or may include full browser version testing graphic design or even Web hosting in the bid whereas another may not These are real costs that can make a huge difference in the final project and maintenance expense Limit the Number of Vendors If a project is being done out of house work with the minimum number of ex ternal developers and vendors When a lot of work is to be done externally it is tempting to want to spread it around to several different developers On the face of it this practice seems fair and even a means of comparing the performance of different developers however each external developer requires a
36. how it is all supposed to work As a proj ect manager you should encourage the development of detailed technical speci fications throughout the process If the project suffers a change of personnel in midstream your new engineers will benefit greatly from a current and detailed technical specification User Interface and Visual Design Once you know what you are building and how you are going to build it you can start designing what it will look like and how the user interacts with the var ious features on the website As project manager you will communicate to the graphic designers and user interface designers who the audience is their atti tudes expectations and motivations Most of all designers need a clear idea of what action the organization expects users to take on the website User interface design and visual design work hand in hand to create the user experience but are not the same thing User interface design is a unique dis cipline that draws on design theory and cognitive psychology The user interface design basically describes what the user needs to do to make use of the site and operate the site features The information architect if a team has one works closely with designers on the user interface design Regardless of what positions constitute the team to ex ecute a well designed user interface the designer must be intimately familiar with the functional specifications The user interface defines the way users wil
37. how these three factors interrelate you can easily slip into a reactive mode constantly responding to the crisis of the mo ment Once these three factors are understood and appreciated however they be come the reins of control by which you can effectively manage the development and maintenance of a complex website These three factors of time task and resources constantly interact in a Web project changing priorities and fluctuating in importance as the project advances Understanding how they interact gives you a valuable and objective perspective that helps demystify the development process The project manager must juggle these factors and make decisions about tradeoffs and compromises along the way In Dynamics of Software Development Microsoft s Jim McCarthy writes As a development manager you re working with only three things resources people and money features the product and its quality and the schedule This trian gle of elements is all you work with There s nothing else to be worked with These three factors can be represented as the three points of a triangle Figure 1 1 THE THREE PROJECT FACTORS Time For the purposes of a website the available time is indicated in the project sched ule specifically the period from start date to completion deadline that is when 2 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Task Requirements Quality features Time Resources
38. input into the ap proval process Large companies often operate in the hurry up and wait mode They may require a developer to perform a large amount of work in a hurry such as to write a proposal by the end of the week then wait an indeterminate length of time for a complicated approval process to grind to completion before receiving an answer By the time the project is finally approved assuming it does get ap proved there may not be enough time left in the schedule to actually develop the website as described in the proposal Often the best thing a small developer can do is be politely persistent perhaps by checking in by telephone or e mail once a week while looking for other project opportunities in case the project under dis cussion does not materialize or is delayed Most important when awaiting project approval do not assume that large companies are rational logical entities they often are not They sometimes pur sue courses of action that appear to be and actually may be counterproductive and even self destructive to their apparent business interests 96 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Decision Makers or Indecisive Companies Project managers should identify the internal decision makers for their website project The larger the company the more likely the decision maker is not to be the developer s primary contact The internal manager and developer should dis cuss how decisions and a
39. milestone has been reached The unscrupulous client may manipulate the process and improve cashflow by delaying approvals The developer s best legal protection is the language of the contract The truth is that the developer has no real recourse against slow payment because legal action it self is slow and therefore more appropriate in collecting when payment is re fused The client who makes a custom of such chicanery may have a hard time attracting quality developers to future projects Delays are not necessarily foul play however More often they are simple realities of organizational life Administrative mix ups lost invoices and corpo rate policies regarding payment cycles all can contribute to late payment For the small developer facing financial hardships understandable excuses offer small comfort The time to ask about the approval process both in terms of milestones and invoice processing is when you are creating the initial schedule Late Content In many projects the developer relies on content from the client to create the web site It s not unusual for a client to push an aggressive schedule then drop the ball from the onset by not delivering content The delay can increase development costs and postpone milestone payments through no fault of the developer The developer s project manager needs to stay out in front of this process and either obtain the necessary materials in time from the client or make sure the cli
40. new server If this is the case it makes sense to communicate this information with technical personnel who will be maintaining the server giving them as much lead time as possible An outside hosting service deals with multiple customers with all kinds of projects going on In vendor relations it is a courtesy and often a necessity to give an early heads up to an outside hosting service You do not want to be the customer who says You ll have the files by 5 p m and by the way the site needs to go live to morrow Even if your service can scramble at your behest you will have lost goodwill Going Live and Beyond 159 The irony is that in an in house hosting scenario the technology staff may be much less responsive to your needs No matter what the internal accounting setup is it tends not to frame you as a paying customer in the same way a ven dor client relationship does A fact of organizational life is that projects are often prioritized by the status of the requester rather than by business objectives In short the project manager is called on again to use interpersonal skills and polit ical acumen in this transition to a new server You absolutely have to be on top of some technology issues here but don t kid yourself it takes people to make it work Internal technology personnel hold the keys to the kingdom No matter what their position in the company hierarchy they hold power over what goes on the machine They a
41. number of others Files reside in a subdirectory of a member s Web pages with no domain name address although domain name registration and maintenance is offered at a premium This basic level hosting with limited storage available is usually included in the user s monthly access charge with additional services offered at a premium Light Site What we describe as a light site is a basic Web presence such as a consultant or sole proprietor might want It consists of one website with an IP address and reg istered domain name hosting static pages perhaps with some minor scriptable functionality such as CGI common gateway interface scripts Externally hosted this level of site allows you to put some pages and content up receive e mail and link to the rest of the Web You could promote and market yourself but not actu ally transact business online Data Site What we refer to as a data site adds database connectivity to our light site de scription It enables dynamically built pages whereby the server makes Web pages as needed on the fly or data collection through backend databases as described earlier Hosting services may also allow shopping cart and e commerce for an additional charge This level of site can accomplish a lot but it does have Technologies of the Web 25 limitations With a shared server there are traffic restrictions and you must play by the rules of the ISP regarding database access and what exactly
42. one however even if your enhancement project is minor you should follow the phases we have described analysis design and prototyping build out and testing The smaller the project the more quickly you will be able to move through the phases The two you may be tempted to skip on a mini project are analysis and testing Don t Even with small projects the failure to analyze and plan will cost you in the long run Know where you are going before you set out If your changes are mostly to content such as new graphics or text you may deem 166 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide testing to be unnecessary but software can be quirky and it s best to run the new site through the drills anyway Because the browser software controls so much of the way your pages display it s especially important that even content changes are tested in the various versions of the popular browsers Any change to your site can cause unexpected repercussions You ll want to continue the testing once your mini project goes live WHAT NEXT We are all looking for fame and glory on the Web aren t we Oh and riches too With any luck your site will meet with great success Your planning for scalabil ity will come into play then The reward for your success may be greater re sources from your organization larger budgets or additional staff Success brings challenges too If your traffic skyrockets you ll need to stay on
43. or cuts the budget As a result the project either takes longer to complete time factor changes becomes less ambitious in scope task definition changes or both Like wise if the design is scaled back features are dropped or simplified the project Se Resource Figure 1 2 Balancing the three project factors Project Management in Three Dimensions 5 can be finished faster or with fewer people The main goal of project management is to constantly balance these factors in flux Your consciousness of the interplay of these three factors and ability to act on them will make you a master of the development process rather than its slave By manipulating these factors you can exert considerable control over the proj ect Your command of their interplay will help you e Explain schedule delays e Say no to design changes and feature creep with good reasons e Justify increased personnel and equipment requests e Recognize opportunities to improve project dynamics Only by examining these factors on an ongoing basis can you identify trouble spots and proactively address growing problems Once a crisis hits your analy sis will help you learn from your mistakes but you will fall short of saving the project at hand Prevention always works better Project management software can help you monitor progress When you watch these factors on a daily basis you can make minor adjustments along the way and avoid crises before
44. reasons 1 Changing the timing of the product introduction can have all sorts of negative marketing and sales consequences 2 Costs increase because people must be paid to work on the project for a longer amount of time Project Management in Three Dimensions 7 3 Additional schedule time leaves an opening for additional feature creep 4 Extended timelines sometimes take the pressure off the development staff which can lessen the urgency they feel to complete the task By process of elimination then the decision often boils down to changing the de sign specification Depending on the specific situation however fine tuning any of the three factors is a possibility Discuss the options with members of the Web development team as well as others in the organization who may be affected by your decision Specialists in marketing sales and technology can often suggest alternatives of which you are unaware As the project manager you are respon sible for finding a way to fix things through creative problem solving and an in timate knowledge of the development process Tightening Up a Loose Project By identifying bottlenecks in the development process and reassigning tasks to widen those bottlenecks you can often tighten up a loose project For example imagine creating a Web based training program that contains numerous interac tive simulations all of which are individually programmed The whole project may depend on a singl
45. s difficult to anticipate these problems ahead of time and there are always surprises Things that look per fectly obvious to you and your Beta testers may completely confound the casual visitor to your site Meanwhile they may sail through other things that seem con fusing to you You will probably get most of your feedback on user interface problems from e mail from users Remember that for every such comment you receive dozens of other users have probably experienced the same thing but didn t take the time to tell you Pay special attention to feedback from users They are why you re creating the site in the first place The back office process is what happens offline in response to users who visit your site At its essence a website is an interface between your organization and its customers The interaction that takes place on your website often de mands a response process that happens offline which is what we mean by a back office process One of the private delivery services runs a television commercial showing a website launch Several young Gen Xers stand around a computer monitor watching a counter They smile as the first few visitors hit the site They grin with 162 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide satisfaction as the counter keeps rolling They ve hit their target The counter keeps rolling faster and faster and glee in their faces turns to dread as they real ize that the site is generating more bu
46. set unrealistic expectations While sensitive to this tendency of clients to underestimate costs develop ers must nonetheless be realistic regarding the true cost of development or risk working themselves out of business Factors encouraging an unrealistic quote in clude e sheer optimism e pressure by the client e minimizing the inherent unknowns in doing a software development project In addition to the risk of losing money on a project a low price can set an unfor tunate precedent that could inhibit you from billing the client at more reasonable rates in the future Smart Proposals The dialog around budget and bids can easily become a cat and mouse game which is a disservice to both parties It is perfectly reasonable for developers to ask clients what the budget for a project is The client might fear that revealing the budget is no more than an invitation for the developer to use it all up in the bid As discussed it is not unlikely that the client will come in with gourmet tastes and a fast food budget Clear open communications about the budget make for an early reality check on the project and ultimately foster proposals best suited to the client s needs Developers can help clients along by delineating various levels of solutions around specific components of the site Then clients can see exactly what they re getting for their money Clients may want to protect themselves by seeking a flat fee for develop ment A bet
47. several servers The benefits include redun dancy of data and added assurances that the site will not go down You can keep the database on a separate box to allow for fine tuning and specialization of ca pabilities Web farms are used for most large scale corporate websites such as Disney or CNN Internal Cluster Here you are at the top of the heap the most powerful flexible expensive and maintenance intensive option The internal cluster is basically a Web farm hosted internally It requires a top flight connection T1 or T3 and continuous technical staff support to manage it 26 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide FACTORS IN YOUR HOSTING DECISION The following factors play into the hosting decision Traffic The greater the traffic the more reason to have a dedicated server or even a Cluster Functionality The greater your range of required functions the more you need a dedicated server that you can control and program without arbitrary rules and procedures Ability or desire to maintain server If you do not have the technical staff or de sire to maintain a server your best option is to host externally and contract for those services as part of the hosting fee Security required Theoretically the most secure solution is to host internally so that you can ensure your own control against hackers with a firewall proxy servers and other safeguards Again in house capabilities figure in h
48. significant amount of internal project management time and coordination As the number of vendors increases linearly the effort to keep them all working together in sync in creases exponentially Conflicts inevitably arise among different external devel opers working on the same project finger pointing starts for missed deadlines software defects and the like jealousy emerges over the amount of business being done with one or the other fee comparisons are made and issues of confi dentiality exist among potential competitors In addition it takes time and effort to develop a good working relationship with a developer to the point that the ex ternal firm understands your company i e expectations priorities structure and you understand theirs It is often wise to focus more work on fewer devel opers than to give more developers smaller pieces BUDGETS AND BIDS The In House Development Budget The motivation for in house development is often a desire to save money The false assumption is that the work can be done internally at a fraction of the cost Often a project bid received from an external developer is significantly higher than expected At this point individuals in the production department may start to imagine that they can do the work internally for the amount originally envi sioned Starting a large project based on this assumption can be a recipe for dis aster A better reaction to this scenario would be to reexamine t
49. strengths and weaknesses of the two different approaches Contractors and Clients 87 Hybrid Development Strategy Internal External Hybrid Marketing Page Building Web Tech amp Programming Content Development Data Formatting Site Hosting Site Goals amp Strategy Testing Graphics amp UI Figure 7 1 Internal external hybrid development tasks a commonly used strategy Expertise In house development may not be an option The first question the project man ager must ask is Does the necessary expertise for meeting the project s goals lie within the organization If the appropriate staff does not exist internally and a website is attempted anyway the results can be disastrous If an organization lacks internal expertise but does have talented people who could potentially develop the necessary skills should it use the project as an opportunity to do so It is feasible for internal people to learn some tasks on the Table 7 1 Internal versus external development comparison of strengths and weaknesses Note The project cost depends on many factors including site design technology available resources and accounting methods within a company Internal development External development Expertise X Cost depends on project specs Control X Teamwork X Speed of development X Investment in future X 88 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide job such as basic sof
50. team members Contractors and Clients Websites can be developed in house internally out of house externally or using both With in house development a company designs and builds a website using primarily its internal staff Out of house development is when a company goes outside and commissions another company to build its website in a client vendor relationship A fundamental factor in the management of a website development project is the business or employment relationship among the players In the interest of tax collection the Internal Revenue Service IRS has gone to great lengths to dis tinguish between an independent contractor and an employee The distinction can be ambiguous in some situations so the IRS has established a list of check points that swing the balance one way or another The guidelines specify that a contractor is responsible for the output and is not supervised or trained in how exactly to proceed toward that outcome This is an illustration of how rules and customs governing interpersonal relations differ depending on whether the per son is an outside contractor you ve hired a coworker from another department in your company a direct report or a peer In short an in house project manager does not have the same control over a contractor that he or she is likely to have over an employee Most of the time Web projects involve a mix of in house personnel and con tractors Certainly large projects do So
51. that any commercial website requires a programmer s skills for advanced scripting if not in actually writing programs The most highly technical part of the development process software pro gramming is also the least predictable Sometimes development goes as expected but it is not at all unusual to meet with some bumps in the road Traversing those bumps is where the going can get tough The following concepts should be kept in mind Programming is a black art Even its practitioners will tell you so Some admit that their power over the mysterious innards of the computer is all voodoo Whatever the source the magic is difficult to perfect the first time Program ming is basically a process of invention and reinvention trial and error All in all it s a messy inefficient process but that s the only way to do it Programming is a creative process Sometimes programmers can come up with a routine in a flash whereas other times it requires more thinking and analy sis The more experienced programmers have the benefit of having ad dressed and solved similar problems in the past Build Out and Production 137 Programming is a precise detail oriented discipline A slight mistake or omission can cause big seemingly inexplicable problems It may be difficult to iden tify the cause of the problem and the time it takes to do so can easily take the project off schedule and over budget Programming work starts with the functional
52. that it is more difficult to show linking and that it is not as effective in illustrating site structure as a visual diagram Functional Design The functional design is a definition of what the website will enable users to do What are you building Answering this question is the starting point for any design work You need to clearly determine what the website will do before you can plan how to accomplish it what the site will look like or what it will cost The func tional brief answers that question Execution is not described in the functional brief How a site will execute a particular function is a matter of technical design 116 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide We were recently approached to build a website for a small floral business The owner said he realized that he needed a home page His first question was How much will it cost What do you want it to do we replied Let people get in touch with you Take orders Show products online Search for delivery locations and rates Yes he said all that stuff Tt could cost a quarter of a million dollars T thought I could get a home page for a thousand dollars he said Clearly the functional design was the starting point for this project In the end we built him a nice little site for 2 500 that serves his real needs He s even planning to get an e mail account The functional specification is a conti
53. the education market it would probably be worth while to hold a discussion group with coffee and doughnuts of course for teachers at a conference they happen to be attending For a business to business application you might invite a group of key customers at a trade show to your company hotel suite and get their thoughts on the feasibility of transacting busi ness over the Internet These informal discussion groups may not have the same reliability as a traditional professionally moderated group but they can provide an additional convenient low cost alternative with much value nevertheless If you exercise a little foresight focus groups can be a great source of information and they are also helpful in finding individuals who might be worth calling back later for in depth interviews Focus groups should include potential users with a variety of responsibilities in order to become aware of the various viewpoints and perspectives When holding a focus group the key is to keep an open mind which is eas ier said than done because you usually have a stake in the outcome Your own ex pectations and assumptions can easily distort the discussion and the subsequent 60 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide interpretation of the results If several observers are present observations and im pressions can be cross checked later to minimize the potential for biased inter pretation In addition you might prepare a short ques
54. the website the more impor tant is the QA testing process The testing phase is crucial because of the variety of user hardware configurations including different versions of various browsers on different hardware platforms e g PC Mac UNIX Linux and a variety of possible screen resolution settings from 640 x 480 and 800 x 600 and higher You should test your website for all of the different configurations your users might have Design flaws suggestions for redesign and proposed design changes are duly noted but ideally user interface design decisions have already been made QA testing focuses on identifying program malfunctions and to a lesser extent content errors so they can be fixed before going live In general QA testing becomes increasingly important as the site nears com pletion until by the end of the project it is the main activity along with fixing defects found Unfortunately people new to Web development often overlook this phase or underbudget for it They see it as an indication of shoddy work manship and resent having to repair a site that should have been built correctly in the first place This sentiment misses the essential point Testing is an integral part of the process of building correctly 141 142 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Experienced website developers have usually learned the hard way that at taining even a tolerable level of reliability and stabilit
55. would be un achievable in working alone If you look at the common pitfalls described previ ously you can see that better communication could solve each one The first step to successful collaboration is to recognize and respect your dif ferent perspectives and motivations In the most basic arrangement where the developer is doing the project as a work for hire and is due fixed lump sum pay ments based on milestones the objectives of client and vendor are fundamentally opposed The client wants as much design flexibility functionality and quick de velopment as possible On the other hand the developer wants to fix the design specifications in concrete to avoid the data rework revisions feature creep and technical problems that result in cost overruns Documents like the work plan proposals and the agreement articulate a common ground between these conflicting motivations however no agreement can cover every possible situa tion and those that attempt to do so often strain the relationship by spelling Contractors and Clients 95 everything out A sense of trust should underlie agreements that clearly define expectations obligations and respective roles in the project Some situations present even more hidden and conflicting agendas Devel opers have been known to work on websites for unrealistically low fees or for free simply to hook a client Such sites often have quality problems because of the lack of
56. you can do on the server Dedicated Server Site The distinction from a data site to a dedicated site as we move up the hierarchy is that you no longer share a server Although still externally hosted the dedi cated server allows you to do whatever you want remotely You can have many IP numbers and run many websites on your own server It s your server but it is located at your ISP s location and uses their connectivity to the Internet The ded icated server site model affords lots of flexibility power and traffic The limita tion may occur at extremely high levels of traffic Also when relying on a single server you have no backup for data or to maintain service if your server goes down however solutions are available at an extra cost Or you can take the big step up the hierarchy and move in house In House Server Site In this model you deal directly with primary level carriers for Internet service You will need a Webmaster at least and perhaps additional staff as well to main tain equipment and make sure you stay connected The Web server connects to the Internet through a digital subscriber line DSL cable modem T1 T3 or the like and the carrier provides you with a static IP address provided by the ISP Web Farm The Web farm is an externally hosted cluster of servers that allows massive lev els of traffic While enjoying the same functionality as the dedicated server this hosting level spreads traffic across
57. you gauge and track progress Deadlines motivate project staff like nothing else In addition deadlines can be doubly important to the financial health of a company engaged in e commerce The sooner the site is available the sooner products can be sold and the sooner the company will recover its investment The production staff who may simply desire a more leisurely pace of development would not be look ing at this benefit PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE One of the best ways to plan schedule and track projects is with project man agement software Project management software packages such as Microsoft Project or SureTrack Project Management provide useful highly specialized project management tools like PERT Program Evaluation and Review Technol ogy and Gantt charting capabilities resource leveling and cost reporting These tools provide you with a bird s eye view of the development plan and process which is invaluable in tracking the organization sequence and completion of tasks and events to ensure timely delivery With such attention you are more likely to foresee potential crises looming ahead and can work to avoid them Proj ect management software allows you to adjust the workplan to try different sce narios When these workplans are shared with others on the development team they become an excellent means of discussing the project keeping team members informed of their tasks and the required completion dates Some people
58. 0 based on an initial requirements specification Will the site increase sales to this point over time and how much time Is the market for the product large enough to support such sales If not one way to change the break even point is to lower develop ment costs by lowering the requirements allowing the project to be completed in less time or with fewer people In this way the feature requirements can have a major impact on the success of the application This reexamination and modification of desired features usually forces a fresh prioritizing of the requirements needed to achieve project success Margin ally useful functions and nice to have features accumulate rapidly on a re quirements specification These often superfluous features must be eliminated to avoid weighing the project down and decreasing the chances of successful de velopment Every additional feature increases real costs exponentially because each additional feature must be designed integrated and tested in combination with the other features The requirements specification should identify and in clude only those features and functions necessary to the ultimate success of the product not those with the most vocal or high ranking internal advocates Analysis and the Project Plan 63 DEVELOPING THE WORKPLAN Once the analysis has been performed a requirements specification has been pro duced and the project idea has been deemed worthwhile the next step is to de
59. 2 Order status page m j FPOOMANDAURWNeE The previous description helps clarify the Online Catalog feature and ensures that everyone agrees this is a suitable implementation that fulfills the require ments for the feature It also provides enough detail for a programmer to start es timating the time required to develop the feature and integrate it into the site The description also provides information to those involved in content development and data preparation that there will be 2 000 products including descriptions photos product numbers and other associated information and the data will Analysis and the Project Plan 67 need to be updated and maintained in an ongoing way The target platform must be specified as well as any restrictions or preferences regarding the Web devel opment tools graphical design audience demographics and other information pertinent to the overall task In summary whatever you call it and whatever the form or format you need a document describing in detail what it is that you are developing to make it visible to others so they can understand and have something to approve Resources The resources required to develop a project include the following e the people themselves personnel e equipment e outside services e materials that will be consumed in the process Determining the resources needed and planning for them requires careful exam ination of the tasks involved what it wil
60. Developing Effective Websites y _ y E d Project Manager Guide Roy Strauss amp Patrick Hogan ress Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide This Page Intentionally Left Blank Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Roy Strauss Patrick Hogan Focal Press An imprint of Butterworth Heinemann Boston Oxford Auckland Johannesburg Melbourne New Delhi Focal Press is an imprint of Butterworth Heinemann Copyright 2001 by Roy Strauss and Patrick Hogan Q A member of the Reed Elsevier group All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means electronic mechanical photocopying recording or otherwise without the prior written permission of the publisher All trademarks found herein are property of their respective owners Recognizing the importance of preserving what has been written Butterworth Heinemann prints its books on acid free paper whenever possible Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Strauss Roy Developing effective websites a project manager s guide Roy Strauss Patrick Hogan 2nd ed cm Rev ed of Managing multimedia projects c1997 Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 0 240 80443 0 pbk alk paper 1 Multimedia systems 2 Web sites Management 3 Application software Developme
61. Project breaking down elements of 8 control issues 89 90 93 ideas for 57 58 plan for See Workplan rogue 71 sequential development of 75 tightening of 7 unapproved 71 Project management factors that affect 1 4 overview of 1 11 resources and 3 6 software 31 35 tasks and 3 three dimensional nature of 4 6 tightening of loose project 7 time and 1 3 Project manager client communications 120 coordination role of 138 production supervising by 130 responsibilities of 78 79 Proposals 51 52 101 102 169 178 Prototype and prototyping definition of 120 121 navigational 121 skeleton framework for 121 122 122f 124f technical 121 visual 121 Quality assurance testing compatibility 149 defects documenting of 145 146 fixing of 146 148 151 isolation and replication of 144 145 prioritizing of 146 definition of 141 functionality 147 149 importance of 141 142 individuals that perform 150 151 integration 148 layout 149 link 150 load 149 150 160 regression 148 149 requirements 142 143 standards 152 test plan 143 144 unit 147 Quotes See Proposals Real audio video 27 Regression testing 148 149 Requests for proposals RFPs 51 52 169 Requirements specification 62 67 Resources definition of 3 equipment 68 estimating of 9 67 materials 68 outside services 68 personnel 29 30 67 68 See also Developers Programmers project management effects 3 6 requirements specif
62. Web 17 SERVERS AND WEB TECHNOLOGIES Move over you flashy designers and hotshot producers The real action of the Web is on the server Unfortunately to much confusion the term Web server is used interchangeably to refer to hardware software or both At the most basic level the server receives requests from the clients around the Internet and serves up the requested files In sum it performs a myriad of other functions that keep a website humming The specialized services that are capturing the pub lic s interest in the Internet such as e commerce distance learning online auc tions or file sharing services all depend on sophisticated server software and programming SERVER HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE The tasks that the machine performs define a server not the hardware itself The oretically just about any computer running any operating system can be used as a server whether an old 486 desktop a laptop or a mainframe however Web servers are usually rack mounted boxes with a powerful processor and lots of storage and memory The location and spatial requirements of servers also vary A small opera tion may serve its needs with a desktop computer You will also see small racks or huge racks with hundreds of servers rarely touched by human hands Funda mentally the server is a computer that is attached to the Internet and can run the required software Basically the hardware end of the Web servers is just a computer any b
63. able to write a test plan manage a software defect database and perform regression testing A person of this caliber will be able to find more defects faster and will significantly improve the programmers ability to fix the defects Therefore when planning software development the testing process and personnel must be determined with as much care as the design and programming processes including the use of test plans and automated testing tools if appropriate Cool Under Fire Drills Web development projects tend to be subject to false crises commonly called fire drills These tempest in a teapot situations which arrive without a mo ment s notice are quickly forgotten To adequately manage these situations keep a respectable mental distance from the problem and above all don t panic The urgency of these episodes is often inversely related to their actual importance For example while working intently on attaining the Beta release date for a new mar keting website you might receive an urgent message from the secretary of the vice president of marketing that you have to demonstrate the site in progress later that day Faced with a command performance and little or no advance warn ing you might drop everything to comply knowing full well that the site is not really in a showable state Rather you should maintain your composure and quickly get to the source of the request to find out exactly what is wanted and by wh
64. act enough potential users to check the need and potential value to the user of the proposed site and establish the relative priorities of proposed site features You can expect relatively low response rates from mailed surveys sometimes only in the 2 to 5 percent range The length of the survey form or phone interview must be limited to what can be completed by the subject in 15 to 20 minutes and certainly no longer than 30 minutes Beyond that the response rate will drop off because completing a longer survey is too time consuming In addition the in formation received from a longer survey may be less reliable as the subject s concentration wanes The ideal survey is two to three pages of easily answered questions E mail surveys should be shorter It is also beneficial to provide some small compensation or incentive for the subject s efforts The goal is to get valu able information quickly and let subjects go on their way Focus Groups Focus groups are another effective way of obtaining feedback about a website idea The traditional focus group is a highly structured affair run by a profes sional moderator videotaped and observed through one way glass You may not need to go to such lengths for your application however and if you cannot afford it less controlled focus groups are still valuable Even informal gatherings of potential users can elicit valuable information For example if you were to an alyze a potential site aimed at
65. again by number re produced and referenced to the user s Web connection and system configura tion This information can be valuable in eventually getting to the source of a defect especially when the defect is difficult to isolate and or reproduce The most effective tool for record keeping is a database rather than a spreadsheet or a word processing program With a database you can keep track 146 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide of the defects found and their current status whether they have been fixed closed or remain unfixed open You can also sort through the data by various attributes which is extremely helpful For example if the defects have been pri oritized they can be sorted in the order of priority to see which defects are next in line to be fixed If they are classified into the three kinds of defects design is sues software defects and content errors the list can be sorted and tasks as signed to different individuals with appropriate information Databases allow lots of flexibility for custom searches according to the nuances of your circum stances PRIORITIZING FIXES Perhaps no website has ever launched without at least one known defect Even sites with few defects when first developed may exhibit problems when viewed on marginal systems or those with poor Web connections Although zero defects is an admirable goal it is virtually unachievable on most such projects so some on
66. ain problem and how to fix it and then balance and readjust the three factors Breaking It Down When a crisis develops separate the project factors and examine each issue to see what s wrong With a bit of luck they can be fixed and realigned For example when Commodore was developing AmigaVision one of the first icon based authoring systems the project stalled in the Beta phase We couldn t seem to move into the final testing phase The original deadline came and went development costs were skyrocketing and management was ready to pull the plug on the project By breaking it down we realized the following e Given the original product specification our resources should have been adequate e The original time estimate was overly optimistic e Feature creep had struck Concerned about features that were thought to be under development in rival au thoring systems the marketing department had dictated numerous modifica tions and additions superseding the original design requirements Our analysis showed that continuous feature creep was responsible for the stall in Beta The obvious answer was to freeze the application with the existing features which had already considerably surpassed the original set We took this step with senior management s approval and were then able to test debug and ship the software in a few months Maintaining Balance So much of work comes down to people which are categorized as res
67. al programming staff and sought their commitment with assurances that the proj ect was on track and would move quickly The abridged first version was ready to go live in a few months In terms of the three factors a shortage in the antici pated resources was addressed by lengthening the time factor and decreasing the task 6 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide A natural reaction in such a situation however is to make up for lost time by pressuring programmers while avoiding any adjustment to the project Al though this approach may improve appearances in the short term it is usually not effective in the long haul You may inspire spurts of super productivity but this pace is difficult to sustain Work patterns gravitate toward their equilibrium If you must apply pressure to change programmers behavior then you may have to keep the heat on for the remainder of the project As the programmers become desensitized to such pressure over time you will need to become in creasingly firm This tactic can create an uncommunicative dysfunctional and potentially explosive situation as the project grinds along By the end of the proj ect if you make it that far you may no longer be on speaking terms with the programmers Costs emerge in employee dissatisfaction and the long term qual ity of work You will be subject to the law of diminishing returns People work ing excessive hours tend to make more mistakes and usua
68. als e technical qualifications of developer e approach to the website e recommendations and references e compatibility of development tools with in house resources and expertise e presentation and thoroughness of proposal e prior experience e quoted price e firm s resources and personnel Purpose of agreements e Limits liabilities e Warrants and assigns or retains intellectual property rights e Clarifies the roles and deliverables e Sets a timetable e Defines task or scope e Establishes payment and terms Minimum requirements of a legally valid contract e valid offer e valid acceptance of the offer e consideration SAMPLE EXCHANGE OF DOCUMENTS BETWEEN CLIENT AND CONTRACTOR Client Winding Trails book publisher for the National Cycle Club Contractor Jane Developer Twin Oaks Web Development In this fictional example the client and contractor have worked together in the past The proposal process is not being used to qualify or select the contractor but rather to de fine the project and come to terms The project is a small one consistent with what this book described as a simple Web presence Disclaimer Sample Agreement is presented only to illustrate typical issues ad dressed in an agreement It is not supplied as a template for reader s agreements We en courage readers to seek legal counsel in drawing up agreements The Proposal Process 171 Project Description Winding Trails Websi
69. an be reviewed and tested for usability DEVELOPMENT SITE If you are working ona large or complex website you may be using a development server to build out and test the site before copying it to the live server known as the production server Figure 9 2 As production work progresses your team will continue to post content and install programs to the development server You want this site to be accessible to members of the development team but not to the whole world on the Web At best it is an embarrassment for a work in progress to be unveiled prematurely Depending on the circumstances exposing the site can potentially cause more serious problems The most secure option is for the server to reside behind the firewall on an intranet that is accessible only to those within the company or coming from select Internet protocol IP addresses The site may even be posted blind which means it s available on the Web but pass word protected or simply not yet assigned a domain name Build Out and Production 133 In House Development Devel t Te evelopment team Tester Production Server Development Server Figure 9 2 In house development using development server and production server Notice that the development team publishes to the development server The tester tests the site on a development server before it is moved to a production server The tester then tests
70. an e commerce module will be used the com pany will need a digital certificate and secure transmission capabilities The project manager should prepare written production guidelines that ad dress specifics for development of the site such as the following e a directory structure based on the menu tree diagram and navigation structure of the site Developers authoring the Web pages need to know the directories in order to properly code internal site links e file naming conventions which help everyone on the development team If the client can deliver properly named files renaming is one small task the development team won t have to worry about e programming and scripting notes Future modifications to the code will be much easier if all the programmers have followed conventions which are documented e production art notes which will save time for the graphic artists Specify color palettes size and resolution for images and preferred file formats e procedures for uploading content to a database either by the programmer or administrative user DESIGN The graphic artists start their production work by extending the client approved motif and home page images to other graphic elements and pages on the site A basic principle of user interface design is that the navigation scheme should be consistent throughout the site New users may take a wrong turn here and there but if navigation is consistent and the buttons are always in th
71. and Designing and Prototyping 115 Campus Posters Home Page Search for Artist Category New Releases Contact Posters Selection Page amp Bestseller Us page Page page page Search Results Artist Page View Poster amp database driven database driven Description template template database driven template Online Content Purchase Database Module Figure 8 3 Example menu tree diagram showing the relationships among the following pages Campus Posters Home page Search for Posters page Search Results database generated Artist Selection Page Artist Page database generated Category Page View Poster amp Description database generated New Releases amp Bestsellers page Contact Us page Note the database serves multiple functions and e commerce is provided by a separate online Purchase module all the elements that must be fit onto individual pages If there are too many pages this issue can be raised and addressed during concept development Later on in production it can help people track the content assets Design teams use a variety of software products to create diagrams Adobe Illustrator or Microsoft Visio work well You can also use Microsoft Word The menu tree diagram can also be created in outline format if you feel more com fortable An outline consists of the same information as the schematic Shortcom ings of this approach are
72. ant design changes in the later stages of development can create a massive amount of additional work for the developer along with the resulting schedule and workflow problems A competent and realistic developer will re quest more time and money to implement such changes and clients are rarely pleased when this happens Such an impasse is difficult to work through The problem of ongoing de sign changes is best addressed through prevention The workplan document de veloped in the analysis and planning stage is critical and should be the reference point for everyone involved Project managers should continually coach the clients whether internal or external on the value of upfront planning Companies may resist spending money for such creative development especially when there are no tangible outcomes The outside developer who creates a plan without client input or approval is asking for changes down the line It s also best to seek user input as early as possible in the process When the client suggests a change down the line you can gently remind them that the current version has been ap proved by users Relations between Contractor and Client The importance of compatibility may be reminiscent of matchmakers and mar riage The developer client relationship like marriage requires commitment hard work and dedication in order to survive the inevitable spats and conflicts A long term relationship can bring benefits to both parties that
73. approval of various project milestones unless something changes If you re concerned about future ap provals you should raise the issue with your contact person Long Term Relationship Once a website has been developed the natural course of events is for the origi nal developer to handle revisions of the site The original developer already un derstands the development tools data and programming for the site and therefore is best able to efficiently make necessary changes Although internal staff may handle modest content changes to the site original developers tend to maintain websites into the future Conflicts such as personality clashes business concerns and miscommunication can strain the relationship This uneasy mar riage creates a situation with significant potential for built in conflict Some times a client might feel they are in an inescapable relationship with a developer Or a developer may feel underpaid or unappreciated for their creative efforts If a mutually beneficial win win relationship is cultivated from the beginning a project will have a much better chance of long term success Contractors and Clients 97 In an external development situation the client often provides content and conceptual design input with the vendor detailing the design and producing the site including programming and hammering out technical issues Various other aspects such as data formatting graphic artwork and testing
74. aration using internal com Contractors and Clients 89 pany source files internal personnel will probably be faster and more experi enced at working with the data than an external developer who would be work ing with the data for the first time Conversely a key skill for the project such as Java programming may not be available internally Outside developers quotes that are not fixed bids should be closely man aged Enhancements or other changes can quickly escalate costs Another issue is future updates The most convenient way to produce an update is to go back to the original developer On the other hand external developers can be much less expensive in some situations Internal managers must consider the big picture When time is crucial or when internal personnel do not have the skill or experience to do the job effi ciently external development may cost less In addition an internal project man ager can often apply pressure on an external developer more effectively than on internal staff especially when that staff is located in another manager s depart ment such as the internal Information Technology department which brings up the issue of control Control Developing the website in house lends the maximum control over how the proj ect is executed The development personnel are company employees and can be monitored closely if necessary The project manager has great flexibility in how resources are applied In a
75. arger and more complex with features Having made three full circuits this project would have gone through three versions i e prototype Beta and final This chapter describes the following three phases of design development 1 Menu tree diagram 2 Skeleton framework 3 Home page and motif WHAT IS DESIGN Be careful about the word design as used in website development Upon hearing the word clients may conjure the image of the artist or graphic designer at work creating computer graphics rich background textures and animated buttons namely the visual design and layout The look and feel of your site is essential in 112 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide achieving your goal however the visual design is only one aspect of the web site design and although important could also be called the finishing touches Visual design communicates your concept but it doesn t make your website work A more representative image of design in the context of the Web is the ar chitect In fact the title information architect is being increasingly used in Web development organizations The architect is both artist and engineer He or she is sensitive to how people use the building moving from room to room within it The architect considers both form and function envisioning what makes sense in the lives and practices of the people who will move within He or she also looks at the mechanical systems of the bui
76. ask can be speeded up considerably by hiring the right programmer or slowed down a sim ilar amount by adding several inappropriate programmers Occasionally the fastest way to complete the project is not to change any thing Even though progress may appear to be going exceedingly slowly main taining the existing situation may be the most efficient option Task The task refers to exactly what is being built Task expresses the scope of the work to be performed the magnitude complexity and design of the project For a web site this consists of the site design including quantity of content and program matic features This definition of the end product determines the number of people necessary to produce the site the skills they must have the kind of equip ment they will need and how long it will take them to complete the first version of the site For example all else being equal a Web presence consisting of six pages with a basic design takes less time and fewer resources than a database driven searchable informational site with e commerce capabilities Resources Resources refers to the funding for the project and all that it purchases in terms of people s time and services materials and equipment In general more fund ing enables a faster development schedule time or a more complex higher qual ity site however as noted earlier if a project has fallen behind schedule adding resources people and money does not al
77. assigned tasks A dedicated full time team assigned for the duration of the project is the ideal arrangement for managing staff Only then can you avoid the resource con tention that often occurs in less optimal situations This full time team arrange ment has other benefits including stable budgeting decreased administrative time tracking hours on each project and increased individual commitment to the project however a full time team assignment is often not possible The realities of business and production department workloads often limit the availability of key personnel such as skilled programmers and talented artists In such situa tions you can identify the risk to the schedule and quality of work and inform management of it DELIVERING ON TIME When it becomes apparent that a project with a fixed deadline is running behind schedule sometimes the only way of getting it back on schedule is to add re sources or decrease the magnitude of the project This decision should be made as early as possible to maximize the benefit Removing features is pointless if they have already been programmed and tested in fact removing features in the later stages of a project may actually increase the amount of work to be performed however if a feature is yet to be programmed data has not been prepared and the feature does not affect any screen layouts or graphics removing it from the design could reduce the workload significantly and help bring
78. ate for a website project The project manager usually needs to go to some body else in the organization to gain approval and a set budget for the project Generally budgets are developed at the departmental level as part of the ongo ing fiscal year cycle After review of proposed organization wide budgets the upper management team ultimately sets the final budget Such layers of approval encourage fiscal responsibility and serve as a sys tem of checks and balances but the process can also create problems Not only can innocent misunderstanding and miscommunications arise but budgeting can also fall prey to interdepartmental competition For example if the financial de partment is competing with the production department for visibility or control budgeting can be a potent weapon in that struggle Estimating Costs 45 Dynamic versus Static Accurate cost estimating is a dynamic iterative process Not until the latter part of the design process is a truly valid estimate possible Without a fairly complete design specification a cost estimate is mostly guesswork because the website task is undefined The clearer the definition the more accurate the estimate As the project progresses and more actual specifications enter the equation the esti mates become more accurate As the design progresses the estimate becomes yet more accurate Budgets on the other hand are usually set early in the development process sometimes as a preconditi
79. ated graphics as shown on next page 174 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Template Number of pages Winding Trails home page About Winding Trails page Publishing with Winding Trails page Reading Trails home page Writer s page Writer s templates Inside the Covers Category templates Beyond the Book page Beyond the Book 2 templates Editor s Shelves page Editor s Shelves 2 templates BP Nne N eN eN PRP BPH Search page Total 17 pages Personnel The graphic artist to be assigned to this project is Steve Tilson an experienced Web designer with more than 10 years of experience designing graphics for interactive and multimedia applications including the NCC Online Store He also designed websites for WKRP Radio BigBiz Studios and numerous corporate intranet sites In addition to Web and multimedia design his background includes design and graphics for print and video Skills include many graphics and Web development tools including Adobe Photoshop Illustrator Dreamweaver HTML authoring Debabelizer and more Process Our first goal will be to establish a visually appealing design treatment look and feel for the website to serve as a basis for individual screen layouts Twin Oaks Development will present Winding Trails with a selection of three alternative ini tial design treatments from which Winding Trails may choose their preference and provide feedback for m
80. ation and hire a vendor to the site thinking that once development is completed they can handle the more modest requirements of maintaining the site While surely the mainte nance is a less intensive process than the development of the site it is slow steady ongoing and not going away It must somehow get done Therefore the process must be institutionalized into the work of the organization If you hear vague plans like so and so will take care of things during their downtime you can be sure nothing will happen The maintenance plan therefore begins in the following predictable fashion 1 Task Define the task What are the expectations for new content What maintenance or updating tasks will need to be done How will the site performance be monitored and tested 2 Time What are the schedule and cycles for maintenance What tasks will need to be done daily Weekly Monthly 3 Resources What is the budget for maintenance Who will be assigned to do it Do they have the skills What other obligations do they have How much of their time can be dedicated to the website Going Live and Beyond 163 Maintenance falls into the following two general areas technical and con tent The technical issues of maintenance are essentially an extension of the test ing process Yes more testing Did you think you were finished testing Hint You re never done testing When new content and features are added or when changes are made to s
81. ation uses 120 marketing uses 164 End product 3 Enhancements 165 166 Equipment 68 Errors See Defects Executive summary 69 Extranet 22 23f Index 189 Feature creep 35 Features amount of 34 35 analysis of 55 56 62 costing of 50 51 removal of 30 testing of 148 time factor and 64f Feedback cost estimate 48 design 126 127 methods of obtaining 59 60 user 59 60 126 127 File formats 16 File transfer protocols 12 13 Fire drills 37 Flat fee quote 101 102 Flipping the switch 154 157 160 162 Focus groups 59 60 FTP 12 15 16 Functional area approach 74 Functional design 112 115 116 Functionality testing 147 149 Gantt chart 31 32 34f 65 GIF 16 Going live 154 160 162 Graphic artist 80 Home page 24 Hosting data site 24 25 decision making considerations 26 light site 24 outsourcing vs in house 24 personal home page 24 scenarios for 157 159 Hypertext markup language HTML 16 27 28 Hypertext transfer protocol HTTP 12 15 Information architect 118 119 In house development 85 92 In house hosting 24 In house server site 25 Integrated product and process development IPPD 179 185 Integration testing 148 Internal cluster 25 190 Index Internet intranet vs 22 23f protocol layers of 12 13 153 154 Internet Explorer 16 27 Internet service provider 24 25 154 Interviewing of users 60 61 Intranet 22 23f IP 12 13 17 18 JavaScrip
82. ational test Figure App 3 2 displays anticipated Serial Cost of High Approach Change High L1 a a IPPD D D g Approach I P a c D 2 8 2 2 a 5 fol 2 Z Low Low Conceptualization Test and Support and Design Production TIME Figure App 3 2 Traditional serial approach versus IPPD Integrated Product and Process Development 185 design changes resulting from IPPD implementation versus traditional serial acquisition approach overlaid on a curve of relative cost of making changes In a traditional approach the most changes occur late in development when change costs are high re sulting in higher program costs In an IPPD process most changes occur early in devel opment when change costs are low resulting in lower program costs The traditional acquisition approach involved each specialist group completing its work in isolation and then passing results on to the next specialist group This serial ap proach has resulted in stovepipe competition for organizational rewards It establishes walls between organizations with resulting inefficiency and ineffectiveness including a lack of networking and interfunctional communication Use of IPPD and IPTs is the antithesis of the traditional approach The central notion is that product quality and user satisfaction can best be achieved by the integrated con current design of the product and its processes For example in IPPD future process re quirements are ide
83. ay meant to provide everything you need to know First everything you need to know is changing constantly No matter what your career if you ve decided you know it all then you might as well hang it up In few fields is that adage truer than in website development Opportuni ties for learning about website development abound whether networking with colleagues enrolling in workshops or experimenting with new technology on your own Unless you want your career in website development to last the proverbial nanosecond keep learning This chapter has surveyed the field but it s up to you to dig in Scheduling To schedule the workflow on a project you need to do the following e Identify as many of the individual tasks as possible e Place them in a logical sequence e Identify the dependencies i e tasks that depend on the completion of other tasks Only then should you start scheduling those tasks The resulting workplan should include as many of the tasks as possible not only software development tasks but the production of related print audio and video materials as well Content and software development processes are interdependent and must be coordinated Although you should attempt to make the initial workplan as accurate as possible do not imagine that it will remain unchanged for long Workplans are in a constant state of flux Managing and updating the workplan to account for the reality of the project workflow is an
84. ay slip If this actually happens during the proj ect you will be able to go back to the workplan and point out this assumption to which everyone agreed and approved It is worthwhile to try to identify as many important assumptions as you can in order to gain agreement that they are valid assumptions and to make sure the risk is shared by all involved rather than just yourself Executive Summary Finally it is often worthwhile to include an executive summary of the project analysis in the first few pages of the document The full analysis usually contains several levels of detail more than an executive may want for an overview of the project The executive summary should be concise and no longer than a page A brief summary is much more likely to be read and the workplan considered and acted upon Workplan Outline Here is a boilerplate outline for a workplan I Overview Executive Summary who what where when and how without jargon in one page Goals and Objectives Marketing Considerations Effect on Existing Business Maintainability Special Issues Il Task A Requirements Specification B Design Specification C Quantitative Evaluation 1 Content to produce or purchase a Photos b Text c Other graphics sound video 2 Data to produce or purchase a Databases gt Hmn 70 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide b Data files c Other Ill Time A Milestones Defined B Mil
85. ben efits the project and those associated with it For example if a company needs a database driven website right away but has never developed or managed a Web database it s a good idea to use an external website developer Ideally internal people will be involved as much as possible in the development process so they Il be prepared to take on a more active role in the future Cost A common misconception is that developing a website internally is cheaper than going outside Theoretically a project requires the same resources whether it s developed internally or externally Therefore given overhead and internal billing rates costs should be comparable Arguably with all else being equal the development cost actually would be lower for in house development because only true development costs would be charged with presumably no profit margin added Although the accounting practices of the company may require transfer payment between departments in volved in development of the site these costs would be lower than what an out side developer would charge Of course all else is never equal An organization s overhead charges may in fact exceed what an efficient outside developer builds in as a profit margin In house skillsets may not match those available outside Normal job responsibilities of staff may make them efficient with certain tasks of the website development project For example if a project requires data prep
86. catalog makes good use of the computer capabilities to do things that can t be done in print however such as running promotional banners and letting customers sort through massive amounts of product it might be worth doing online because it would pay off in increased sales In summary there must be a compelling reason to create a website as op posed to accomplishing the same purpose in another more traditional medium such as video or print The creative design grows from that raison d tre You should strive to remain objective during the process of gathering user requirements Regardless of how well things may seem to be going you should take everything you hear with the proverbial grain of salt Potential users are rarely experienced Web designers and often cannot accurately envision the site being described Therefore their responses may be clouded by wishful thinking or simple misunderstandings Even experienced designers can have difficulty ac curately envisioning a site design from a printed description In addition other factors may color subjects responses such as perceived benefits from positive re sponses or some other hidden agenda 62 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide During the analysis get input from as many interested parties as possible When discussing the idea of designing a public website it is essential to get input and support from those responsible for marketing Likewise you should
87. cate all sug gested changes to the workplan to the project manager for prioritizing Direct contact between the client and production people as well intentioned or innocent as it might be can become a problem Figure 9 1 The danger is a short circuit to the flow of information The project manager should give close attention to changes considering the impact of each on the budget and schedule as well as ripple effects on other aspects of the project If the project manager doesn t hear of a change others who need to know will be left out of the loop The result will be a communication breakdown While planning the production process the project manager is also keeping the end goal in mind Before going live the website will be handed off to the client or to the client s outsourced hosting service During the course of devel opment the project manager should be preparing for a clean handoff The client s technology team needs to be informed of the technical specifications of the site Artist Not Recommended _ i Page Author rail gt Project Project Team Writer Editor Tester Figure 9 1 Preferred channels of communication It is not recommended for a team member to communicate directly with a client without including the project manager Build Out and Production 131 Their servers should be running identical versions of any software employed in the Web development efforts If
88. ccessful website project To search out this common ground contractors and clients can benefit from understanding one another s perceptions and motivations regarding the website project This chapter explores both perspectives CONSIDERATIONS IN THE INSIDE OUTSIDE MIX The decision about whether to produce a project internally or externally is an im portant one that merits thorough consideration of many issues A sound place to begin is with the three dimensions of project management time task and re sources The project needs within the context of the organization s overriding Web strategy should guide the decision A company getting ready to launch its first website will probably opt for a significant amount of assistance from an outside development firm Once the site is up and running maintenance duties can usually transfer to the client often with the ongoing assistance of the original development firm Internal personnel often maintain and develop intranet websites which run on a company s private network but this function can also be outsourced Most commonly a hybrid ap proach is used in which some aspects are handled by the client some by the de veloper and some cooperatively as shown in Figure 7 1 We ll compare inside versus outside development in the following areas e Expertise e Cost e Control e Teamwork e Time and scheduling e Investment and core functions Table 7 1 provides a quick overview of the
89. ch to fit the display A maximized browser window may show a different page view than if the window is only partially open In ad dition users may have different color settings on their machines A photo will ap pear to be of much lesser quality to a user with a monitor color setting at only 256 compared to 16 million colors Needless to say all of these variations cause designers to lay awake at night You should test the layout of your pages when viewed by a representative sam ple of various display configurations The results may surprise you Load Testing If you are expecting heavy usage of your website you need to know if your server and Web connection are capable of handling the load Testing such capa bilities is called load testing Load testing simulates the anticipated stress of the ac tual site usage to see if the system has any weak links Load testing is not usually conducted on a development server which is not the final platform for the site Rather it is reserved for the production server before the site goes live In load testing automated tools continually hit the site to simulate the ef fect of numerous users Such testing is especially important if your site depends 150 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide on a lot of backend server processing such as a heavily database driven site be cause the server needs to perform extensive processing for each new page that s generated If the
90. chart regard to schedule Generally this initial blue sky PERT chart generates a pro jected release date that is well beyond the project deadline The chart then be comes a tool that promotes creativity and research to identify ways to shorten the schedule and still get the work done Once the PERT chart realistically shows the development tasks and the sequence of events required to achieve the dead line you can use the Gantt chart to track the completion of these tasks By using the PERT chart as the primary interface for the workplan and the Gantt chart for tracking you can maintain a global perspective on the project You will see the ripple effect of various plans where scheduling conflicts arise and where the crit ical path is at any given point Some people however find it easier to work with the Gantt chart as the primary interface Whatever method you feel most com fortable using to schedule tasks is probably the best way for you to operate Bells and Whistles Diminishing Returns The sheer volume and complexity of features in project management software can intimidate new users contributing to a lack of acceptance by some project Scheduling 35 managers Packed with advanced sometimes marginally useful features soft ware offers dozens of reports and charts showing resource allocation conflicts in corporating subprojects and tracking almost every conceivable variable a project has to offer This proliferation of
91. ck it often enough to allow live bookings Other features were also examined and found to be overly ambitious We adjusted the site design to the new reality reducing the estimated cost by 55 56 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide more than 75 percent The client was able to build a satisfactory site at a very rea sonable price and use the remainder of the budget for marketing the site an as pect that was given lesser priority in the original concept By examining the concept in this way you can gain such benefits as e prioritizing and modifying features e generating significant cost savings e reducing risk e increasing understanding of the target market On the other hand sometimes ideas that at first glance seem suspect turn out after further investigation to be ideal candidates for development For ex ample offering users free e mail would seem to be a losing proposition however Hotmail was able to achieve tremendous success with such a strategy Consider other unusual websites and services such as online auctions and reverse auc tions free hit counters and other Web based services that have proven to be successful business models Some of the most successful website businesses rep resent a conceptual shift from existing business models Perhaps the most per suasive argument is the necessity of websites to keep up with business competition or the greater efficiencies of communication and transactio
92. cult to objectively compare the work of various programmers In addition programming is a solitary activity the only way to ob serve it is to inspect the code itself which can be costly labor intensive and highly subjective Another way to assess a programmer s performance keeping meticulous records of the number of errors found through testing the code re quires a significant and ongoing investment In larger software projects that involve a dozen or more programmers in dividual variations in productivity among programmers start canceling out to ward an industry average however most Websites are programmed by just a few individuals usually six or fewer and often just one or two Therefore the possibility of accurately estimating the cost and time necessary to develop a 48 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide website is inherently limited If you can maintain a stable programming staff rather than bringing in different programmers for each new project however at least you are dealing with a known entity and the chances of estimating more ac curately are better Cost of Content Website cost estimates can be even more problematic than genetic software cost estimating because of all the content rights and permissions issues of publishing on the Web The rights to use photographs for example may be free in some cases but may have to be purchased for hundreds of dollars apiece in others Ad ditionally
93. d emphasis on IPPD at the beginning of the development process impacts the product process funding profile as shown in Figure App 3 2 Specifically funding profiles based on historical data may not be appropriate Some additional funds may be required in the early phases but the unit costs as well as total life cycle costs should be reduced This will be primar ily the result of reduced design or engineering changes reduced time to deliver the system and the use of tradeoff analyses to define cost effective solutions e Reduced risk Upfront team planning and understanding of technologies and product processes permits better understanding of risk and how it impacts cost schedule and performance This understanding can result in methods or pro cesses for reducing or mitigating assumed risks and establishing realistic cost performance and schedule objectives e Improved quality Teamwork coupled with a desire for continuous improvement results in improved quality of the processes and a quality product for the user This Page Intentionally Left Blank Index Page numbers followed by f denote figures those followed by t denote tables Addresses 13 Agreement website development description of 102 103 payment based on completed milestones 104 Analysis phase See also Workplan competition assessments 61 62 criteria for success 57 goals of 55 71 72 ideas for project 57 58 questions to ask during 72 reasons f
94. d from the start Independent devel opers and outsourcing managers alike must learn to recognize trouble before they sign the agreement The close working relationship necessary between the client and developer will flush out even the smallest incompatibilities before long Incompatibility may be in the form of a developer s lack of experience with developing a type of website or with using required tools The client may have chosen the developer based solely on price or on marketing image Here the importance for clear communication on requirements and needs of the website is evident Sometimes the problem is a simple clash of cultures Every company has its own procedures attitudes and codes of behavior and dress collectively referred to as the corporate culture Small website developers also have their own cul ture Differences may be so pronounced that they seriously impair the working relationship Imagine the conservative banking institution that hires an offbeat Web developer partial to body piercing This extreme example of drastically con flicting fashion may seem trivial however difference in styles whether in dress or work habits can easily overpower the basic communications about the project and lead to misunderstandings The clash does not have to be as monolithic as corporate cultures Rapport among the key representatives of the client and developer teams is also impor tant Personality and chemistry is worth paying atte
95. dding new products deleting old ones and changing prices or posting new promotions Those closest to these marketing and product decisions are probably not database experts however user friendly interfaces simplify the process Using standard browser software authorized staff can ac cess Web pages set up to edit records in the database through text based form fields pulldown lists and dialog boxes With appropriate security and authenti cation processes in place staff or contractors can maintain the site from any loca tion connected to the Internet Figure 9 3 Online content development is a powerful tool With some upfront invest ment you gain tremendous scalability with database driven websites which is truly a strategic asset in today s Web marketplace 136 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide In House Development Development Team Production reer G Server Data Analyst Figure 9 3 Content editor or data analyst posting new content to live website on production server A Online content development posting content by using a Web page interface B Offline content development posting content by copying data directly to server and database PROGRAMMING If you re managing a database driven site you will need some software engi neering to make it all work As the functionality of websites has grown beyond basic HTML with JavaScript and plug ins for multimedia it s fair to say
96. ddition if the development is done in house then pre sumably the maintenance can be done in house as well In a situation in which the Web project has great strategic importance and qualified technical personnel are on staff in house maintenance is the safest method Also if the team is com posed of company employees the project manager can better encourage and re ward the commitment and loyalty of the development team The issue of control however is not always cut and dry When working with an external developer a company relinquishes some degree of control over the project An external developer usually works off site and is therefore a more independent entity In an external development arrange ment the resources are essentially guaranteed by the developer When project milestones trigger payments the developer is motivated to deliver and the client has the leverage of withholding payment Because many small developers run their businesses virtually from payment to payment withholding a payment pending milestone approval usually provides sufficient motivation to meet the milestone dates and specifications to the best of the developer s abilities An internal project will also be more vulnerable to internal political maneu vering When authority is unclear in an organization or when the project involves people from different departments as is often the case with website develop ment in house production does not lend the amount o
97. dicated Server Web Farm Clustered Servers Technologies of the Web 27 WEB BROWSERS AND PLUG INS The Internet is a grand network of clients and servers On the World Wide Web the key applications on the client end are the browsers and plug ins The playing field of browsers has now been essentially eliminated to the big two Netscape and Internet Explorer however Web users might be using any version of these two browsers Website project managers will want to determine or at least make some good guesses about the browser and version of choice for their users be cause it will factor into development decisions Browsers display a series of file formats and run certain kinds of programs that are referred to as Web native be cause no additional technologies are needed Examples of these programs are HTML JPEG GIF JavaScript and Java Browsers can also display media and program types that are not Web native but they need some help Plug ins which are essentially mini programs that are compatible with browsers provide special instructions on how to display certain file types When the browser encounters an unfamiliar file format it checks its plug ins for instructions on handling it Common plug ins include the following Adobe Acrobat Reader Displays PDF files high quality printable documents that retain formatting and fonts for the same look of the printed page across platforms Macromedia Shockwave Runs Director Flash and
98. directories and anyone who might possibly link to your site Websites inherently collect loads of data about users Through Web logs and software to manage them you can analyze your users activities in many ways In so doing you can collect data that help you improve the design and technical performance of the website Aside from such usage data website functions may be based on data col lection For instance many companies are experimenting with e mail marketing as a low cost method to communicate with customers Most are based on an opt in method Users identify themselves as wanting to receive future messages or information about the company Many sites offer a free e mail newsletter or alerts to new content on the site which is an example of opt in marketing The foun dation of this marketing tactic is collection of data from the customer Through the software of the Web the customer is creating or updating records on a back Going Live and Beyond 165 end database The company must extract this data in order to market and it may have other uses that extend further than the specific request During the analysis and design phases you made decisions about what data would be collected To be effective these strategies depend on successful integration of that data into the organization s operations For example if you collect the e mail addresses of website visitors then you might as well be doing something with them
99. duction and testing are roughly equal within a particular application as follows Analysis and Design e g initial design prototyping usability revisions 33 of project time Development e g programming content development debugging 33 of project time Testing e g bug testing final user testing compatibility testing 33 of project time An application that takes one year to develop will probably take roughly four months to design four months to produce program and data preparation and four months to test and debug This may seem a disproportionately large per centage of project time for design and testing but in practice this rough rule of 36 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide thirds seems to hold across various applications whether they are scheduled that way or not This rule is not a bad way to quickly estimate the overall time for project completion and set some useful parameters For example if a website must launch in six months you can plan to spend two months in design two in development and two more in testing With two months to design a website that can be devel oped in two months you ve set some constraints on the site s complexity In validation of these allotments project personnel commonly regret that more time was not spent upfront in the analysis and planning stage The simple reason for spending more time thinking through interface issues designing pre l
100. e simply rename real home page with same name as dummy page copy over the dummy page with the real home page Going Live and Beyond 157 O a ae a a Web Internet Domain Host Home Surfer Name ie Server Page Password Protection Figure 11 4 Website under construction with password protection limiting access Password protection can be removed at any time to make site go live Another way to hide your site while in final preparations is to break the link between the domain name server 3 and the IP number 4 as in the first exam ple In this situation you can build your website online but no one can get to it unless they happen to know the IP number When you re ready to go live you simply instruct your ISP to establish the connection between your domain name and the IP number The main goal is to have your site working in the real online environment and fully tested and to have an easy and immediate way to establish the connec tion i e flip the switch A very convenient way to do this is through pass word protection Figure 11 4 This method actually builds your site online in exactly the position it will remain which is ideal for development and testing Anyone who knows the password can get to it for testing and viewing purposes Once you are ready to go live you simply remove the password protection and you re open to the public HOSTING SCENARIOS Your development server and your production ser
101. e Un fortunately as much as you try to anticipate it s hard to foresee exactly what problems will arise Don t panic or be discouraged when problems occur All you can do is gather the force to respond to whatever arises You better hold off on your launch celebrations for a while Problems come in the following four varieties 1 content errors 2 technical problems 3 user interface problems 4 back office problems Content errors are problems with the information provided on the site including inaccuracies outdated information graphics and so forth anything that is working correctly but is not providing the correct information or display Technical problems are self explanatory and depend on the kind of tech nology being used by your site Any kind of technology in use on your site is a potential candidate for technical problems including things you would not think of until they happen e g database problems server problems domain name problems case sensitivity on UNIX Although you don t know what exactly may come your way you can still prepare for it Your technical lead should be re sponsible for assembling a quick response team Requirements for the size of the team and its collective skillset depend on the site itself Once again the technical specification can guide your planning here User interface problems are those that users encounter while finding their way around and using the features on your site It
102. e in creating a database driven Web based catalog you may simply extract text and photos from a print catalog format them appropriately and add them to the necessary database Other common kinds of data prepara tion include HTML text conversion picture file format conversion and audio digitizing Another element of the data analyst s job is to control and oversee the data He or she needs to archive data follow and enforce file naming conventions and update new versions of data On a large project this responsibility can become a significant task and requires an individual with good organizational abilities or even several individuals working as a subteam Referring to pictures and text as content and data may annoy some artists producers and writers but these terms express the software centric per spective of the development process that is essential Although you may think in these terms to expedite the development process in actual conversation with artists writers and so on it may be more tactful to avoid using them out of re spect to the creators Software Tester Testing is crucial and can be a complex task With exceptional attention to detail and a high level of creativity testers find and isolate defects and errors that may be mysterious in their occurrence and effects for instance problems in one browser or not another or in a certain version of a browser with features acti vated or turned off at differ
103. e keeping the site style consistent Figures 8 7 through 8 9 124 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Z Untitled Document Microsoft Internet Explorer Ele Edit View Favorites Tools Help Links lBest of the Web Channel Guide 7 ge 3 l A Q G 3 By Back onward Stop Refresh Horne Search Favorites History Mail Print Address f Dassemblysite arnieant2 htm Go School Assemblies Guide Home Page Return to Animal Act page Arnie s Ant Farm contact Amie Arnold 12345 Patio Road Anthill Chicago 60606 Ny Phone 800 xxx xxxx that s 1 800 ANT We provide the most exciting informative ant farm entertainment available suitable for children of all ages Come see the worker ants queen ant and pupae See them milk aphids and fight termites Fun for the whole school BYOMG Bring your own magnifying glass Questions about the acts Want to get your act listed Suggestions Comments Feedback School Assemblies Guide address phone or email us EJ My Computer Figure 8 6 Example of skeleton framework Detail page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc Ideally your artist will also have Web authoring skills so that the graphic designs are more easily converted to Web pages Designing for the Web raises many issues that people working in the more controlled environment of print may n
104. e accounting department di rectly developers should discuss this approach with the in house contact and ob tain consent Otherwise the developer risks alienating the client contact if it is perceived that the developer is going around the contact directly to the account ing department Contractors and Clients 107 WIN WIN The focus of this chapter has been relations between client organizations and de velopment firms It is important to remember that the principles of project man agement apply in both settings Business gurus have used the phrase internal customers to describe relations within an organization If you are managing an in house development project you should treat colleagues commissioning the project like customers If you are an internal team leader who is working with an outside development company remember that you have not absolved yourself of project management responsibilities but rather delegated the bulk of the details Issues such as agreements schedules budgets approvals and payments still de mand your time and attention Project managers in development firms often find themselves on both sides of the contractor client relationship Portions of the website development such as graphic design or writing may very well be farmed out to freelancers The golden rule still applies Treat the other party as you would like to be treated For a win win partnership dedicate yourself to clear communication re
105. e all at once You can obtain some good real life data on the site quickly before prioritizing features for following work Concurrent Tasks Finally one of the most useful strategies at the project manager s disposal is to constantly maximize the amount of work that can be done concurrently on a proj ect If you are watchful and creative you can find ways to get people started on tasks sooner than originally planned For example a programmer who has been included early in the design process may know enough to start laying out the basic software architecture Scheduling 41 even before a final functional design has been approved Data preparation people can immediately start producing sample data to work out the details of their file conversion processes rather than waiting for some arbitrary date to get started Most projects present dozens of such opportunities It is up to the project man ager to recognize them and respond creatively to keep a project running on schedule Planning and scheduling website production is as much art as science re quiring both intuition and analytical skills If you can obtain the resources neces sary to do the job and apply them efficiently you will be well prepared to deliver high quality products on time This Page Intentionally Left Blank Estimating Costs Website development costs are notoriously difficult to estimate Cost overruns usually result from unknowns inherent in the software d
106. e func tional area production process because each step is well defined and the current product varies little in form and format from previous products Likewise print publishing lends itself well to a functional area approach be cause the work must proceed by a well defined linear path i e writing editing copyediting layout proofing Everyone is a specialist and can do his or her job in turn In addition the current product whether book magazine or brochure is usually similar in form to previous products Software in general and a website in particular is unlike other media in this respect Generally a website or software application is the only such project in development or one of only a few unique projects It usually requires a signifi cant amount of design Setting up an assembly line to produce it would result in loss of communication inefficiencies extra cost and most important diminished The Web Development Team 75 product quality Developing a website requires a wide variety of skills from art work to programming to content writing and testing it also requires that the people applying these skills be in almost constant communication Therefore most successful websites are developed by small teams of individuals working almost full time on a given project the team approach BENEFITS OF TEAM WEB DEVELOPMENT Better Communication To make appropriate decisions quickly during the development process you
107. e has to decide where and how to draw the line on defects before releasing a website The main issue is one of priority Defects can be prioritized by severity ob scurity and difficulty to fix If a defect is hard to find and reproduce obscure relatively harmless low severity and hard to fix it is probably low priority On the other hand if it crashes the user s system high severity ina commonly used part of the user interface obvious and is easy to fix it should have high priority By fixing defects in order of priority until a crucial project parameter time or money is reached you can maximize the site s quality If you know the site must go live by a particular date with no chance of al tering that date you obviously need to fix the highest priority defects first One way to establish priority is to assign a severity level difficulty level and obscu rity level to each defect and then multiply those numbers For example defects can be ranked on the basis of severity from 1 to 10 1 most serious 10 least serious Then they can be ranked by expected difficulty 1 easiest to fix 10 hardest to fix Then assign each an obscurity ranking 1 most obvious 10 least obvious When these numbers are multiplied together the items with the lowest total are the most serious most obvious and easiest to fix and should be started on immediately The items with the highest numbers are the least seri ous least obvious
108. e produced and a minimum of design work is needed Each specialist can apply his or her trade as efficiently as possible with a minimum of interaction among specialists The team approach is more appropriate when the organization develops a few distinctive skills especially when a significant amount of design work is in volved For new products in which a lot of interaction among specialists is re quired a team approach is better suited The more products and the more similar they are the better suited is the assembly line The fewer products and the more different they are the better suited is the team approach Website development usually benefits strongly from the team approach The team approach may seem counterintuitive to those previously experi enced in producing other kinds of media like video or print Typically a video production moves from the scriptwriter to the director to a shooting crew to a postproduction facility all under the watchful eye of the producer whose re sponsibility it is to make sure the project comes in within the budget and on schedule Often the video is one of several or many similar videos being pro duced perhaps as part of a video series or as an installment in an ongoing effort such as a video magazine A series of 20 videotapes can be produced by setting up an assembly line and then moving the work through the process in a steady stream This type of product can move easily and efficiently through th
109. e programmer who is placing graphics programming the simulations and performing software testing This heavy individual responsibil ity represents a substantial bottleneck Perhaps another programmer could create and place graphics and another could test the simulations once they are pro grammed thereby widening the bottleneck Crises Websites tend to be prone to crises for the following reasons 1 As software projects they are subject to the many unknowns inherent to the invention or development process 2 Cultural differences among team members from different disciplines e g programming writing art and design network technology sys tems analysis can lead to miscommunication and other management difficulties 3 Team members new to website development projects must climb a steep learning curve which slows down the process and leaves you vulnera ble to mistakes Crises can usually be identified by a significant shortfall in two of the three proj ect factors For example if your deadline is only one week away time and your 8 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide programmer just quit resources then the project is probably in a crisis even with a reduced feature set Or if you have implemented only half the features task and the budget is exhausted resources you have another kind of crisis on your hands The way to deal with a crisis is to break down the project factors identify the m
110. e same place on the screens they will quickly learn how to move around in the site Without consis tency users feel lost and disoriented Unless you have content or services they badly need they will correct the situation by leaving your site Also graphics on the pages should offer visual cues that orient people The popular directory Yahoo does this explicitly by placing at the top of the page the now familiar text line showing the hierarchical path that has led to the open page A common tech nique is to change the color on the label of the navigation bar for the section of the site the user is currently in These design principles do not apply only to navigation In general graph ics and their placement should be consistent across the site although certain banners buttons and controls will be specific to individual pages Users will come to look for these common buttons in a standard place Use of colors and text labels should also be consistent Of course the drive for consistency makes the graphic artist s life easier too Who wants to create 100 different designs for 132 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide individual pages If the navigation bar and other design elements are consis tently placed designing the rest of the pages is usually a fairly straightforward task Authoring tools make the job easier The World Wide Web Consortium W3C has developed a standard called cascading style sheets CSS tha
111. ecause of the complexity of the code With such a test plan all the testers can be sure of trying most if not all features and functions in the program Without such a framework testing is merely a hit or miss exercise relying on the skill and luck of individual testers Even with a test framework however the challenge in testing is to find defects that exhibit themselves only in certain situations For example the search function in an online catalog may work fine search ing the product name field by a single word But when the user conducts a multiple word search on the product descriptions the program does not retrieve known matches In such a situation the tester can start creating hypotheses to test and identify the fewest actions necessary to exhibit the defect as follows e It may work with two words but not three e It may work in the product name filed but not in the product description e It may find only some records but not all e It may depend on the length of the word being searched for Using structured testing methods a creative software tester can find a poten tially serious problem then give programmers helpful feedback and clues for fixing it Mere trial and error testing by people with little software testing experience may not identify the problem at all If these testers do happen to stum ble across a problem they may not be able to reproduce it later It is unlikely they will reproduce it in the fewest p
112. ective Websites A Project Manager s Guide levels Capabilities should be provided to share technical industrial and business infor mation throughout the product development and deployment life cycle through the use of acquisition and support shared information systems and software tools including models for accessing exchanging validating and viewing information Proactive Identification and Risk Management Critical cost schedule and technical parameters related to system characteristics should be identified from risk analyses and user requirements Technical and business perfor mance measurement plans with appropriate metrics should be developed and compared to best in class government and industry benchmarks to provide continuing verification of the effectiveness and degree of anticipated and actual achievement of technical and business parameters EXPECTED BENEFITS OF IPPD Applying the IPPD management philosophy can result in significant benefits to the cus tomer DoD and industry The primary benefits are reduced cost and schedule while maintaining and often increasing quality Essentially a more balanced tradeoff is achieved among cost schedule and performance These gains are realized by the early in tegration of business contracting manufacturing test training and support considera tions in the design process resulting in fewer costly changes made later in the process e g during full rate production or oper
113. ed 11 22 Tue 12 5 00 _ Mon 12 25 00 uve 12 5 00 Wed 12 6 00 Te 1 9 01 Wed 1 22 01 Prepare Data Populate Database 15 w 18 iw Tue 12 26 00 Mon 1 22 01 Tue 1 23 01 Mon 1 29 01 Figure 3 1 Sample PERT chart 34 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide November December January February ID Task Name Duration 10 29 11 5 11 12711 19f11726 12 3 12 10 1 2 171 2 24 2731 1 7 1 14 1 21 1 28 2 4 2 11 2 18 1_ Start Project Od amp 11 2 3 2 Needs Assessment lw C 3 Start Designing Site Od gt 11 8 4 Prototype lw 5 Visual Design lw 6 Technical Design lw zz 7 Design Revisions 3d 8 Design Completed Od gt 11 27 9 Alpha Phase lw sal 10 Produce Content 2w 3 i 11 Program Database 3w 12 Build Pages amp Templates 3w 13 Set Up Hit Counting 2d 14 Editorial Review 3d 15 Prepare Data 4w 16 Beta Phase 2w 17 Launch Publicity Awareness 2w 18 Populate Database lw 10 Testing amp Revisions lw E 20 Go Live od i i i 2 5 21 Standby for Fixes w i i i Task Summary qy Rolled Up Progres C noe inked ae Progress Rolled Up Task Milestone Rolled Up Milestone Page 1 Figure 3 2 Sample Gantt
114. ed the field to a few developers he or she would be satisfied working with it s worth taking a closer look before making the commitment View Previous Work The best way to assess the capabilities of a developer is to view samples of previ ous work A reasonably well qualified developer should have at least a few sam ple sites to show ideally of the same type as yours If the sample is for a different kind of website or isn t of high quality there is little need to continue the discus sion If the work looks good try to find out what parts of the site e g graphics programming page layout this developer did since most Web projects are a col laborative effort Contact References Another way to check out the developer is to talk with previous clients Any rep utable developer will let you contact satisfied clients unless a project was done under nondisclosure for some reason If a developer has no satisfied clients as references let that be a warning Contractors and Clients 99 Visit the Company There is no substitute for actually visiting the developer s worksite First impres sions may not be 100 percent accurate but they are often more correct than not The layout of the offices cleanliness of the environment disposition of the em ployees technical resources decorative taste and company rules and policies can all contribute to a more well rounded impression of the developer Meet the Principals One of t
115. eedback from customers or typical users If you know somebody who loves to Designing and Prototyping 127 E Taw Ieww schoolassemblyguide com aep html Microsoft Internet Explorer Be Edit View Favorites Tools Help line Seat ote Hand it Customize Links 7s 2 9 E E 3 as Fw komad Stop Refresh a Search Favorites ce Mail Print Edit ers comfaep html hd fea AMERICAN T EAGLE T PRODUCTIONS Bridging the Gap between Theater and the Classroom Scott or Linda Slein Categories Performer List ContactUs Home Available for the 2000 2001 Season 21 Done i Intemet yA Figure 8 9 Example of final site design Detail page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Design by JMC Studios lt www jmcstudios com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc shop on the Web and owns more posters than they have places to hang them maybe you want to share the skeletal framework of Campus Posters Inc CONTENT MANAGEMENT Now you have everything in place to begin production Building on the strategic objectives of the website you have developed the functional design technical de sign and user interface and visual design You have developed a couple of proto types that lay the foundation for build out Before actual production begins it is worthwhile to consider the content gathering and creation process Your site probably uses some existi
116. eliable Additionally your future prospects are hurt if word gets around the Web development community that you send out bogus RFPs Finally aside from the ethical questions the very process of requesting proposals and compar ing bids is too costly to pursue unless you are actually going to contract out Obtaining cost estimates from several developers may appear simple at first blush In reality however obtaining reliable and high quality proposals takes a significant investment of the in house manager s time and energy as well The quality of the developer s proposal and estimate depend largely on the quality of the information the in house contact supplies your design requirements The more thorough and well specified those requirements the more accurate a cost estimate will be Creating high quality design requirements is a big effort Even the most complete document will leave many issues unresolved A good devel oper will collect as much information as possible The in house manager must an swer questions discuss options and responsibilities and in effect partner with the developer to create a feasible proposal Soliciting such a proposal from several developers simultaneously can become a full time job Chapter 7 addresses con tractor client relations and the bidding process in greater detail SAMPLE COST ESTIMATES Tables 4 1 and 4 2 represent only a generic estimate for two types of sites and should not be construed as any
117. en Check first with your own manager to validate the relative priority of the request and then contact the requester Perhaps the individual did not realize the amount of work the request entailed or is actually looking for something differ ent than was conveyed by the messenger If you react in a less controlled way perhaps by succumbing to panic or by hastily posting the latest untested pages and files you may find yourself wasting time and emotional reserves It can also be helpful to document the work interruption for future reference in case you miss a deliverable date Measuring Progress Slippage Slippage is one of those intangible factors in a project that seem to constitute an effect without a cause Tasks usually slip because of events beyond your control 38 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide or unforeseeable difficulties in implementation however just because slippage on an individual task is unpredictable does not mean that the overall slippage rate cannot be predicted Slippage must be monitored closely from the beginning because projects that start behind schedule cannot easily catch up By carefully measuring slippage in the beginning stages of a project you can develop and apply a slippage factor across the full project Applying the slippage factor improves the accuracy of your time estimate for completion of later stages For example if a 12 week project has a 4 week design phase scheduled a
118. en expenses It is expensive in terms of indirect costs or opportunity costs that don t find their way to the proj ect development budget however an organization s strategy may dictate that it is essential to grow an in house capability for developing websites An executive could argue that a marketing department that understands the company s mes sage and products should be able to create a website as well as it might im plement a publicity campaign From that perspective the indirect costs of developing the website represent an investment in the company s future One management philosophy is to crystallize the many activities of a com pany down to its core functions Anything that is not a core function can be out sourced Whatever is a core function should be performed or developed in house The scope of the project is also an issue How much does the executive want its marketing department to know Should they be able to develop a database Or is understanding message design and content enough TYPICAL PITFALLS In order to establish and maintain a good working relationship between client companies and the external developer it is helpful to know about some common sources of conflict Contractors and Clients 93 Compatibility One of the most common sources of problems between a client and developer is incompatibility In these cases the first mistake was agreeing to work together at all A working relationship may be doome
119. ent We recall the multimedia craze of the 1980s and early 1990s preceding the Web The word multimedia became a marketing buzzword slapped on just about any product or service thereby losing much of its original meaning Amidst all the glitz and hoopla we thought It s only software The same might be said of the Web Software project management is nothing new and its principles greatly inform the Web development process We refer a couple of times in this book to the software project management classic The Mythical Man Month by Frederick P Brooks Jr Written in 1975 this book is still strongly recommended to the website project manager Brooks spec ulated on why programmers tend to be overly optimistic with scheduling He posits a few hypotheses one of which is that programmers tend to be young and the young tend to be optimistic Although programmers may tend to be young the ones Brooks was writing about aren t The point is that if you can take a larger perspective and look beyond Web hype you will see that Web development is not all uncharted territory Grizzled veterans of software development have blazed some trails for us To an extent the Web is fulfilling its promise of making publishers of us all People in all sorts of organizations find themselves responsible for websites We wrote this book to share the principles of project management and software de velopment with a wider audience As the Internet drives new busi
120. ent is well informed of the effects of delivering content late Schedules should be conditional upon timely delivery of necessary content from the client When problems arise developers can sometimes help with simple matters such as get ting photos digitized or text input with compensation of course As a protection some developers charge an overtime fee if the client s late delivery of content forces extra or unusual hours Not only does the developer benefit from this overtime rate but its existence also sensitizes the client to deadlines Contractors and Clients 105 PAYMENT Clients should do their best to see that developers are paid on a timely basis De velopers for their part should understand that slow payment is an unfortunate fact of life and make their effort to plan for it For example imagine that a developer is scheduled to deliver the Alpha ver sion of the website on January 1 with a term of 30 days for the payment The de veloper assuming that the payment will take two weeks to process which is how long it might take in a small company expects and plans to receive pay ment in mid January In this case though the client takes one week to evaluate the Alpha version and determines that it does not qualify as Alpha The devel oper takes two weeks to correct it by which time it is the end of January The milestone is approved a few days later and the invoice is submitted for pay ment It takes one week to amas
121. ent screen resolutions and so forth If these problems are not discovered internally during the development process and corrected they will be discovered by your users with unpleasant results Testing a website is best assigned to a single individual Various team mem bers may help perform testing especially toward the end of the project but a sin gle knowledgeable tester must coordinate their efforts and usually perform a sizable amount of testing This person writes test plans based on the design spec ifications and implements them with the assistance of others on the project team or outside testing personnel The lead tester is responsible for finding and docu menting all errors including both programmatic errors defects and data errors incorrect content All websites must be tested whether they are five page static websites or complex business to business e commerce sites The larger and more complex the site the more testing is required It is often beneficial to involve several people in The Web Development Team 83 the testing process Different people tend to navigate through a site differently and in so doing find different kinds of errors SHIFTING RESPONSIBILITIES Team members may need to assume many other roles when appropriate to the project Figure 6 2 For example a marketing person is often needed to coordi nate development activities with marketing needs and to protect the interests of the marketing depart
122. erations Therefore the programmer sits at the hub of the process and can be seen as the linchpin of the development process The programmer should have previous experience working in the project s development environment e g NT vs Unix ASP vs Cold Fusion Java JavaScript if possible since the learning curve on some of these technologies can be steep Programming requires the utmost concentration which has ramifications for how the project is managed It is beneficial to physically separate programmers from the rest of the development team each in an individual office if possible The efficiency of a programmer who is subjected to frequent and uncontrolled vis its by other team members will suffer greatly Programmers must also be protected to some extent from the administrative and managerial demands of the project be cause these also represent significant distractions This does not mean that pro grammers should be treated either like prima donnas or techno slaves but merely that it is wise to keep distractions to a minimum to allow them the needed concentration so they can meet their deadlines and avoid making costly mistakes In addition it is advantageous for the programmer to be included as early as possible in the development process and not simply tossed a website design specification and expected to build it If included early in the process the pro grammer may bring many useful insights and suggestions to the fu
123. ere A trusted vendor may in practice offer greater security Response time required The fastest response time is obtained with a direct connection to the Web through an external ISP especially one with a pri mary direct connection to the Internet backbone Development complexity A complex development process benefits from an internal server so you can move files change partitions and hook up data bases locally Although you can achieve these goals with an external con nection it has to be done remotely through software such as PC Anywhere An internal server is a convenience for fast moving development allowing you to work on the server keyboard itself then bring the site live without moving files Cost As the complexity and magnitude of the site increases the external op tions become more expensive relative to internal options however external hosting reduces internal staffing and administration Maintenance can be more efficiently handled by people who do it all the time for many servers For large scale solutions the most economic alternative is often to buy your own equipment and place it in an external Web farm for good connectivity and maintenance A reasonable strategy is to move through the options as your site and its needs expand If you are going to stay external using a provider with the capacity to upgrade service levels as necessary is a good bet Generally this growth follows the path Shared Server De
124. erstanding compared to verbal descriptions In this way the workplan is actually a tool to help those involved develop a common understanding and agreement on what the site will look like what it will do and how development will be accomplished Time The workplan should detail the time factor in particular the development schedule embodied in the PERT and Gantt charts along with descriptions of the milestone tasks and completion dates Analysis and the Project Plan 65 The PERT and Gantt charts are crucial in compiling a development plan be cause not only do they force you to think about the different tasks and the work flow necessary but they also allow this information to be shared and discussed and they graphically depict how you expect the project to unfold They also pro vide a way to document the project s complexity to those who may question the time and cost estimates The schedule is monitored according to milestone delivery dates such as Alpha version delivered These dates provide a way to track progress objec tively and to provide achievable intermediate goals for the development staff to work toward rather than simply some distant final delivery date To make effective use of these milestone dates they must be well defined This action helps management understand in what stages the project will be de veloped and lets development staff focus on what needs to be accomplished to achieve those milestones Incl
125. erver software or to the network you ll need to retest the appropriate areas of the site The most fundamental technical issue is keeping the connection live so your site is online and connected to the Web Sometimes you try to call up your site to test it and there is a problem accessing it You may initially assume that there is a problem with your server but this may not be the case at all There are many links in the chain connecting your computer to your website any one of which may be broken as follows your computer the connection to your ISP dial up or network your ISP s connection to you your ISP s connection to the Web your Web host server your Web host server s connection to the Web e your domain name host s IP information ILLUSTRATION OF THE CONNECTION You should have a system in place to monitor your connection You can purchase various software programs and services to provide ongoing testing at regular in tervals These programs and services usually use ping testing to check that your server is responding In ping testing the testing program sends out packets to a Web address and measures the time it takes for a packet to return in effect testing the presence of a host and the connection with the client If there is a delay or no response at all you are alerted either via an e mail or a pager call If you get a call you ll need to start troubleshooting Not only does troubleshooting require significa
126. erything from office and computer supplies to software for people to use to content that must be purchased If you intend to use photographs that your company does not own there will be licensing fees If you need to obtain data it will usually be at a cost Even if content or data is publicly available there may be a hefty service fee required to obtain it or to input it ina format you can use Outside Services Like all other resources the outside services needed depend on the specifics of the project These kinds of services typically include hosting and backup domain name acquisition outside testing service fees of all kinds and other items that you may not have the capabilities or resources to do in house or that may simply be more cost effective or expedient to contract out Assumptions The workplan document should show any assumptions you have made These assumptions may vary greatly depending on the nature of the project including unresolved technical issues staffing issues and other items that may not be firmly rooted in certainty The primary reasons to state these assumptions are to Analysis and the Project Plan 69 make sure everyone is aware of them and to protect yourself later in case the as sumptions change or prove incorrect For example you might state your assumption that certain critical staff members will be available to work on the project by certain dates and if they are not available then the schedule m
127. ese prototypes have in common is that they provide the first sup port beams for the website a starting point from which the design can proceed As the various prototypes are refined and accepted they are combined to build a first version of the website which may also be called a prototype Design pro ceeds in modular fashion where possible If you must discard your work which is expected it s best if you can do so in removable chunks Phase 2 Skeleton Framework Phase 1 developed the concept through creation of the menu tree diagram From that document planning work for the functional technical and creative efforts en sued The next step is to prototype the website by developing skeleton Web pages representing the pages on the menu tree diagram Figures 8 4 through 8 6 These pages are empty consisting only of the minimal HTML tags and content for the page title and navigation links It s best to work without content or graphics at this stage If for some reason you find it useful dummy content should suffice In this manner you can quickly prototype the whole site As you click your way around the site design flaws will be readily apparent In this bare bones environment nothing can hide the navigational structure An ideal iterative environment the skeletal framework takes only a few minutes to build or change You can test drive concept and structure and easily experiment with modifications 122 Developing Effect
128. estone Target Completion Schedule C Gantt Chart D PERT Chart IV Resources Required A Personnel 1 Technical roles and skills 2 Nontechnical roles and skills Equipment Software and Materials Outside Services Web Hosting Testing Special Technical Services V Further Considerations Assumptions Risk Factors and Mitigating Them Technical Factors new development considerations Business Factors competition etc Others VI Appendix Approval Anmonw nmUuUnwP Once the workplan is complete the next step is to obtain official budgetary ap proval which is sometimes easier said than done The method of getting official approval to start or continue a project varies widely depending on the organi zation and its sponsors within A website production company which is in the business of developing websites may have a well defined procedure for taking a project from idea to completion On the other hand a company with an unre lated core business may have no formal or even informal mechanism to ap prove such a project and may even allow it to move forward simply by not stopping it Other companies may have ambiguous approval processes such as a train ing company that provides instructor led training but wants to start selling training over the Web If the company does not have an established method of considering and approving such a product approval could be delayed beyond reason if not indefin
129. et involved in the decision making process each of whom brings his or her own set of expectations The two fundamental questions to answer are What are we trying to ac complish with the site and How much is it worth to accomplish such objec tives on a yearly basis Only by answering such questions in a quantitative manner can you expect to develop a successful corporate website The answers to these questions determine the design of the site the time frame in which it can be completed and the cost The Web Development Team Developing a website can be a complicated undertaking requiring the efforts of multitalented individuals and those with specialized skills How these people work together is an important consideration in the development process Work flow in new product development tends to follow one of two paths 1 Functional area approach 2 Team approach While not mutually exclusive one path or the other tends to dominate in most new product development processes Industrial manufacturing has historically favored the functional area ap proach with the assembly line as the archetypal manifestation In the functional area approach the work product moves through functional areas or departments in a supposedly automatic fashion where specialists can apply their skills in the most time efficient manner possible For example on the traditional auto as sembly line the workpiece a car in the making move
130. evelopment process or changing design specifications during development Estimating development costs and then getting funds approved is an essential starting point Websites are not created out of thin air Whether a site is developed with a generous budget in a well furnished studio or as an after hours skunk works project it requires peo ple equipment time and materials Your ability to accurately estimate the cost of these resources is crucial to your success in managing such a project Cost esti mates for websites that function as a marketing tool of an existing business are important For dot com businesses where the website essentially is the business estimates are crucial Like scheduling cost operates in the dynamic of the three project manage ment factors Directly corresponding to resources cost depends on time and task A simple website small task will cost less fewer resources than a large com plex one In order to develop an accurate cost estimate the task and time avail able must be predetermined This interrelationship among the dimensions is a primary cause of confusion in determining how much a project will cost Without setting two of the parameters the third cannot be accurately derived COST ESTIMATES VERSUS BUDGETS Cost estimates and budgets although related differ significantly Both predict expenses and are used to monitor them Cost estimates predict how much the de velopment will cost to complete the pr
131. ever the site should then be retested on the production server to make sure everything is running as expected TEST PLAN To adequately test a complex database driven website site you must develop a test plan Table 10 1 A test plan provides a checklist of all the functionality in the program With such a checklist testing can be performed in a consistent detailed and thorough manner by one or many testers This test plan gives the testers an Table 10 1 Sample test plan for School Assemblies Guide website see Figures 8 7 through 8 9 Test plan is simplified for conceptual purposes Page Filename Component Expected result OK notes Home page Default html Category button Category page Performer list Performer list button page e mail link E mail program opens with proper address filled in Categories Categories html Categories button Category page page Performer list Performer list button page Contact Us E mail program opens with proper address filled in Home Home page Individual Individual performers performer links detail pages Performer it varies Categories button Category page ne Performer list Performer list pag button page Contact us E mail program opens with proper address filled in Home Home page 144 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide actual checklist of the features to try and often an order in which to try them with clues as to areas that may exhibit defects b
132. ework of 121 122 122f 124f technical 112 116 118 user interface 112 118 119 131 user involvement 125 127 visual 112 119 Design first estimating 49 52 Cross functional teams 90 Developers Cryptography 22 agreement with 102 103 CSS cascading style sheets 16 132 benefits of 92 client relationship with 92 97 compatibility issues 93 conflicts 96 contract 103 Data analyst 81 82 Database s backend 17 19 control issues 89 90 93 corporate bureaucracy 95 cost comparisons 89 92 decision maker determination 96 description of 85 design change effects 93 94 ethical considerations 95 expertise of 88 geographical considerations 98 motivation issues 90 91 number of 100 payment of 105 106 planning by 94 proposals 51 52 101 102 169 178 scheduling 91 104 selection of 97 100 size of 99 teamwork considerations 90 91 Development circular nature of 110 costs of See Cost s description of 109 110 design See Design functional area approach 74 goal setting in 56 in house vs outside 85 92 iterative nature of 110 120 out of house 85 team approach 73 74 Development server description of 132 133f 142 143 154 155 hosting on 157 159 Development team See Team approach Development tools 27 28 Digital subscriber line 25 Directory structure 131 Domain names 13 14 153 154 Domain name servers 13 15 153 Dynamic pages 18 19f E mail communic
133. ey are completed and use this information to manage a project Percentages of task completion for design programming and testing on the other hand may be of little value and should be taken with the proverbial grain of salt No Shortcuts When you are developing a website under tight deadlines a great temptation to cut corners arises You may want to just get something up and running to demon strate progress assuming that it can be fixed later however this approach may well be precisely the wrong strategy and can sometimes cause problems more severe than what it was meant to fix If you attempt a programming shortcut because of schedule pressure three counterproductive effects may ensue 1 Schedule pressure itself rarely leaves time to adequately design the shortcut meaning that the shortcut will have to be debugged possibly to a greater extent than the original implementation 2 Schedule pressure still exists and if the shortcut fails to work the time invested in it is lost thereby increasing the pressure 3 If the shortcut is meant to be a temporary fix then the work will have to be redone the right way anyway in the future A better strategy is to trim the features for the first version of the site Get it up and running reliably while keeping a wish list for the second and subsequent versions Then you can continually update the website with more content and features without getting caught with too large a task to complet
134. f 77 user interface designer 79 80 Technical design 112 116 118 Technical specifications 117 118 Tester 82 83 144 Testing beta 151 compatibility 149 defects documenting of 145 146 fixing of 146 148 151 isolation and replication of 144 145 prioritizing of 146 definition of 141 description of 138 139 final 160 functionality 147 149 importance of 141 142 individuals that perform 150 151 initiation of 36 integration 148 layout 149 length of 36 37 link 150 load 149 150 160 ping 163 quantity of 36 37 regression 148 149 requirements 142 143 specifications 75 standards 152 test plan 143 144 uncontrolled 151 unit 147 Testing companies 150 151 Time and materials costing method using 50 developer proposal based on 101 102 Time factor description of 1 3 features and 64f workplan provisions 63 65 Traffic 26 Tuckman Bruce W 77 Unit testing 147 User s database communication 20 design participation by 125 127 focus groups 59 60 input of 58 61 94 interviewing of 60 61 potential 58 61 surveys of 59 User interface defects 161 User interface design 112 118 119 131 User interface designer 79 80 Visual design 112 119 WAV 16 W3C World Wide Web Consortium 16 132 Web farm 25 Web server 17 See also Server Website analysis of 56 57 cost estimating See Cost estimates and estimating customer information 165 dedicated 25 enhancements 165 166 ever changin
135. f control one might expect 90 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide The project manager working with an in house production staff needs to re spect their time and other priorities From the perspective of the in house devel opers internal clients can be the toughest customers Project managers using in house development sometimes feel free to make changes to the design at the last minute They make demands of internal staff that they wouldn t think of ask ing from a developer Although internal development may give the project man ager the control to do that those actions still carry a cost in resource use and time Teamwork If a company chooses to hire people for internal development of the website a commitment has been made to keep them busy after the site is completed There fore additional hiring for website development can only be undertaken in the larger context of organizational workflow Even when using freelancers or hiring temporary employees on a project basis a subconscious commitment to giving them work develops Relationships naturally form when working closely with a person for a length of time and participating in the trials and tribulations of proj ect development Budgetary problems caused by excess staffing may ensue Using an external developer helps avoid such situations A trend in corporations is to use cross functional teams for special projects like developing a website A potential prob
136. f plug ins small programs used by browsers additional formats can be read They will be discussed later The point here is to illustrate the path these files follow the breakdown and reassem bly in order to travel from the Web server to the user s screen STANDARDS FROM THE WORLD WIDE WEB CONSORTIUM The organizational body developing these standards and protocols is the World Wide Web Consortium The W3C as it s known develops interoperable tech nologies e g specifications guidelines software and tools to lead the Web to its full potential as a forum for information commerce communication and collec tive understanding The W3C advocates against proprietary technologies that will not work across a range of applications Among the services offered on its website lt www wac org gt are HTML and CSS cascading style sheets validation The W3C website is a good place to check out established and evolving stan dards The standards process is necessarily slow subject to debate discussion and deliberations in order to negotiate a common middle ground among some times competing technologies The standards cannot possibly keep up with the rate of innovation coming from individual companies Website project managers should be able to distinguish between emerging technologies which raise ques tions of portability and interoperability and established standards which are al ways Safer but not cutting edge Technologies of the
137. f the Web 23 Your Organization SFA Figure 2 6 Internal server connected to Internet Your Organization s Intranet Figure 2 7 Intranet configuration not connected to Internet Security firewall allows access to your intranet only to approved users Other Organization Your Organization Your Server Other Organization o Figure 2 8 Extranet configuration using firewall to control access 24 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide HOSTING OPTIONS Outsourcing vs In House The decision about whether to host your website in house or to outsource pri marily comes down to issues of cost and control In the case of intranets and ex tranets the control advantages of in house hosting and the proprietary content suggest the need for local in house hosting For any particular website project project managers should consult their technical people in considering such fac tors as volume of traffic security needs server administration and general per formance expectations Following are descriptions of various levels of websites with associated server level requirements Personal Home Page The basic site and one that by nature of being personal is unlikely to require a development team is the personal website Typically personal websites are hosted externally through a consumer Internet service provider ISP such as America Online AOL or any
138. features is analogous to the feature creep as sociated with other software categories such as word processing software Most people use only a small percentage of the features available in the typical con sumer word processing program like Microsoft Word Likewise you can avoid most of the learning overhead that dissuades some people from employing these incredibly useful project management tools Use features that are obviously help ful like PERT and Gantt charts and then explore others on an as needed basis Maintenance and Modification Remember that your charts and reports are not meant to be a theoretical blueprint that is cast in stone at the beginning of the project Web projects are subject to many unforeseen events and unpredictable progress and the PERT and Gantt charts must be revised modified and updated regularly and continually to reflect the current state of affairs The charts and reports are tools by which the project is accomplished Once the project is finished such charts are also helpful to review what really happened to learn by experience and prepare for future projects SCHEDULING TIPS Rule of Thirds Many studies on the relative amount of time and resources invested in the vari ous phases of software development projects have revealed some general truths that can inform Web development scheduling One is the rule of thirds which basically holds that the amount of time and effort spent in design pro
139. g Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide organization including team members for the project Moving beyond the 90 second executive briefing the project manager will probably want to bring together the team to further develop the concept The project document developed in Chapter 3 makes a good starting point for bringing people together As explained later suggested documents for both functional design and technological design include a brief and a specification which is more refined You will also prepare a creative brief for designers and writers They will not be able to dig into their work until some functional and technological questions have been answered For instance graphic designers may brainstorm and identify graphics for a site but they cannot design a navigation bar until the navigational structure is in place Bring the team together and pre sent your 90 second answers to the three basic questions Share written docu mentation that is available such as briefs Then brainstorm discuss and debate Strive for consensus and make decisions even if these decisions are subject to change Your challenge here is to be as open minded as possible Your client may have delivered a navigational structure for the site with the initial request for proposal or project description document Perhaps you have drawn up your own plan At no other stage in development will changes be more doable than now Do your best to shed preconcepti
140. g nature of 8 9 goals of 56 71 113 hiding of 156 157 marketing integration 163 165 personal 24 requirements specification 62 67 samples 168 searching of 21 style of 113 Workplan assumptions detailed in 68 69 budget approval 70 communicating changes in 130 content of 63 64 description of 29 63 executive summary 69 format of 63 64 outline of 69 70 resources 67 69 Index 193 schedule considerations 65 task factor 65 67 time factor 63 65 World Wide Web Consortium W3C 16 132 WYSIWYG 28 XML 16 This Page Intentionally Left Blank This Page Intentionally Left Blank This Page Intentionally Left Blank This Page Intentionally Left Blank This Page Intentionally Left Blank
141. ge or index html on your site and test it on various computers outside your host network to see if the new domain name and IP address are working properly Routers connect your network to the rest of the Internet Depending on the level of security and authentication in your technical specs you may also be using firewalls or proxy servers A complex website may reside on several servers For example an e commerce site may run the shopping basket and credit card veri fication portions of the site on a separate server running the appropriate software while content pages of the online catalog reside on another server 160 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide All of this hardware and software must work together You may have con ducted thorough testing on the development server but now that the site is on the production server you ve gone and changed everything So it s time once again for testing MORE TESTING When the new files have been moved over to the server you re ready for the final walk through for the site You should run a check on everything you can think of including such items as the following e making sure that all content is in place and meets quality standards e g typos spelling grammar e checking currency of links e ensuring that file names and page titles are correct and consistent e checking that all images are in place properly tagged and conform to your specs e testi
142. ger than anticipated but it sometimes takes two or three times longer The number of testers their skill level the sophistica tion of the testing methods and the responsiveness of the programmers to the re sults all affect the schedule Testing is sometimes imagined and planned as if it were a simple certification process when it is actually a crucial and time consuming development phase It may take as many full time testers working on the product as there are programmers depending on the complexity of the code and the amount of data This quantity of testers is often not anticipated much less budgeted Therefore if the testing resources allocated are inadequate it will take much longer to accomplish the work If a single individual is assigned to test a product that really requires two testers testing will take twice as long if the web Scheduling 37 site is complex enough that it requires three testers and only one is assigned test ing will take three times as long The skill of the testers also makes a huge difference A single experienced quality assurance professional working from a test plan and tracking findings in a well designed database can outperform a whole roomful of inexperienced in terns or students simply asked to try to break this program The experienced tester knows what to look for where to find it how to report it and how to check it later to see if it was fixed Experienced software testers should be
143. gn and or graphic arts when necessary as well as the appropriate psychological disciplines such as ergonomics The UI designer should also be able to use graphics pro grams and HTML authoring programs as needed in order to convey ideas to other team members as well as to potential users and management decision mak ers This person needs to be familiar with other websites and understand the pro totyping process He or she must be open to design changes from others on the team as well as changes based on focus groups and usability testing which calls for a collaborative personality type The role of the UI designer is crucial in developing a high quality website The various screen layout changes feature modifications and shifting require ments make this role fundamental and often full time for a large scale website project especially when custom programmed interactive features are present Graphic Artist The role of the graphic artist is to create the visual elements specified by the UI designer or provide creative alternatives These elements include screen layouts and designs illustrations button designs and any other visual elements on the site Graphic artists may create these elements in any number of ways from hand drawn illustrations to computer generated artwork and all manner of com binations Therefore the artist must be able to work proficiently with a variety of computer graphics and art programs He or she must also have
144. gn greatly affects the programming and even the testing procedures A software tester involved in the project from the beginning can start writing test specifications early based on the design specification Otherwise the test specifications need to be written after the program has been coded which is much more time consuming Likewise a programmer who is involved early in the design phase can warn about proposed features that might be difficult to im plement or inconvenience users and then offer more viable alternatives Involv ing the programmer early also gives him or her a head start on technical design and implementation perhaps even before the design is finalized which can save 76 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide a tremendous amount of time You should involve as many team members as possible from the beginning of the project Concurrent Tasks The large number of concurrent tasks that can and must be performed to develop a website in a reasonable time frame also points to the team approach Website development is more akin to synchronized swimming than the 400 meter freestyle relay During the development process all team members are working simultaneously on various aspects of the project and need to be in constant com munication If they are working on the project full time it greatly facilitates this communication and team integration Commitment among Team Members The success of a website is usua
145. gress remains unknown Most projects are in some sense unmonitored and hence more or less out of control accounting at least in part for the scale of estimate inac curacy on many software projects and websites It is not uncommon for an appli cation to run 100 percent or more over budget For example if the Alpha version of a site was scheduled to be delivered one third of the way through the development process and the deadline is met you might conclude that the project is one third finished The reality however may be that only a small sample of the data has been prepared the programming is full of errors with more being found every day and design additions are being approved right and left In this situation the project may actually be only 10 per cent completed The Mythical Man Month Frederick Brooks addressed the vagaries of programming in his seminal book The Mythical Man Month Essays on Software Engineering Brooks insights on manag ing software projects still hold true 25 years later One crucial consideration for most Web projects is the quality of the pro grammer s Not all programmers are created equal Productivity among indi viduals can vary by a factor of 10 or more in time spent on a task And it is extremely difficult to gauge relative productivity even by other programmers who have worked together First programming tasks themselves can vary in complexity by an order of magnitude which makes it diffi
146. gs are going when the site will really get done Using the information cited previously you can easily create a data table as in Table 3 1 These points can be mapped on a graph as in Figure 3 3 From this graph you can see that given current progress the project is actually headed for a release in mid June The graph also shows Table 3 1 Estimation slippage table for the sample application Date estimation was Estimated delivery Development time remaining weeks performed on date I estimated the project would be done project length remaining January 1 March 31 12 February 1 April 15 10 February 15 April 21 9 Scheduling 39 12 2 2 WT fa O o 8 v L S Ze N T oS Sg E p 6 b N LEEA N 5 N g N 2 N 2 N 5 Ar 7 g fe My E XN 3 N W 24 S N N S l Jan 1l Feb 1 Mar 1l Apr 1 May l Jun 1 ul Date on which estimate was made Figure 3 3 Estimation graph showing data from Table 3 1 graphed to extrapolate most probable project completion date how easily even relatively small projects can miss deadlines by 100 percent or more and hence the great necessity of getting a slipped project back on schedule quickly No Partially Done Tasks A common misconception of project managers is that unpredictable and possibly nonquantifiable tasks can be accurately measured by the percentage of work completed Some elements like data preparation can often be measured quan tifiably If 50
147. harge the creative and technical teams work in parallel Each of these three ef forts involves some documentation In this chapter we talked about briefs and specifications They do not necessarily need to be separate documents Briefs lend themselves to sharing across the functions Specifications generally give more detail than people outside the function need to know Project managers can de cide for themselves how best to document the projects for their team What is crit ical is that you get it in writing The World Wide Web had its beginnings as a collaborative tool for physi cists Naturally the Web development team can use the Web to collaborate on the website development project Project managers can use a project site to commu nicate a calendar up to date schedules menu tree diagrams meeting agendas and minutes progress reports and more A favorite communication tool of most Web project managers is a simple one e mail Communications are easily shared within the group E mail client software usually supports some sort of personal organization system or at min imum organization and archiving of both incoming and outgoing messages The project manager also must communicate with the client These commu nications can be delicate at times From the onset the client whether internal or external needs to understand the development process You should be clear that Web development is an iterative process Some clients might have d
148. he best ways to assess the quality and character of the development com pany is to meet the individual s who runs or owns the company A company s tone is set at the top and meeting the people who run and own the company can provide an important insight into the company s work mode and ethic This is es pecially true with website developers because they tend to be smaller companies in which the owners run the company hands on and are closely involved in the work In fact the company is often a direct reflection of the owner If the owner seems to have a strong work ethic and is flexible accommodating and technically knowledgeable this is a good sign An owner who turns out to be an investor with more interest in fancy dining and expensive cars than in technology might not be viewed as favorably Size of Developer The size of the independent website developer you choose should be appropriate to the size of the project Generally the larger the project the larger the developer needed The developer should be large enough to absorb fluctuations in the workload but not so large as to be too expensive or unresponsive to your needs A single individual working as a freelance developer might be fine for a small project such as a simple home page Web presence site For a database driven e commerce site however a larger development house with other such projects and clients might be more suitable Such a developer can absorb your workload
149. he check and send it out immediately upon approval of the milestone for payment This allows plenty of time for the invoice to be processed and it lets the project manager pay the developer immediately upon approval When using this method you should be discreet Your accounting department probably does not approve of it Likewise a developer who knows the check has been cut already and is in your top desk drawer may perceive that payment is being deliberately withheld and may become insistent that payment be made immediately regard less of whether the deliverable has been approved Note that these sorts of ac tions could come back to bite you in a few different ways Deceiving your in house colleagues is a high price to pay for accelerating payment A better way of addressing the problem may be to study the flow of invoices and approvals and seek out legitimate shortcuts to the process Talking Directly with Accounting Finally if all else fails and the in house manager laments that the invoice is stuck in accounting the developer may want to talk directly with accounts payable A polite fact finding conversation can sometimes reveal where the re sponsibility for late payment lies The developer may learn useful information about internal corporate procedures Trivial items such as including your corpo rate identification number or social security number directly on the invoice may make a significant difference Before contacting th
150. he division of work and responsibilities need to be sorted out before a team can work together effectively In fact according to Bruce W Tuckman a psychologist who wrote in the 1970s a team in the making typi cally passes through four stages before it becomes a unified team 1 Form 2 Storm 3 Norm 4 Perform Form the formative stage is the time during which team members are chosen and are starting their work together Storm comes next when they are sorting out issues of responsibility dominance and informal communication The Norm pe riod is when the team has settled down into a normal working pattern The Per form phase is when that established working pattern has taken hold and been optimized and the team is operating at peak capacity TEAM MEMBERS AND FUNCTIONS Choosing the right team members and determining the right positions for the development project is essential in the team approach What are the right posi tions for a Web project team The answer naturally depends on the specifics of the site A simple Web presence site may require only a Web artist with HTML authoring skills and a content editorial expert A large database driven site with e commerce and Java applets may require a team composed of a dozen 78 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Ul Designer Graphic Designer Content Editor Web Tech Programmer Project Manager Data
151. he effort 4 allocating re sources and 5 executing and tracking the plan Decisions made using this approach should be reevaluated as a system matures and circumstances i e budgetary threat technology change A disciplined approach provides a frame work for utilizing tools teams and processes in a structured manner that is re sponsive to systematic improvement efforts e Tools in this IPPD process include documents information systems methods and technologies that can be fit into a generic shared framework that focuses on planning executing and tracking Tools help define the product s being devel oped delivered or acted upon and relate the elements of work to be accom plished to each other and to the end product Examples of tools used include integrated master plans three dimensional design tools and their associated databases cost models linked to process simulations activity based costing de velopment process control methods and earned value management e Teams are central to the IPPD process Teams are made up of everyone who has a stake in the outcome or product of the team including the customer and suppli ers Collectively team members should represent the know how needed and have the ability to control the resources necessary for getting the job done Teams are or ganized and behave so as to seek the best value solution to a product acquisition e Development Processes are those activities that lead to both t
152. he end product and its associated processes To ensure efficient use of resources it is necessary to un derstand what activities are necessary and how they affect the product and each other Examples include requirements analysis configuration management and detailed design drawings e Product and Associated Processes include what is produced and provided to the customer Customer satisfaction with the product in terms of mission effective ness as well as operating and support aspects and costs is the ultimate measure of the team s success e Customer is the user and a team member and also the ultimate authority regard ing the product Any changes to the formal requirements driving the product process development must come through negotiation with the customer This generic IPPD iterative process is a systems engineering approach It differs from the long held view that systems engineering is essentially a partitioning tradeoff control process that brings the ilities and test functions together This IPPD process controls the evolution of an integrated and optimally balanced system to satisfy customer needs and to provide data and products required to support acquisition management de cisions that themselves are part of the IPPD IPT process This approach also transforms the stated needs into a balanced set of product and process descriptions These descrip tions are incrementally matured during each acquisition phase and used b
153. he original estimate and interview the developer to better understand where the production costs lie What often happens is that the purportedly high bid sways management to approve internal production for a project that is underbudgeted Three months later instead of going live the site is still being tested and debugged with another three months estimated to completion and management starts to realize its mis take This situation benefits no one least of all the production personnel who may have lobbied to do the work internally Contractors and Clients 101 If you start a project without adequate resources being budgeted it will re quire additional unbudgeted resources later The project reels out of control quickly escalating toward serious problems Therefore you should be especially careful that internal projects carry adequate budgets Err on the side of overesti mating for safety s sake Realistic Expectations Clients often underestimate the cost and effort of developing a website some times drastically Inexperienced clients naturally compare website development to more familiar media like video and print when in fact software development is the better analog To further confuse matters website development costs tend to vary wildly Some companies are offering website deals as a come on angling for other businesses Some college students will make a site for a pittance The quality is often atrocious but the low cost can
154. hough there are common factors in all known successful IPPD implementations IPPD has no single solution or implementation strategy Its implementation is product and process dependent A generic IPPD iterative process is shown in Figure App 3 1 Resources applied include people processes money tools and facilities The IPPD process reorders decision making brings downstream and global issues to bear earlier and in concert with conceptual and detailed planning and relies on applying functional expertise in a team oriented manner on a global optimization basis It is necessary to un derstand early the processes needed to develop produce operate and support the prod uct Equally important are these processes impacts on product design and development Basic elements of the iterative process are e Requirements a first step in the iterative process are generated by the customer in a negotiation among many parties each with serious and important concerns Knowing and understanding the customers command structure doctrine tac tics operating environment etc and their needs is essential Integrating the user s requirements logistical requirements and the acquirer s budgetary and scheduling constraints is a fundamental challenge in DoD acquisition Integrated Product and Process Development 181 e Disciplined Approach includes five general activities 1 understanding the re quirements 2 outlining the approach 3 planning t
155. hts to perform services assigned herein TO warrants to NCC that materials produced are original and that TO is the sole proprietor of the materials and of the copyright therein and has full power to enter into this agreement If any part of the material is not original TO shall obtain permission for use of the material on the NCC Website B TO is not under and will not assume any obligation or restriction that pre vents TO from performing its obligations as assigned in this Agreement C TO will work with NCC technical personnel as instructed and determined by NCC Deliverables 1 Reading Trails Prototype Website To consist of nongraphical text only sample pages showing proposed link ing site navigation and sample content 2 Design Concept Alternatives To consist of several design alternative image files for use in establishing a graphical design treatment for the overall Reading Trails Website The Proposal Process 177 3 Final Reading Trails Website To consist of approximately 20 Web pages and page templates including Winding Trails Home page About Winding Trails Publishing with Winding Trails Main Reading Trails page Site Map Search Engine page Writers Writer News Writer Websites Works in Progress Dialogue Beyond the Book Webliographies Inside the Covers Inside the Covers Excerpts Inside the Covers Excerpts Continued PDF Directory Manuscript Manuscript Excerpts Manuscript Excerpts Co
156. iate Among the components of a proposal are the following e executive summary e creative strategic and technical objectives e description of the project scope including a rough sketch of the structure and navigation scheme of the site scheduling in rough time frames around development stages and milestones e list and details of major features and functions e development tools and technical features of the site e summary of fees services and exclusions e payment terms e delineation of responsibilities e staffing and personnel assumptions e any assumptions made when preparing the proposal The developer s goal after submitting the proposal should be to obtain a face to face meeting with the client company and make a presentation of the proposal AGREEMENTS A written agreement defining the work to be performed and the amount and terms of compensation should govern the website development relationship Where contractor and client are familiar with each other doing business on a Contractors and Clients 103 handshake may be convenient and appealing however the flexible and ever changing nature of software development make undertaking any significant website project without a written agreement an extremely risky proposition This written agreement might range from a simple single page letter of agreement to a full blown software development contract The specifics of the agreement de pend on the situation and parties in
157. ible deviation of course is cause for concern A 250 000 website that goes over budget because programming takes two or three times longer sud denly costs 500 000 which is enough off target to concern any senior manager A 10 000 project can become 20 000 a lesser transgression in dollars but as a percentage it s no better and that s one way accountants will surely measure Smaller projects seem more likely to come in close to estimates It s simply a mat ter of dealing with fewer unknowns CONNECTING THE DOTS While designers work with dummy text in developing their page design tem plates programmers work with dummy page templates in their work With two tracks progressing in parallel toward the endpoint of full integration the project manager s role is coordination Eventually the programmers will be coding the Web applications that connect their backend database to the client approved page templates When those routines are completed tested and debugged you are ready to start moving the actual content into the database Suddenly the proj ect starts to look like a real website Having made this watershed point the work can proceed quickly however before development moves too far along it s time to solicit user feedback in a structured way USABILITY TESTING Customer focus is the mantra of contemporary business and website design is no different With pages laid out and content ready to be poured in you are in a
158. ic and provides the glue that connects your website to the outside world In addition many websites demand more than simply serving up static Web pages Among the functions that Web server software may perform are verifying credit cards registering users and creating database records To achieve more sophisticated functionality specialized server applications have emerged for customized tasks beyond simply serving up Web pages or connecting to a database For example Web based training servers like Saba construct content pages on the fly test users through multiple choice and other types of questions score answers store results and register users for courses Ac complishing these tasks with general purpose Web server software would take an inordinate amount of programming E commerce provides another example with needs like a shopping cart process and completing online credit card trans actions E commerce servers require a high level of security with the ability to handle digital signatures and encrypted files In short for anything besides static Web pages the server needs to be programmed CONNECTED DATABASES Web developers often talk about performing a function on the back end which means on the Web server rather than on the user s browser The most common function performed on the back end is interactivity with a database Interaction with a backend database delivers a qualitative jump in the capabilities of a web si
159. ical personnel decide how to implement technologies that will realize the goals of the functional design The technical brief starts with the technologies you can anticipate on the client side that is on your users computers The sorts of questions you should be ask ing include the following Designing and Prototyping 117 1 What kind of computers and browser software will they be using 2 What browser software and versions are common 3 Will they be using dial up access or a high bandwidth connection 4 Do they use plug ins and are they able to install them Server logs or specialized software can collect some of this information Other data you might extrapolate from market research or contact with your own cus tomers For example one of our clients is a major airline with an intranet for which they specify a common browser screen resolution and plug ins for all comput ers in the company This situation simplifies development because the browser is a known quantity We can therefore incorporate a wide range of functionality on the client side because we know exactly what resources the user has Other sites are made for viewing over the World Wide Web where users might have virtu ally any type and version of browser and little to no ability to install plug ins themselves A website developed for such a site should be kept simple and flexi ble in its design The technical team should look at the functional specification from
160. ication 62 67 types of 67 Rule of thirds 35 36 Index 191 Schedule and scheduling changing of 6 7 contracts based on 104 delivery date 30 31 developer benefits 91 late content effects 104 methods 32 34 monitoring of 65 pressures 40 production phase 137 138 requirements for 29 slippage 37 39 138 tips for 35 41 Search function 21 Security 21 22 26 Server database interaction with 20 description of 17 development See Development server functions of 21 22 hardware 17 preparing of 159 production 132 133f 154 programs running on 22 software 17 21 Shockwave 27 Simple mail transfer protocol SMTP 16 Site See Website Skeleton framework 121 122 122f 124f Slippage graph 38 39 measuring of 37 38 Software defects in 145 project management 31 35 server 17 21 Software engineer See Programmers Software tester 82 83 144 Static pages 18 19f Subnetting 13 Task s completion of 39 40 concurrent 40 41 76 description of 3 partially completed 39 40 time intensive nature of 3 workplan description of 65 67 TCP IP 13 192 Index Team approach benefits of 75 76 characteristics of 73 74 concurrent tasks 76 when to use 74 Team members commitment of 76 data analyst 81 82 dynamics of 77 graphic artist 80 leader 78 79 overlap in functions of 84 programmers See Programmers roles and responsibilities of 83 84 selection of 77 78 software tester 82 83 unification o
161. ide a suitable context in which to unveil it Usually the best strategy is to be patient and get official approval before you start applying significant re sources to a project BY THE WAY IT S ALREADY STARTED During the analysis phase you may be simultaneously focused on gaining ap proval to start the project however what may be less apparent is that regardless of forthcoming approval the project has already begun The time needed to con duct a proper analysis and requirements specification including holding focus groups working out budget estimates and break even points and prioritizing features is significant This start up phase actually costs time and money and while a project may not yet be officially approved time and money are already being consumed during the analysis phase to prove or disprove the concept In summary the analysis phase for a website is crucial The site can be ex pensive not only to develop but also to maintain Good planning must be em ployed to create a site that an organization is able to maintain with its own resources In addition there must be some compelling business case for creating a site If the goals of the site are not clearly established it can easily become a sig nificant waste of time and money Such goals can also be somewhat difficult to 72 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide establish given the number of individuals from various departments who tend to g
162. ifferent ex pectations Some may be looking to save money by avoiding revisions If you do it right the first time you don t have to make revisions or fixes they say Revi sions are a vital component of the process however not a discretionary add on You have two choices in this situation You can inform people of the truth and sell them on it to gain agreement The other option is to obscure the fact that revisions are being made manipulating the reality to conform to their expectations The second path is risky and probably unnecessary Usually such clients forget the no revisions rule anyway once they have a wish list of their own pet features to add It s best to consider their changes at the same time you negotiate feedback from within the team Because website development is an iterative process it lends itself to various checkpoints with clients You will probably want a formal signoff of the func tional and technical specifications before the work begins Throughout the process the project manager s diplomacy and acumen in knowing when to con sult with the client is helpful Rooted in personality and organizational culture the needs for communication vary from client to client Striking a delicate bal ance the project manager must delegate decision making to the people closest to the work but also know when it is time to draw the client into the process Testing the Concept with Prototypes Sometimes the play doe
163. iminary screens conducting focus groups and prototyping is that this design work eventually must get done The sooner you do it the better When you de sign late in the game it costs more and can cause greater problems Addressing design issues when programming for the website is already underway greatly di minishes efficiency Further validation is the rude surprise many project managers experience in the sheer length of time necessary to test and debug most Web applications Even sites created by programmers with efficient code must go through a full quality assurance cycle if only to certify that they work correctly Usually a fair amount of debugging is called for especially when several programmers are working to gether on a site Testing should start relatively early in the development process and usually continues well past the point where intensive coding has ended This time and effort spent in testing can be extremely frustrating especially if it was not built into the schedule As the last step in the process testing always seems to catch the blame for schedule delays that were actually caused by earlier mistakes in design and coding Like a relay race success or failure of the last runner de pends on those who came before If code is delivered late and has been hacked to gether testing personnel cannot be held responsible for finding problems that need to be fixed Testing Takes Longer Not only does testing usually take lon
164. inds of individuals will be required to develop the application and for how long 68 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide It is also helpful to consider whether these people will be existing internal staff assigned to the project whether you will need to hire permanent staff or whether you can use freelancers or contract personnel Different kinds of per sonnel may require different approval processes For example reassigning per manent staff may require a commitment from management to make these people available Hiring new permanent staff may require a lengthier approval process Hiring consultants and freelancers may be more expedient but the expertise they gain while doing the project will most likely disappear with them when they leave after the project is finished Equipment Different types of employees may require different types of equipment If per manent company staff is assigned they will presumably have their own existing equipment to use If they are new staff hires equipment for them to work on will most likely need to be purchased If they are temporary personnel it might make more sense to rent equipment You must also consider what kinds of supplementary equipment will be needed including computers capable of digitizing video additional peripherals such as hard drives and printers and various other hardware the company may not currently possess Materials Materials required will include ev
165. ing a project is different a leader needs others to create strategies and solve problems independently then coordinates the efforts of self motivated team members On a truly self motivated development team the team leader wins team members cooperation by gaining their respect not by coercion intimidation threat or pulling rank You can be appointed project manager but can only truly lead a team when you gain their respect and trust Old line managers may have a difficult time understanding or accepting such an approach In many companies management views employees as sol diers whose job is to execute the orders of their superiors Unfortunately the in telligent innovative employee who voices concerns about established methods is often viewed as a troublemaker by management A true team must develop a level of trust so that such voices can be heard A team approach does not rely on the chain of command but rather on the intelligence and internal motivation of the team members When teams are at their best members identify with their work perform to the highest quality they can and want to make suggestions that will be taken seriously The position of team leader or project manager requires a special person who is conversant in all areas of website development from user interface design and programming to testing and even marketing No one individual can be an ex pert in all of these fields but the team leader needs enough backgro
166. ing live Web development is a continuous process Although the processes described here are somewhat sequential they should not be viewed as discrete steps Parts of the process happen simultaneously As an iterative process website development is circular in parts with built in feedback loops designed to lead you to previous steps for revising and refining Figures 8 1 and 8 2 The process goes something as follows 1 You create a design 2 Through inspection reviewing and testing you identify gaps or prob lems 3 You may throw out the design and start over or make revisions 4 The cycle repeats By way of these switchbacks you move up the mountainside It is a fact of Web development that this is the only way to get a final and acceptable result If you ignore this fact and try to develop a site in one shot with no revisions you will probably spend your budget in a first cycle that leaves you dissatisfied and without the resources for the revisions you desire Design Build Out amp Prototyping Analysis amp Planning Figure 8 1 Iterative development process with feedback loops Designing and Prototyping 111 Phase Analysis amp Planning Phase Design Phase Feedback Phase Phase Testing Build out Figure 8 2 Iterative design process alternative visualization Notice how each version moves through each phase of the development process taking longer each time as the site becomes l
167. instantly Cookies Server software provides many ways to read information kept in the user s browser files By reading specialized files in the browser the server can learn im portant information about that browser s user These special files in the browser are called cookies The server can write cookies to the browser for future reference For example if you ve ever bought books from Amazon com when you revisit the site you are greeted with a personalized message and book recommenda tions based on your previous purchases Server software recognized you by look ing at the cookie file it wrote to your browser the last time you visited Cookies are widely used for features such as registration online ordering and access to protected sites Cookies are an important way for servers to provide such capabilities Security and Access Web servers also provide security mechanisms that restrict access to certain data only to authorized users and transmit or receive data in encrypted formats so the data cannot be intercepted and opened by anyone else This capability is extremely important for financial transactions from the shopping carts of e commerce to investment and brokerage services The standard Web protocols such as TCP IP and HTTP which are deliber ately dumbed down and designed for universal compatibility make impersonating a person or organization fairly simple When you connect to your preferred Big Name Broker webs
168. ion or digital certificates and how they will work For example in a database driven site the technical team may decide that since the site will be hosted on a Windows 2000 server the appropriate database technology to use is Microsoft SQL Server with Active Server Pages To implement this technology they will 118 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide need to design the database s and query functions appropriately Depending on the complexity of the technology and the various software applications involved the technical team may need to get up to speed on the application programming interfaces APIs necessary to integrate functions They may plan some feasibility testing to determine if desired features are doable within the budget and avail able technology To continue with the example of Campus Posters Inc the technical specifi cation might include such items as the following e A large portion of the customer base on campus students will be access ing the site using smaller monitors from laptops or iMacs in the library or student center e The host server will run on a Windows 2000 platform e The Web server will be Microsoft IIS e The database will be Microsoft SQL Server e The e commerce module will be Microsoft 2000 Commerce server e Credit card verification will be done online Technical specifications are likely to change during the development process More details would be added to specify
169. ion percentage to date for each task Gantt charts measure progress and can be used to show team members what they need to do and when they need to do it Gantt charts can group tasks by individuals to show what each person is responsible for by date to show the overall sequence of tasks and in many other ways A Planning Method Nearly everyone has a preferred method of planning and scheduling projects One useful method is to create a blue sky PERT chart diagramming your pre ferred workflow for the project including reasonable task durations without ce Build Pages amp Templates Produce Content 12 w 10 w Needs Assessment Visual Design Tue 12 5 00 12 25 00 Tve 12 5 00 12 18 Editorial Review 5 lw Wed 11 8 00 Thu 11 16 00 Wed 11 22 14 lad Tue 12 19 00 Thu 12 21 00 Start Project Start Designing Site Prototype Design Revisions Design Completed Alpha Phase Beta Phase Testing amp Revisions Go live Standby for Fixes 1 lod 3 lod w 7 ba 8 a g w 16 pw Thu 11 2 00 Thu 11 2 00 Wed 11 8 0qWed 11 8 00 u 11 9 00 11 15 11 23 00 Mon 11 27 Thu 11 27 00 Mon 11 27 00 five 11 28 00 Mon 12 4 00 Tve 12 26 00 Mon 1 8 01 19 iw 20 low 2w Tue 1 30 01 _ Mon 2 5 01 Mon 2 5 01 Mon 2 5 01 Mon 2 19 01 Technical Design Program Database Set up hit counting Launch Publicity Awareness 6 lw u Sw 13 d 17 w Thu 11 16 00 W
170. ious forms throughout the site If the site is tested as it is being built however defects especially those in the software ar chitecture can be caught earlier and will be easier to fix and will cause fewer follow on defects lending a gauge of actual progress to date Regression Testing The most thorough method of testing is not only to test for defects fixed from the previous versions but also to retest for defects fixed in earlier versions This process of repeatedly retesting for defects to see if any old ones have reappeared is called regression testing Good record keeping of what version of the software exhibited the defect is essential to regression testing For example if a particular defect was found in a database query on Monday and fixed on Tuesday it is wise to continue testing for it in subsequent days and even weeks to follow At first glance this process may seem excessive however regression testing can uncover serious problems and safeguard against them Defects that were apparently fixed may recur for various reasons An old copy of a particular file may have been used by mistake to build a later file or a new or different programmer may at tempt to optimize code and reintroduce an old error Another reason to perform regression testing is that in the process of fixing old defects new defects may be introduced It is entirely possible for a program Quality Assurance Testing 149 mer to inadvertently introduce one
171. is is especially true for those in the product development arena By allowing internal Contractors and Clients 91 staff to work on a website managers give them the opportunity to take part in in teresting work that can broaden their skills and to gain a sense of accomplishment when the project is completed Not only does this situation benefit the individual but it also benefits the company by raising the interest level This effect can be beneficial to morale with a ripple effect even among those not participating di rectly in the project In house website development is an opportunity to offer interesting work and shared glory to staff in various departments of the company For example in ternal art and design personnel may prepare graphics for the website In doing so they increase their visibility within the company which in turn may help them justify increased staff and equipment to perform the work Because websites may be perceived as hip cool or trendy most staff will happily accept Web assign ments The shared experience can also increase the sense of teamwork among de partments which benefits the company as a whole and future projects of all types With reasonable foresight and political sensitivity website projects can be developed internally with significant efficiency Developing a website in house can be a rewarding experience both in terms of job satisfaction and career ad vancement If you get the opportunity to de
172. ite you need to be absolutely assured that they are indeed Big Name Broker and not a clever hacker who s managed to impersonate them to steal your funds Likewise Big Name Broker needs to be certain that you are who you claim to be This process is called authentication User names and passwords 22 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide should not flow across the Internet in the clear where a hacker s sniffer pro grams might pick them up Big Name Broker will probably want to provide sin gle users with log in services to offer you a range of services involving several different servers while avoiding costly user name and account maintenance As the Internet becomes more of a commercial marketplace where legal and financial communications occur the need for security becomes ever greater Cryptography is the umbrella technology that offers a solution encompass ing such technologies as encryption decryption authentication digital signa tures and signature verification Industry standard protocols such as SSL secure socket layer SET secure electronic transactions and S MIME secure multipart Internet mail encoding offer a foundation for security Server Side Programs For additional capabilities special purpose and custom software programs can be run on a server For example spreadsheet charting software can respond to users data and easily create pie charts The server receives the data then calls o
173. itely despite potential benefits to the company Analysis and the Project Plan 71 ROGUE PROJECTS It may be tempting to go it alone on a project without approval using hours and resources allocated to officially approved projects but doing so is an ex tremely risky proposition for the people involved and the risks can outweigh the potential rewards First it is difficult to keep such a development effort quiet Not only do coworkers notice what s going on but it s difficult for most people to re frain from discussing interesting new projects they are working on In keeping with Murphy s Law such covert operations are usually discovered by senior management at the most inopportune moments such as when management is in vestigating why an important deadline for another project was missed If the rogue project actually makes it to a showable stage then no matter how inge nious the site management will certainly want to know why it was done without approval Your own boss may even suspect you of attempting a power play So if you start significant development work without approval you not only risk the backlash of never getting the project approved but you may also risk your own job While there are rare cases in which a project is developed off the charts and usually after hours and results in a great success these projects usually have a champion within senior management to shield the project from scrutiny and prov
174. iteria e view search results e details on property listings including photo text description and e mail links e administrator s module for site owners to load content into database e development time is three months e approximately 500 property listing records in database 54 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Table 4 2 Sample cost estimate database driven website of Yearly Loaded Project year salary salary 25 total PERSONNEL Project manager 25 90 000 112 500 28 125 User interface designer 25 75 000 93 750 23 438 Artist HTML author 25 80 000 100 000 25 000 Lead programmer 25 100 000 125 000 31 250 Junior programmer 1 25 85 000 106 250 26 563 Junior programmer 2 25 75 000 93 750 23 438 Tester 25 50 000 62 500 15 625 Data analyst and 25 50 000 62 500 15 625 formatter Editorial text content 25 75 000 93 750 23 438 Editorial assistant 25 45 000 56 250 14 063 Personnel subtotal 226 563 226 563 SERVICES Site hosting for one year 12 000 dedicated server with database includes backup and tech support Database software license 5 000 one year Image scanning 500 5 2 500 Services subtotal 19 500 19 500 EXTRA MATERIALS Hardware Backup drives 5 000 and data Software Miscellaneous 15 000 15 000 development tools Materials subtotal 20 000 20 000 Project subtotal 266 063 Safety factor 15 39 909 TOTAL 305 972 A
175. ites are often compared to the budgets for these other activities and generally need to fall within the same ballpark For example if the company is accustomed to pay Analysis and the Project Plan 57 ing 20 000 to have a brochure designed printed and mailed then a proposal for a 250 000 website could run into some stiff opposition even if it is expected to be 10 times more effective The company may simply be unaccustomed to paying such high sums for this kind of work These budgetary parameters resource fac tors can have a significant effect on the kinds of websites that are developed and how they are implemented CRITERIA FOR SUCCESS In addition to determining whether the project is worthwhile or not one of the main goals of the analysis phase is to determine the criteria for success These cri teria can be quantitative or qualitative Knowing how the success of the applica tion will be measured will help you apply development efforts in that direction If the criterion for success of an e commerce site is that it break even within a year then development expense and delivery dates are crucial and all efforts should be focused in that direction On the other hand if the criteria for suc cess are more qualitative such as to support the current marketing strategy then even a flawless site may be judged unsuccessful because the overall strategy fell short EVALUATING PROJECT IDEAS Ideas for websites and new site features ca
176. ive Websites A Project Manager s Guide Zj Untitled Document Microsoft Internet Explorer File Edit View Favorites Tools Help Links Best of the Web Channel Guide SS eas a a 3 a J Back komad Stop Refresh Home Search Favorites History Mail Print Address 6 D assemblysite default htm gt eGo School Assembly Guide Welcome to School Assembly Guide Find the perfect school assembly entertainment right here This is the greatest site on the web except it needs some text here describing what we do and why we re so valuable to you Entertainment Categories P S Dance Science Self Esteem Epua Storytelling Family Entertainment All Acts A Z Questions about the acts Want to get your act listed Suggestions Comments Feedback School Assemblies Guide 4332 Bell Chicago 60677 773 539 1973 email us a E My Computer 5 Figure 8 4 Example of skeleton framework Home page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc Once approved a skeleton framework also forms a great basis from which the rest of the development team can begin production For example using the skeleton pages as a shell the graphic designer can create real Web pages with graphics and layout The skeleton framework also shows where content is needed and gives the programmers a context for how more advanced fea
177. k of the quality of program code The more complex and fea ture laden a site is the more reason to have it tested by these experienced out of house personnel Uncontrolled Testing Testing by casual users external to the company often called Beta testing can be of some limited value The real world is always more diverse and surprising than even the most thorough test environment When real potential users start using a site things happen that the development team would never have expected Letting Customers Test A company that goes live with a site without thorough testing is guilty of gross negligence and will suffer the consequences as the first wave of new users make their feelings known You cannot subject real users to an untested site without negative repercussions They expect a site to function reliably and with as much stability as possible Sometimes a preview version of the site is announced to select potential users and reviewers in a so called Beta test however this is often done as much for marketing reasons as for product development benefit The feedback from such casual Beta testers is usually anecdotal at best and is rarely of high enough quality to provide solid test results Potential customers who are given a preview of the site in exchange for test reports usually validate what professional testers have already found and can at best point professional testers in the direction of possible new defects HIGH QUALITY
178. ke offline devel opment much more efficient Nonetheless the technique is not very scalable to websites that contain many pages Online Content Development As a site grows the viability of updating and adding pages manually diminishes until it becomes less and less feasible As an extreme example imagine building all of the pages for a site like Weather com which gives up to the minute weather maps and forecasts for cities nationwide Maintaining a site like Weather com or Amazon com with so many individual product pages is possible only because the content is drawn from a database Each page is created on the fly by the server in response to your request When for example you request the weather report for Chicago your computer sends the request in the form of a command to the Weather com server The server then follows three steps 1 Finds the generic weather report page an empty template page without data 2 Looks up the data for that location and places it in the proper spots on the template page 3 Sends you that newly created page So through automation creating such a rich site is a piece of cake Well almost Data must still be created and placed in the database The Web development team can access the backend database online and maintain it from any Web connected browser E commerce sites commonly use an online content development process Company personnel must continually update information a
179. l get around the site as well as the specific mechanics of interacting with elements Designing and Prototyping 119 such as buttons text fields and the like Consider a site with five main sections each containing subsections The designer must decide whether a static naviga tion bar on the top of the screen will suffice or if the site is deep enough to war rant an expandable tree on the left showing the subsections for each main section The user interface design questions around the search feature for Campus Posters Inc include the following 1 How will customers find their way to the search field 2 What sorts of tips or guidance should be offered 3 If there are no hits what will the page look like 4 How will the customer get back to the search field to try again Any labels or instructions on the site are part of the user interface design as are the messages in dialog boxes User interface design is critical to a site s success It s easy to see how this as pect might become the weak link that would make all of the other work on the site fruitless A rich robust full featured site serves nobody if only the program mer can figure out how to operate it The visual design refers to the artwork itself such as graphics logos colors and fonts An aesthetic element of the site the graphics convey a mood or motif All the elements of artistic aesthetics color texture illustrations and photo graphics can c
180. l take to accomplish them what re sources will be available when and how to obtain resources that would not otherwise be available The starting point is the requirements specification This document can be used to estimate the personnel time required to implement each feature You should consider all aspects for implementing each feature including program ming data preparation testing and other pertinent tasks The time estimates are best determined by having several individuals independently estimate the same tasks for comparison s sake If large disparities occur the estimates can be discussed in a group if nec essary and a consensus achieved You should be especially careful with time es timates cited by programmers because these people can be notoriously optimistic in their estimates Project managers have been known to simply double a pro grammer s estimates as a matter of course Although this reaction may seem ex treme more than one project has failed because the programming effort turned out to be an order of magnitude greater than originally estimated Personnel Once the total time investment required for each feature has been determined the estimates can be totaled for an initial view of the personnel requirements This initial view is usually a rough approximation and does not include contingencies for unknowns and getting project personnel up to speed however it does help you start blocking out how many and what k
181. l to analyze the competition No product or service is sold or produced in a vacuum Look for direct competition such as another website that serves the same purpose or indirect competition such as a print catalog that addresses the same need as a proposed online catalog If your competition is direct make sure you plan a site that is superior in some important way Studying the competitive company itself you can deter mine if your company has the marketing resources and expertise to compete in the open market For example other organizations have the ability to create on line travel websites to compete with Expedia com owned by Microsoft but how many of those companies can challenge Microsoft s depth of resources If the competition is indirect in the form of non website products that ad dress the same need then to be successful your product must provide the user with some compelling advantage to providing this service online For example simply converting a print catalog to an online catalog may not be worth doing if the site provides only the same information In fact such an application has an in herent disadvantage in that it is expected to be always current ongoing mainte nance and you need a computer to access it unlike a print catalog It will probably cost more to produce than a print catalog and have lower quality pho tos because of the better resolution possible in print compared to computer dis plays If your online
182. lding and its structural integrity Visual design is what you see upfront and it may be all your client sees You can help them look further considering the following three components of web site design e Functional design e Technical design e User interface and visual design Consider the stretch to fit analogy of a wedding present for your second cousin Joe What you remember most from your recent visit to Joe s house is the smell of burnt toast So you decide to buy him a new toaster You are choosing a gift that will make Joe and his fianc e happy as well as be a practical tool for their kitchen Functional Design You now face additional decisions What kind of toaster shall you buy How many slices does it need to handle What features are important What about a toaster oven Technical Design You are also thinking about your style of presentation to Joe and the bride What sort of card would be right What will you write in it Should you wrap the gift in newspaper use leftover holiday paper or go to the store and buy wedding paper User Interface and Visual Design THREE BASIC QUESTIONS Design and prototyping is an extension of the analysis and planning process you have completed In that stage you identified the objectives of the site with a cus tomer focused perspective Now is the time to roll up your sleeves and get to work Before you jump in however you should be certain that you can answer three basic
183. lease Yet this is the most efficient method because if the tester does not do a thorough job and isolate defects to the minimum number of steps a programmer will spend even more time doing the same thing before the bug can be fixed TYPES OF ERRORS When documenting errors and defects found through testing it is helpful to cat egorize them according to one of three types of problems 1 design flaws user interface problems or suggestions such as proposed new features relabeling buttons and screen layouts 2 content errors inaccuracies data with formatting problems or data of poor quality in some other respect photo image quality text mis spellings 3 software defects commonly called bugs these are technical problems encountered when trying to run and operate the site During final QA testing the biggest concern is with finding software defects be cause by this time all the data and content should have been created and checked and final design decisions should have been made much earlier Me chanical problems such as system freezes and crashing display and input prob lems incorrectly calculated results and conflicts with other programs are examples of software defects KEEPING GOOD RECORDS The goal of testing is not only to find problems but also to document them and the conditions under which they were found so they can be fixed You should keep good records so that these defects can be referred to
184. lected customers Many websites require user registration and assign a password for future access Again this function is accomplished through communications between the user and the database and the server software makes the interaction possible The most common databases used in website development are Oracle for UNIX computers and Microsoft SQL Server for Windows NT Informix is another supplier of database applications The conceptual leap from static Web pages to dynamic pages constructed on the fly using database information is a fundamental one that must be ap preciated by any aspiring website project manager To the extent that you want an interactive website which everyone seems to you are probably going to want a database on the back end Almost any large useful website from on line trading to maps and auto shopping sites to name a few requires using a database HOW SERVERS AND DATABASES TALK The Web server and the database behind it are separate applications and come from any number of software developers as noted previously Several propri etary technologies build the bridge that allows back and forth interaction be tween the server software and the database The most common applications are Microsoft s Active Server Pages ASP on Windows NT 2000 and Cold Fusion on Unix Linux These technologies basically embed behind the scenes commands to the server and database in the information being exchanged The
185. lem for the project manager however is that although development is in house individuals are on loan from other departments Usually these individuals retain at least some of their existing re sponsibilities in those departments while working on the project part time For example suppose a new section of the website needs to be developed to corre spond to an upcoming tradeshow promotion and the project manager intends to use existing company development resources Perhaps the programmer is from the IT department and although assigned to help on the project may still retain some of his or her usual responsibilities Work on the project may suffer and de velopment time can evaporate quickly in such a situation To avoid problems with this situation the project manager must seek clear guidelines from upper management on priorities and the level of commitment that can be expected from staff with multiple assignments No matter where in the company the internal development team comes from they may be more difficult to motivate than an outside developer They will get a paycheck anyway regardless of when the product is finished In this sense project management is no different than any type of management position When you manage a website project you also manage people Communication is one of your tools and one way you motivate inside and outside the organization Virtually everyone wants to take satisfaction in a job well done and th
186. lly a function of inventiveness A successful web site offers distinctive content or somehow creates a more powerful or positive user experience than do other websites Because most sites try to be different they are by definition attempting something new Invention is at the heart of the process and invention is characterized by continuous problem solving which takes time and dedicated people People become dedicated to a project only if they feel ownership of it and a responsibility for its success which usually hap pens when it is their full time job more or less not just because they have been assigned to the project as part of an assembly line workflow A full time website development team will take ownership of the site and become committed to its success They will view it as a direct manifestation of their efforts Programmers who are part of an assembly line process rarely become ded icated or committed to a given program They may never have seen it before and will probably never see it again however as part of a development team pro grammers are involved in a product through its development cycle and can ac tually become emotionally attached to it They often work extra hours voluntarily to maintain high quality standards and more important because the other mem bers of the team are counting on them Not a manipulative or gratuitous warm fuzzy approach team based Web development is simply a pragmatic and effective wa
187. lly better not to do it at all than to proceed with a project that has little chance of ultimate success If it becomes ap parent that a project stands little chance of success it should be abandoned as soon as possible to avoid sapping company resources Then you can get started on a new project with a better outlook If the initial analysis shows that the idea is good but not quite viable it may be worth modifying the concept into one with a better chance of success per haps something that requires less investment or implementing the project in phases so it will start paying back on the investment earlier These situations usually involve changing the requirements and or the design Stay flexible You may originally have estimated that the site will take six months to complete but management wants it in four which is only 66 percent as much time as you need Or the project is cost estimated at 100 000 but management can afford only 50 000 Remember the three project factors of time task and resources In most cases the only room to maneuver is to change the design so that the proj ect can be finished faster for less money or both GATHERING USER REQUIREMENTS In the analysis phase you need to find out if or how the project can be a success Communicate with stakeholders such as potential users decision makers and those responsible for marketing and selling the product This effort is real work and requires time and personnel
188. lly do not work as fast as they normally would So while you take on additional cost you may not gain proportional benefits in productivity Asking team members to work longer hours is usually beneficial only at the end of the project A better course of action is to identify as early as possible the source of the problems without blaming individuals Then try to fix the system or situation dynamics causing the problems Perhaps yours is a bigger job than originally es timated and without more funds to hire additional personnel the project speci fication needs to be changed in order for you to meet the deadline As Microsoft s Steve McConnell puts it in Rapid Development Cut the size of the software so you can build it within the time and effort planned You may need to make changes to your team because current personnel are not well suited to the task at hand Perhaps your programmer has a mainframe programming background without the necessary Web programming experience to be effective on your project SOLVING PROBLEMS No single method will solve these kinds of problems and no rulebook tells you when to adjust which factor however budgets are usually fixed Obtaining more resources money is always a difficult if not impossible proposition And ex tending the delivery date does not necessarily decrease the cost and may conflict with other organizational objectives Increasing the schedule is a quadruple threat for the following
189. lso tend to be territorial about it Communication as early as possible is important to gain their buy in on the project The technical specifica tion is a key document for this communication If you ve kept the document cur rent during the development it will give technology staff a good idea of the technical requirements and the issues involved in making the site work PREPARING THE SERVER AND NETWORK As previously mentioned the goal in preparing the server is to get the site run ning on the live server just as you want it to before switching over the domain name You will have made every attempt to mirror the environment of the pro duction server when you set up the development server Ideally the new server to which you are moving the site uses the same operating system platform and version If not before you do anything you should make the appropriate up grades or installations to match the environments Nonetheless hardware and peripheral conditions are unlikely to be identical Variations such as a different amount of memory or installed drivers will affect how your site runs and may cause bugs or conflicts You will also need to prepare the network for the new website What exactly will be required depends on the hosting scenario Whatever the arrangement you will have to announce your domain name and IP address to the world as de scribed earlier You can post a dummy or under construction page as the high est level pa
190. mals o American Eagle Productions o Green Light Performing Co e The Mystery Shop e Northlight To Gol e Raven Theatre Co e Folksongs and Foolery Entertainment e The Great American Challenge e American Eagle Productions o Mr Mac s World Music Jam e Whereabouts Inc internet Figure 8 8 Example of final site design Category page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Design by JMC Studios lt www jmcstudios com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc gathering user information as part of the preplanning of your website In the next chapter we look at formal user testing of your website when it s in production User testing is a vital step in the development process but it is not cheap The sort of early prototypes discussed in this chapter do not lend themselves to user test ing There is simply not enough there for average users to evaluate The insiders on your development team on the other hand are able to understand the rudi mentary nature of the skeleton framework for what it is Average users would be thrown off by viewing pages without content Nonetheless project managers need to think of ways to elicit user feedback as early as possible You should be on the watch for less formal checks on the de sign from users Be willing to share these early prototypes beyond the develop ment team and the client Take advantage of any opportunities that arise to get f
191. management is portable from industry to industry however project management is more than a theory it s a practice The project manager s practice involves communication problem solving and decision mak ing all of which require a solid technical grasp of the field Even in the role of fa cilitator and motivator the project manager needs technical knowledge to earn the credibility and respect of team members This chapter introduces some of the basic technology underlying websites and website development It is meant as a jumping off point To those new to website development this discussion will at least help you become conversant in the technology and know the sorts of questions you should be asking It will also help you identify the gaps in your knowledge It s up to you to bring yourself up to speed whether through outside reading classes seminars or workshops Proj ect managers of websites often grow into the position from a specialty within the development process and boast detailed technical knowledge within the spe cialty As for the specialized skills plied by others on the team they may possess only superficial familiarity The systems analyst for instance may be an expert on the architecture of a database but may have no understanding of what the de signer has done to prepare image files that go into it CLIENT SERVER SYSTEMS The Internet is sometimes referred to as a network of networks a grand and com plex system
192. many skills are involved in putting to gether the pieces e g writing programming graphic design and network administration that a company usually goes outside for some services Even though the corporate website now has an undeniable place in the communica tions and commercial mix a company s information technology or marketing departments are often too busy with other duties to build and maintain a site Even many intranet sites running on large corporate networks are built and main tained by an outside developer Successful project management depends on communication Your percep tion of a given project may vary greatly depending on whether you are in the 85 86 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide client company or the outside developer Whether your position is as a project manager in a full service Web development agency or an inside team leader who hires the outside firm you have an interest in how the project is managed If you re the in house team leader hiring an outside project manager you will still manage facets of the project that only an in house person can such as executing the agreement gathering content and shepherding deliverables through the ap proval process Coordination is always an issue in project management and it is likely to in volve both contractors and employees In this chapter we look at how contractors and clients can align individual interests for the common goal of a su
193. ment Other areas of expertise that are often useful are sales and customer support The team members and their roles described previously are general guide lines which are meant to be adapted to the needs of the particular website Be as sured we are not recommending you use exactly seven people in exactly those roles described on every Web project you do Websites can require the efforts of anywhere from a single person to dozens of people organized into teams and subteams In addition because the work is done over time as part of an ever changing process the workload and type of work for a particular team member fluctuates so it is key for team members to have overlapping skills and be easily Person 1 Ul Designer Graphic Designer Web Tech Programmer Content Editor Project Person 5 Manager Person 2 Data Analyst HTML Page Author Tester Marketing Rep Person 3 Person 4 Figure 6 2 Team members and functions Several job roles accomplished by fewer individuals 84 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide UI Designer Graphic Designer HTML Page Author Person 2 Content i Lead Editor Tech lt Person 3 ror Project Project Person 1 Marketing Manager Va Rep Web Tech Programmer Person 4 Data Analyst Tester Person 5 Figure 6 3 Team members and functions Project management func
194. mmy data Sooner or later however the content must arrive Missing or late 134 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide content especially with accountability on the client end is a leading cause of deadline slippage It s important to stay on top of the content situation Content encompasses multiple media written text graphics photos audio or video The files may be stand alone for HTML calls into a static Web page or they may be records in a backend database Often the content needs work on the developer s end You can control the amount of work by writing detailed specs for content in production guidelines however it might be advantageous to the schedule for members of the develop ment team to take on some of the content development responsibility For in stance suppose the marketing design staff of the client is modifying print graphics for use on the website but they lack experience with Web graphics It would be more efficient for your experienced Web artists to assume this task In fact they might end up redoing the client s work anyway which leaves you with the worst of both worlds Of course preparing the graphics files is a commitment of time and resources If this responsibility is beyond the scope of the agreement then additional compensation is appropriate Not only does the content need to come in according to schedule but it must also be satisfactory in quality It probably will not be pos
195. mount then you can design your cost estimate to fit Estimating Costs 49 Budget First Estimating If you are given a budget within which the site development is expected to fall the design parameters must be very flexible A set budget fixes one of the three project factors resources Usually an implicit schedule expectation is also in place fixing a second project factor time and leaving the task as the only re maining variable In such a situation you should be extremely conservative in your choice of features and functionality Such caution flies in the face of devel opers creative nature and clients high expectations however every additional feature tends to increase the cost of the application exponentially because of the ripple effect on the rest of the site s functionality Every new feature must be designed programmed and data content pre pared The new feature must be integrated into the site design tested debugged and documented as appropriate The later in the development process features are added the more they will cost because the more difficult it is to retrofit the balance of the site design to accommodate new features In fact if the budget target is strictly defined it is not unreasonable to choose a design that you think can be executed with only half the target budget i e if the budget is 100 000 design a site that you think you can build for only 50 000 Such an overly conservative estimate
196. mountaintop when you re on the trail Sitting in the valley cannot lend the perspective you will need to make those decisions You should resist the temptation to overplan No amount of planning will build the website for you Do not attempt to outline every contingency Rather consider the plan to always be a work in progress Be steadfast about your desired outcomes but fluid in how you achieve them Keep your plan at your side Let it guide you but modify it when it s sensible to do so In website development you and your team have before you many options You will discuss debate and decide upon each one At a certain point you will pause again and consider options on another decision As you progress in build ing the site you will make increasingly detailed and functional revisions to the plan While a pattern of second guessing yourself is never advisable you may 109 110 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide want to reconsider a direction when it leads to significant obstacles You mini mize the cost of backtracking by quickly developing prototypes to test your deci sions Such practice is what makes website development an iterative process In Chapter 5 we looked at the initial analysis and planning of the website The process continues with design and prototyping which is addressed in this chapter onto the topics of subsequent chapters including production or build out testing and finally go
197. n the special purpose program transferring the data over The charting software constructs the pie chart saving it as a GIF or JPEG The server creates the page placing the pie chart graphic on it The programs that run on the server can be written in everything from Java and C to Visual Basic and Perl In the case of Java the processing work may also be sent to the client side through use of applets PUBLIC INTERNET VS INTERNAL INTRANET While the Internet enables distribution of your content worldwide many organi zations are using Web technologies to deliver proprietary information or services to employees only A key consideration in designing your server and network configuration needs is whether you are designing an intranet internal to your or ganization or a public access Internet A hybrid that has emerged between these two extremes is referred to as an extranet Specific distinctions among the three technologies are as follows e Public access Internet connects your network to the world Figure 2 6 e Intranet is localized to your organization but might include several dif ferent physical sites It is a vehicle for sharing proprietary information within the organization as well as facilitating human resource services like benefits management Figure 2 7 e Extranet permits limited contact outside the organization opening up communications for key customer vendor relationships for instance Figure 2 8 Technologies o
198. n originate from almost anywhere customers potential users management product development personnel even family members of company staff Evaluate all ideas objectively regardless of the source Product ideas tend to take on a life of their own especially in the minds of their creators Just because an idea originated with senior management does not mean it is a good idea or a bad idea Evaluate the idea as impartially as pos sible by determining an agreed upon measure of its value If the idea seems to have merit start refining it into a usable concept for more thorough analysis and market testing The first step is to verify the potential market or for an intranet site the in ternal need To be successful a great concept must fulfill a need Creating an online catalog of your company s product line is pointless if most of your customers do not have Web access on their computers On the other hand if your company is without e commerce and all of your competitors have it it is probably worth con sidering An important voice to listen to in the evaluation phase is the potential cus tomer or user no matter how enthusiastic the prospective developer may be If you are one of the project advocates do not let your own enthusiasm for the project blind you to its real chances of success or failure If the project is worth 58 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide doing it will become apparent If not it is usua
199. nalysis and the Project Plan The goals of the analysis and planning phase are to e Analyze whether the project is a worthwhile endeavor e Determine the website requirements needed for a successful site e Create a workplan to accomplish the project This analysis is a crucial step The success or failure of a website project often can be traced to this stage in development Exploring and analyzing the proposed website in this phase can reveal many hidden issues you can address early clear ing the way for success WHY ANALYZE A good analysis will support and polish a good site idea and will reveal the flaws in a bad idea In fact if the analysis prevents a company from developing a poor website concept the analysis must be judged successful It has prevented the company from wasting precious resources so they are available for more promis ing projects For example a client proposed a website that was to be a directory for find ing and hiring entertainers for elementary school presentations The original con cept was to include motion video live booking of acts and other data intensive functions Upon analysis we learned that most users had dial up connections which would not readily accommodate video over the Web and that the costs of videotaping and digitizing so many performers would be a considerable invest ment The live booking of acts would require communication with performers who often did not have e mail much less che
200. nctional de sign and can help the team avoid many pitfalls while it is still early enough in the process to have a beneficial effect The programmer can propose creative alterna tives to solve design problems early and can even be actively working on the soft ware architecture much earlier than is often imagined Data Analyst Data preparation covers a wide variety of tasks from graphics manipulation to image scanning to text markup and file formatting Therefore the data analyst s required skillset depends on the project needs The data analyst ensures that all content for the website i e text graphics photos and sound is in the proper file format Once prepared the files are handed off to the programmer or HTML au thor to be incorporated into the site Data preparation is a two step process 1 The creation of original source material commonly called content 2 The conversion of content original or provided from another source into the correct file format s for use on the website 82 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Using text as an example a word processing file has to be formatted into HTML or archived in a database for later use by a programmer Web projects often uti lize content created for another purpose such as a promotional video clip or print brochure In such cases the data analyst is mostly concerned with processing the existing data into the right file formats For exampl
201. nd IP work closely together to create logical channels to the application layer Messages are broken into datagrams or packets routed across networks then reassembled Files uploading and downloading files directly to from server Web Pages FTP File HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol Transfer Protocol Flow and assembly E packets a TCP Transmission Control Protocol Source amp destination IP Internet Protocol addressing gt Basic network Physical Layer hardware wiring Figure 2 1 Internet protocol layers amp machines gt Technologies of the Web 13 Applications require specific formats in order to present the data in a useful format If you have ever opened up an e mail attachment and found gobbledy gook ASCII text when you expected a stunning picture of your newborn niece then you know what happens when the requirements are not met In networking parlance this is referred to as the presentation level Examples of data formats that make files useful over the Internet are HTML JPEG or MIME The genius behind these protocols is that they make the Internet scalable Remarkably protocols developed in the halcyon days of the ARPANET long ago still work for today s robust commercial Internet environment TCP IP TCP IP is the protocol that takes care of all of the networking details of a file so that the application can treat it like a simple data stream TCP and IP work closely
202. nd the actual design takes 5 weeks then the slippage is 20 percent Therefore the end date is not simply the 13 weeks you might assume the original 12 plus the 1 week the design phase was late Rather the actual schedule will be closer to 15 weeks than the original 12 in the plan Early slippage is usually symptomatic of the gen eral development conditions and is a useful indicator of factors likely to continue throughout the entire project This initial slippage factor may also provide evi dence for adding resources early in the process or for scaling back the design to meet the deadline Slippage Graph Measuring slippage can be enlightening and there is an interesting way to use slippage and time estimates themselves to get a slippage corrected estimate for the most likely completion date This technique simply involves recording your original time estimates and the date on which they were made For example imagine that at the beginning of January you estimate that the site will take three months to develop giving it a completion date of March 31 At the beginning of February a couple of focus groups have shown the need for some significant de sign changes which will add work You then revise your delivery date estimate to mid April In mid February a technical problem is encountered and you must revise your estimated completion date again this time to late April At this point you might well start to wonder given the way thin
203. ne Rockefeller Center you need to make a mental connection to a street and address to find your way there Similarly routers across the Internet need to know where www nbc com really is that is what IP number it represents Do main name servers all around the Internet hold records that attach domain names to IP addresses 153 154 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide When you have a website with a domain name you actually have two host ing services 1 the website host that has the server where your Web pages are lo cated and 2 the domain name host that broadcasts your domain name and the corresponding IP number to the Internet The domain name host may or may not be the same as your Web host Your domain name server broadcasts your domain name and the underlying IP number to which it refers to other domain name servers around the Internet so they know where to find your website and the pages that are being requested If you switch your Internet service provider ISP your IP number changes as well At this point your domain name host must broadcast the new IP number When you announce a new IP address for an existing domain name the message is propagated to many different servers This process of updating and reconcilia tion all takes place in sites over a complex and intricate series of networks that constitute the Internet Therefore although it is automatic in a sense you really should allow up to o
204. ne week for the new name to take effect across the Web If you do not yet have a domain name at the time you re ready to switch servers do not delay register today The process takes some time Ideally it s all been taken care of before you re ready to go live WHAT GOING LIVE MEANS When website builders talk about going live or flipping the switch what they mean is to enable the connection between the domain name and the home page Many communication links make up the connection between the Web user and your home page file Each connection constitutes a switch that can be flipped in order to make the site go live Depending on the situation mak ing these connections properly i e going live may range in difficulty from the trivial just an expression to a major technical undertaking On the simple end of the spectrum if you have a small Web presence site consisting of six static Web pages you may have already been building it online under your domain name but simply not publicizing it until it s ready In this case because it s already online all you need to do to go live is to decide that you re ready to let the world know you re there In this case the term going live has little technical meaning On the complex end of the spectrum you may have been building a data base driven website on an internal development server behind your firewall Now that it s working in
205. ness development the value of website proj ect management skills can only grow You do not have to be a Java programmer to be a website project manager but you do need to be familiar with the technol ogy We have stressed project management in this book giving only a cursory coverage of technology The choice was one of focus For those moving to the Web from product development in other media we strongly recommend im mersing yourself in the technology and learning as much as you can Technology knowledge is critical to your success The rapid growth of the Web has afforded many young people lots of hands on experience on Web teams These people will be the leaders of Web development in the next decade For those readers we hope to give a larger perspective that will help in the move to a project manager or team leader role Our goal for all readers is that this book will illuminate the Web develop ment process and help you manage your projects with confidence and expertise Project Management in Three Dimensions Managing complex projects such as websites often entails many conflicting issues and concerns You may think the time available to accomplish the task is insuffi cient the job is too complex or the budget is inadequate Determining the proper course of action can be difficult Understanding the three dimensions of project management time task and resources can help you get a grip on things Without an understanding of
206. new defect for every 20 fixed Regression test ing allows a much better chance of discovering these potentially serious defects Compatibility Testing Testing the site on the various kinds of user hardware and software configura tions is called compatibility testing If the site has programs that run on the user s browser client side programs such as Java applets JavaScript or various plug ins it should go through compatibility testing With the various versions of Java and JavaScript that have been released it is possible that features that work fine on one machine may stall or malfunction on another Problems reveal themselves in such situations that might never be discovered otherwise Layout Testing Layout testing refers to the ability of the website page layout to accommodate various user browser and hardware display configurations a fundamental dif ference between Web development and print production In print production you can be virtually certain that different users will see the same thing because the page or print ad is laid out only once In websites however the pages are dis played by the user s browser which can have a myriad of settings so you never know for sure how it will look For example a user with a 640 x 480 display may see a very different page layout than a user with a 1 280 x 1 024 display The wider display will make the elements look smaller lines may wrap differently and tables may shift or stret
207. ng content Chances are the content is not all in one place More than likely text and graphics are in multiple formats 128 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide and have not yet been converted to browser readable form In addition new con tent is being created for the Web some by your development team some by the client You can see the project management challenge that lies before you To make matters worse you may even be depending on the client for the bulk of your content Therefore you don t have as much control over gathering it as you might like Your contact person with the client has logged much time in the early planning of the site She has made herself available to you through negotiating and gaining approvals for the agreement She breathed a sigh of relief once the project was outsourced happy to move on to other priorities Nonetheless she s reviewed the documentation discussed in this chapter Has she been at work preparing content while your team developed its specs and plans Maybe not Es pecially if you haven t instructed her to do so It s not unusual for missed dead lines on content delivery from the client to gum up the works in a Web development schedule Once your design is hashed out you should draw up a list of content along with delivery dates and the person responsible Organizations with rich content and a need for steady or frequent updates should consider a content management sy
208. ng software e verifying backup and support procedures The need for thoroughness in all of these checks cannot be emphasized strongly enough Everything you ve learned about the importance of first impressions ap plies equally to a website Disappointed users will leave your site with a negative impression of your organization and they won t be coming back to see how you fixed everything Follow the software testing process outlined in the previous chapter One type of testing that merits particularly close attention at this stage is load testing You are on your production server now Therefore the conditions that determine your system s capabilities in responding to heavy traffic are set and you re nearly live In general you should analyze how the switchover affects every aspect of the site What is most affected should be the most thoroughly tested after the tran sition Do your best in testing and thinking through what will happen when real users are working the site It is a time to anticipate to make contingency plans and to arrange for backup and support FLIP THE SWITCH AND BE ON ALERT So here we ve come at last to the moment of truth otherwise known as flipping the switch Make the appropriate connection then stand ready and watch closely what unfolds You can expect problems Going live is the ultimate reality Going Live and Beyond 161 check It will flush out any problems or mistaken assumptions with the sit
209. ns per mitted by utilizing Web technologies Sometimes such benefits are hard to quan tify but easy to appreciate from a qualitative and competitive perspective The most important consideration in evaluating the business case for build ing a website comes by establishing the main goals for the site Websites can be justified in many ways Ultimately the decision is subjective as is the decision of what to put on the website What do you want out of the site Is it to establish a Web presence E commerce To establish an online community of customers or users Website plans often accumulate potential uses and the main goals of the website lose focus For example if a small company is considering building its first website the goal would most likely be to establish a Web presence and im prove communications with customers Such modest goals can be readily ac complished and the benefits demonstrated If an established company with an existing site wants to start offering products for sale online it will represent a more significant investment to set up such capabilities however such a project is easily evaluated on a cost benefit basis Another common way that companies evaluate the benefit of a marketing or training website is by comparison to other more traditional delivery methods such as product brochures magazine advertisements telemarketing efforts or the use of live training instructors or video based training Budgets for webs
210. nt I Hogan Patrick II Strauss Roy Managing multimedia projects III Title QA76 575 S775 2001 006 7 6 dc21 2001023144 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library The publisher offers special discounts on bulk orders of this book For information please contact Manager of Special Sales Butterworth Heinemann 225 Wildwood Avenue Woburn MA 01801 2041 Tel 781 904 2500 Fax 781 904 2620 For information on all Focal Press publications available contact our World Wide Web home page at http www focalpress com 10987654321 Printed in the United States of America This book is dedicated to Melinda Ilana amp Alex and Christine John amp Clare This Page Intentionally Left Blank Contents SCAND UTP WN me are pO Appendix 1 Appendix 2 Appendix 3 Preface Project Management in Three Dimensions Technologies of the Web Scheduling Estimating Costs Analysis and the Project Plan The Web Development Team Contractors and Clients Designing and Prototyping Build Out and Production Quality Assurance Testing Going Live and Beyond Recommended Resources The Proposal Process Integrated Product and Process Development Index ix 11 29 43 55 73 85 109 129 141 153 167 169 179 187 vii This Page Intentionally Left Blank Preface In the chit chat of a family party the subject of this book came u
211. nt technical skill and knowl edge but you must also be meticulous in your record keeping and track all prob lems that have been reported and their status whether fixed or open Testers usually use a database to facilitate this process INTEGRATING WITH OPERATIONS Maintaining content is not as complex as troubleshooting but it is probably much more time consuming because you do it continually When the Web was young people accustomed to print production such as magazines often felt a sense of release with Web publishing No longer were they slaves to the publishing cycle s 164 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide steady diet of deadlines Their content would drive the updates however in time most sites that use the Web for publishing in the strictest sense of the word stick to a regular update schedule The large content driven sites update daily Just about any site will want to plan for at least one area with dynamic content however few static sites are planned that way A more common problem is to be overambitious in the initial analysis of the site only to discover after launch that it s more than you can maintain During the analysis process you thought long and hard about why your customers would want to visit your site and what they would do there Don t disappoint those who return to see what s new they re looking for fresh content Prudent project managers build the content updating into the
212. ntified and integrated into the evolving product design while still very early in the design phase however IPPD does not stop with a one time identification of process requirements As product design matures continued emphasis is placed on the processes and their attendant costs required to manufacture operate and support the product This approach greatly reduces the risk associated with design and development Product and process maturity are achieved earlier obviating some of the costly late re design efforts that characterize traditional developments Moreover the upfront tradeoffs result in more cost effective designs Designs can be optimized for cost effectiveness based not exclusively on acquisition cost but on overall life cycle cost Such considerations can be critical since operations and support costs may far exceed acquisition cost Successful IPPD implementation can result in e Reduced overall time to deliver an operational product Decisions that were formerly made sequentially are now made concurrently and from an integrated perspec tive These decisions are based on a life cycle perspective and should minimize the number and magnitude of changes during manufacturing and eventual operational deployment of the product This perspective in turn reduces late ex pensive test fix and test redesign remanufacture cycles that are prime contribu tors to schedule extensions and overruns e Reduced system product cost Increase
213. ntinued Deliverables include all graphics logos banners and navigational elements required for these pages Assumptions e Text content and written copy will be provided by NCC e NCC will provide support regarding any technical specifications required and NCC personnel will post pages to NCC Website Payment NCC will pay TO at a rate of 80 eighty dollars per hour for work performed It is estimated that the project as currently specified will require approximately 100 hours of development time Anticipated Schedule Deliverables will be provided according to the following schedule subject to NCC requirements and project workflow 178 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Deliverable Scheduled Web Site Prototype 1 week after signing this letter Graphical Design Alternatives 3 weeks Final Website 7 weeks By signing below the parties agree to the terms of this Agreement ACCEPTED AND AGREED TO ACCEPTED AND AGREED TO TWIN OAKS INC WINDING TRAILS INC By By Authorized Signature Authorized Signature Name Name Title Title Date Date Appendix 3 Integrated Product and Process Development Modern project management has its roots in the 1950s Cold War defense programs Only fairly re cently has the discipline transcended its beginnings in major aeronautic or construction projects to be applied in businesses of all types and sizes S
214. ntion to during the selection process Desire for Control Another common reason for client developer problems is the desire of either party to exclusively control the project If the client treats the developer as a true partner with valid ideas and valuable knowledge the independent developer often puts forth effort beyond expectations The developer who tries to control the project often causes more problems than are solved The client is the cus tomer and has every right to call some shots Many so called personality conflicts are actually battles over control of a project or an aspect of it When both parties can focus on results the value of respecting each other s expertise will be clear Design Changes Another potential trouble spot is when the client insists on making significant de sign changes throughout the development process especially in the later stages 94 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide This is a major source of conflict because of both frequency and the severe prob lems it causes in development often impairing the developer s ability to finish the project on schedule Design changes can happen for many reasons the client may be unable to envision the final website until it is up and running at which time they may want to change the design or the requirements themselves may change during the project because of competitive issues or new ideas Whatever the reason re questing signific
215. nuation of the brief delving into greater details such as specific features content topics and user interactivity The functional specifications also describe the organization of content and the site s navigational structure Examples of items in the functional design documents for Campus Posters Inc might include the following e The Campus Poster website will allow customers to search the database of approximately 1 000 posters stocked at the downtown store and thou sands more that the store can special order from suppliers e Search will be on artist or source of poster a short description of the poster and broad categories such as music sports nature and fine arts e Users will be able to browse categories for in stock items e Search results will indicate whether the item is stocked or special order e Thumbnail photos will show up with search results and a larger image will appear on the product listing page e A section of the site will be dedicated to special promotions and new releases e Ane commerce module will allow users to purchase posters online Technical Design Ideally you will have involved some members of the technical team in develop ment of your concept By participating in the process they will have had the opportunity to raise any concerns about implementing the site s functions as de scribed In the technical design process programmers software engineers data base administrators or other techn
216. odifications Twin Oaks will then revise the design treat ment until it meets with Winding Trails approval Having established the main graphical treatment the individual screens will be designed and associated graphics created These will be reviewed by Winding Trails for visual appearance and also to ensure that they can be implemented within the architecture and technologies of the NCC site Twin Oaks will then make any necessary revisions or modifications and provide them to Winding Trails for incorporation in the greater NCC site The Proposal Process 175 Schedule Design Kickoff meeting within one Day One week following contract signing Initial home page design concepts 2 weeks after Day One presented Feedback then provided by Winding Trails Home page design revision 2 5 weeks after Day One delivered Approval then provided by Winding Trails Remaining screens presented 4 weeks after Day One Final screens delivered Approvals 6 weeks after Day One then provided by Winding Trails Schedule may vary according to Winding Trails requirements and workflow Cost Hours Estimate Hours Cost Home page approved 24 1 920 Remaining screens presented 40 3 200 Remaining screens approved 28 2 240 Total 7 360 Assumptions e The number of screens and their functions is accurate and will remain approx imately constant through the duration of the project e Web page authoring will deliver standa
217. of clients and servers In a world where computers and networks are ubiquitous in all sorts of organizations the terms client and server are bandied about regularly but they are not always clearly understood The operating premise of a network is that computers are called on to perform specialized tasks 12 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide The client requests and uses a specific service The server provides the ser vice The World Wide Web and the Internet in general at its essence is a series of platform independent network protocols that enable identification of remote ma chines connections between those machines and the transfer of files back and forth INTERNET PROTOCOLS HOW FILES TRAVEL THE INTERNET The many clients and servers that constitute the Internet can cooperate because they speak the same language Beneath the many operating systems and software programs working the Internet is a lingua franca specifically a series of protocols For instance when you surf your way to a new site your Web browser is using HTTP hypertext transfer protocol and a URL uniform resource locator to iden tify a file to be retrieved TCP transmission control protocol and IP Internet pro tocol route the request to the proper server You can think of the protocols at work in the Internet as a series of layers Figure 2 1 Protocols such as FTP file transfer protocol or HTTP work at the ap plication layer TCP a
218. ogramming time required The simplest of sites entails minimum fixed startup costs such as basic graphic design for site pages and navigation posting on a server and domain name registration cost Adding to these fixed costs are project specific variable costs Some costs will increase in a linear fashion according to the number of screens amount of text and number of illustrations others like programming for Java applets or database access may ripple into exponential increases For more complex applications like a database driven e commerce site with interactive applets it might be necessary to quantify not only the number of screens but also the user interface points on each screen e g buttons list boxes menu items the complexity of each interface element the quality of original art work the quantity of photos order processing and other pertinent items Again the accuracy of such an estimate depends largely on one s previous experience developing a similar site or at least the individual features to be combined in such a site Previous projects used for comparison purposes should preferably be those built and maintained with the same development tools and using the same technology and of similar complexity Another important aspect to the accuracy of the estimate is the stability of the design because adding features later in the development process increases costs and time disproportionately If the design is still in flux o
219. oject by deadline Budgets are an orga nizational spending limit typically set yearly Cost estimates differ from budgets in various ways including their purpose source and response to changing conditions 43 44 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Purpose Cost estimates determine the size of investment required to complete the project serving such purposes as e deciding whether or not to build a site e planning projects e allocating resources e determining whether remaining funds are sufficient to complete a project already underway Budgets set spending limits for a company according to expected revenue serv ing such purposes as e ensuring profitability and efficiency e planning projects e allocating resources e categorizing expenses Assigning expenses to specific budget lines not only supports analysis but also is required for proper accounting practices In some cases types of expenses are handled in different ways For example rented equipment can be written off as a business expense in the current year whereas purchased equipment must be depreciated over at least several years Budgets allow individual departments to function efficiently and in coordination with the rest of the organization The or ganization s budget then informs project specific budgets such as website devel opment Source The project manager in consultation with the development staff creates the cost estim
220. ome assert that the Web changes everything and the old rules don t apply certainly not models from a hierarchical linear organization like the De partment of Defense Not true The following document describes a team based customer focused systems engineering process called integrated product and process development The document not only validates the ideas of this book but also identifies best practices that are directly applicable to website development Integrated product and process development IPPD is a widely defined management technique normally implemented by integrated product teams IPTs IPPD is currently in growing use in many commercial and government organizations This guide has been written to serve as a primer for the Defense Acquisition Workforce to foster facilitate and understand the use of IPPD Its focus is how industry implements IPPD and how this im pacts the DOD s role in the acquisition process and the program office interfaces with their industrial counterparts It is a nondirective living document that contains industry and government best practices acquired from a survey regarding IPPD implementation IPPD CONCEPT The DoD defines IPPD as a management process that integrates all activities from prod uct concept through production field support using a multifunctional team to simulta neously optimize the product and its manufacturing and sustainment processes to meet cost and performance objectives
221. on a production server The development server will be a hub of activity Programmers graphic artists and editors will be enhancing the site on a regular basis As new pro gramming functions are added they should be tested Before a site is handed over to the client all of the content and data will have been placed and all data bases and programming formally tested In an ongoing production environment two servers may be running both a development server and a production server Under this arrangement the de velopment team can test and debug the new version without affecting service on the live site When the site has been perfected files can be released to the infor mation technology IT department which can then post new and updated files on the live site or install patches or new programs This two step process with separate but identical servers is a necessity for any site that runs programs Soft ware must be rigorously tested and debugged under real time conditions It s not something you want to perform on a live stable site with your customers watch ing Development programming can really make a mess of things You want to perfect the site performance offline Once you re live it s showtime and you want to be absolutely sure you re ready CONTENT DEVELOPMENT The project manager must monitor the content development process closely Pro grammers and graphic artists will be able to complete much of their work using du
222. on for project approval The budget usually remains unchanged for the duration of the project Thus stands an inherent contradiction the cost estimate can and does change but the project budget remains fixed Therefore the project manager often must choose between going over budget or trimming features late in the development process in order to stay within budget Risk Cost estimating and budgeting represent the largest inherent risk in the whole de velopment process Software projects usually go over budget because budgets are linked to inaccurate cost estimates that are prepared early on when enthusiasm is high and foresight is low The combination can have disastrous implications for companies with significant resources committed to such a project The higher the final cost the more effective the site must be in accomplishing its goals For ex ample for an internal e learning site the higher the development cost the more effective it must be to justify the increased cost COSTS The costs of developing a website fall into two main categories 1 the initial development costs 2 the costs of maintaining and enhancing the site on a yearly basis Initial Development Costs Initial development costs include whatever it takes to get the project to launch including e writing specifications e creating design elements 46 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide developing content programming code te
223. ongoing task and arguably the main function of the project manager Current sometimes daily events drive the workplan Scheduling and planning a Web project can have the feel of building a bobsled run just downslope from a hurtling bobsled Therefore the team leader must have some measure of management control over the resources assigned to the project Scheduling addresses one of the three main project management factors time and depends on the other two factors task and resources If your access to personnel and equipment resources is restricted you will lose opportunities to gain efficiencies Without such actions the project may miss its completion date Likewise if the task is overly ambitious the only possible outcome is a missed deadline without adjustments to task or resources PERSONNEL Websites are developed by people Your success depends on the right people working on the project at the right time Not only must the right people be avail able for sufficient time but the quality of that time is extremely important A 29 30 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide programmer available for half as much time as needed will get only half as much done as needed Even a full time person will find it difficult to maintain the schedule however if constantly interrupted by nonproject tasks The project manager must protect the staff from distractions and requests that interfere with the timely completion of
224. ons and allow for the perspective and insight of others Phase 1 Menu Tree Diagram When developing the concept and working with the initial layout of the site you will probably want to create a menu tree diagram or schematic A menu tree di agram is basically a page by page layout of the site with the top level menu the home page at the top of the page divided into submenus each of which is bro ken down into its component pages Consider the following menu tree diagram for the fictional company Campus Posters Inc Figure 8 3 As a bird s eye view of the various sections and subsections the menu tree diagram clearly shows the relative sizes and relationships among the different sections It reveals the complexity of the site its richness and its potential pitfalls The menu tree diagram is a useful visual aid for a brainstorming or concept development meeting The diagram helps everybody visualize the site and pre sents talking points for design and structure You may want to use self adhesive notes on posterboard so pages can easily be moved around Some developers cover whole walls with index cards pushpins and thread The menu tree diagram shows pages links and some description of con tent As your site plans develop you can fill in specific details on content types such as images video and copy The menu tree diagram helps the team mem bers understand what is on the page Designers will see both the big picture
225. ontribute to the ultimate goals of the website Good graphic de sign also supports the usability of the site Consistent purposeful use of color shape layout and other elements of design can subtly orient users to the site s structure The best design is subtle in that it doesn t call attention to itself but powerful in that it clearly communicates more than words ever could Your users may or may not read the text on your site most users in fact don t There s no es caping your visual message though At first blush the graphics are a decorative element however they must be called upon to do more Otherwise they are merely gratuitous eye candy Unfortunately novices tend to start their website development projects with graphics because that is what they see and notice about other sites Flashy as the visual design might be it nevertheless plays a supporting role to function in web site development Creating graphics is extremely time consuming Final artwork need not be prepared until other design phases have been completed Communication Communication always plays a critical role in project management In this stage the project manager coordinates the three efforts of functional design technical design and visual and user interface design The three initiatives are somewhat sequential but there is overlap Although functional design necessarily leads the 120 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide c
226. ople 75 000 year x 0 5 years 150 000 On top of 150 000 in wages you can add 50 000 in equipment and fixed costs as well All together it comes to approximately 200 000 This estimate may appear outrageously high and indeed it could easily be off by 25 percent or more Even so the project would most likely come in somewhere between 150 000 and 250 000 a huge range but still useful in setting expectations and a starting point for refining our accuracy Feature and Data Costing A second method of cost estimating feature and data costing draws on a de tailed examination of the design and the individual features Analyzing the de Estimating Costs 51 sign can be time consuming however and your accuracy depends on previous experience developing similar websites Such a detailed analysis of the design can be a significant undertaking itself assuming the design is thorough and detailed enough to support such analysis This analysis should be performed anyway as part of the normal development process The criteria you choose to measure depend somewhat on the nature of the website e g heavily database driven number of static pages or complexity of Java applets as well as the hosting and development environment For exam ple the estimate for a simple Web presence site home page plus six static infor mational pages may consist of a count of the pages the number of graphics anticipated content development time and any pr
227. ople and eventually dispose of the product be considered during prod uct design and development Product and process design and performance should be kept in balance to achieve life cycle cost and effectiveness objectives Early integration of design elements can result in lower costs by requiring fewer costly changes late in the de velopment process Early and Continuous Life Cycle Planning Planning for a product and its processes should begin early in the science and technology phase especially advanced development and extend throughout every product s life cycle Early life cycle planning which includes customers functions and suppliers lays a solid foundation for the various phases of a product and its processes Key program activities and events should be defined so that progress toward achievement of cost effective targets can be tracked resources can be applied and the impact of problems re source constraints and requirements changes can be better understood and managed Maximize Flexibility for Optimization and Use of Contractor Approaches Requests for Proposals RFPs and contracts should provide maximum flexibility for em ployment of IPPD principles and use of contractor processes and commercial specifica tions standards and practices They should also accommodate changes in requirements and provide incentives to contractors to challenge requirements and offer alternative so lutions that provide cost effective solutions
228. or 55 57 requirements specification 62 67 summary overview of 71 72 user requirements 58 61 Application protocols 15 16 Authentication 21 22 Authoring tools 132 Backend database 17 19 Beta testing 151 Brooks Frederick 4 47 137 Brooks Law 4 Browsers 15 27 Budget first estimating 49 Budgets analysis of 56 57 approval of 70 cost estimates vs 43 45 in house development of 100 101 Cascading style sheets CSS 16 132 CGI 24 Charts Gantt 31 32 34f 65 PERT 31 32 33f 34 65 Client communication with 119 120 corporate bureaucracy 95 decision makers 96 developer and agreement between 102 104 payment 105 106 relationship between 92 97 indecisive 96 Client server systems 11 12 Communication channels of 130f database 20 in design phase 119 120 e mail 120 importance of 85 86 team approach benefits 75 76 workplan changes 130 Compatibility testing 149 Competition 61 62 Concurrent tasks 40 41 Connectivity description of 154 155 steps involved in 155f 157f testing of 163 Content cost of 48 development of 133 135 136f editorial review of 134 errors in 145 161 187 188 Index Content cont gathering of 127 128 late 104 maintenance of 163 164 management of 127 128 cost estimating for website with 53 54t for documenting defects 145 146 functions of 20 server interaction with 20 types of 20 user communication with 20 Data costing 50 51 Da
229. ossible actions and provide an adequate defect report Once these software defects and errors are found they are logged on bug report sheets The sheets are then typically turned in to a person responsible for maintaining and updating the defect database Without this approach it is difficult to keep track of defects make sure they have been fixed or prioritize outstanding defects and make the best use of remaining programming and page building time ISOLATING AND REPRODUCING THE DEFECT In addition to simply finding a software defect and being able to reproduce it testers must give directions for another person to be able to reproduce it as well with a minimum of time and effort If it can t be duplicated it s hard to know whether it really exists not to mention whether it s been fixed Here is where test ing borders on art It is better to be able to reproduce a defect in fewer steps be cause it greatly assists the fixer in identifying the source of the defect If it takes Quality Assurance Testing 145 five keystrokes to demonstrate the defect the programmer has fewer variables and conditions to consider than if it takes six keystrokes It takes experimentation insight and time for a tester to reproduce defects and demonstrate them with the fewest possible steps The time necessary to identify reproduce and isolate de fects largely accounts for the unexpectedly long time between the latter develop ment stages and final re
230. ot be aware of The nuances of designing with ambiguity concerning out put include table layouts different browser display methods graphic colors and variations in fonts depending on user settings various screen sizes and more Graphic artists must design a Web page that functions in real world situations where these factors can come into play For example we were privy to the development of a site for a print graphic design company with no prior Web development experience They insisted on designing the pages themselves and promptly worked up a set of beautiful richly textured pages with layers of lavish graphics photo images and unusual fonts The design beautiful as it was could not be converted into standard HTML Designing and Prototyping 125 E School Assembly Guide Microsoft Internet Explorer Fle Edit View Favorites Tools Help Links Best of the Web Channel Guide 1Customize Links gt A a a 8 By 3 BF Back komad Stop Refresh Home Search Favorites History Mail Print Edit Address E http Avww schoolassemblyquide com Welcome to School Assembly Guide The newest tool in planning all of your school assembly programs and special events We bring a wide variety of performers right to your computer New groups will be joining regularly so please check back often ENJOY Categories Performer List Contact Us THE SCHOOL ASSEMBLY GUIDE 4232 N Bell Ave Chicago Illinois 60618 Tel
231. our site 156 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide 0 me EO mee a Web Internet Domain Host Home Surfer Name Kimia Server Page Broken Connection Figure 11 2 Connectivity disrupted because of incorrect matching of domain name www domainname com and server IP number xxx xxx xxx xxx User cannot connect to website home page So basically to prevent people from getting to your website all you need to do is break one of these connections If you are building a website you can break the link at position number 6 When your site is tested and ready to go live you can just reestablish the broken link and the world will be able to view your site How you go live depends on which link is being unbroken or reestablished In the previous example you simply use a dummy home page to route people until your site is ready When you are ready you can connect up to the real home page easily by performing the following tasks 1 Copying the real home page over the dummy home page 2 Configuring the server to point to the real home page instead of the dummy home page Which option you choose depends on the control you have over the server Ome me ma Web Internet Domain Host Home Surfer Name TE Server Page 1 6 Dummy Home Page Site Under Construction Figure 11 3 Website using dummy home page to route traffic while real home page is being developed To make site go liv
232. ources in the project management model If a key programmer finds another job halfway through the project you face a resource problem Personnel performance problems or inter personal relations on the development team are not uncommon sources of delay If a squabble breaks out between the programming and testing personnel you also have a resource problem Not that you do not have enough resources but in this case they cannot be used effectively because of the argument Websites are fluid ever changing works in progress They reside in an on line medium where change is an expectation Often shifting company priorities Project Management in Three Dimensions 9 require updates reorganization and even redesign therefore the task factor is often a moving target Estimating the resource and time factors of the final ap plication is especially difficult because the application is never truly finished The resources necessary to maintain a reliable commercial website include inter nal project management and data preparation staff along with external Web de velopers knowledgeable in the latest technologies This Page Intentionally Left Blank Technologies of the Web To acertain extent project management is project management regardless of the industry As an established discipline project management as described in Chapter 1 has its eternal truths systems that work no matter what project you re managing In theory project
233. out of 100 photos have been digitized it is fair to assume that the task is about half done On the other hand some tasks such as design program ming and testing are not done until they are done In other words the design process can continue ad infinitum so it is sometimes meaningless to measure the percentage of the task completed Likewise programming may be finished but testing results will require more programming to fix errors Testing itself is not finished until the first site goes live and it may even continue afterward There fore the precision of the scheduling and time estimation process has inherent lim itations Rather than try to quantify every task it is sometimes wise to pay close at tention to whether a task has been started or not how it seems to be progressing and if anything can be done to facilitate its completion Carefully tallying the 40 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide percentage of programming that has been completed based solely on a program mer s estimate is of little value and may well represent a waste of time or worse misinformation When a programmer says a task is about 80 percent done it may actually still require another 80 percent of the effort to finish the code and test and debug it Programmers are not incapable of estimating accurately but project un knowns often make percentage complete estimating inaccurate Therefore note when tasks are started and when th
234. owever is nonlinear with an unlimited number of potential paths most of which have to be tested Every functional choice and button must be tried alone and in combination with other features Such testing is not analogous to proofreading a print product either Software QA testing demands considerable technical skill and ingenuity along with meticulous record keeping of the results of actions performed in the various combinations and permutations allowed by the user interface This QA effort is a significant responsibility and usually requires significant resources If the site is for public viewing the client usually ends up testing it whether the project is planned that way or not The development shop can rarely test its own work adequately Testing must be done objectively and the skills nec essary to test software are different from those needed to develop it Because the client is ultimately at risk it is their responsibility to ensure that the site is thor oughly tested and that defects are fixed before it is posted live on the Web This often means finding an outside company to assist in testing or setting up an in dependent in house testing group Development servers are particularly useful when it s time to test Once the site has been tested fixed and is running fine it can then be copied from the de velopment server to the production server with a minimum of expected prob Quality Assurance Testing 143 lems how
235. ox will do The brains and grunt work of Web services takes place on the soft ware side The requirements of the software determine how powerful the box needs to be Common examples of server software include Microsoft Internet In formation Server IIS Apache Web Server or iPlanetWeb server Server software must be compatible with the operating system platform of the computer it s running on and Web server software comes bundled together with the box For example the Apache Web Server program would not run on a machine with the NT operating system but you could run it on Red Hat Linux Professional or the Solaris 8 Operating Environment Microsoft IIS runs with the Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server of NT A question that regularly arises from clients working with their first website is Why do I need Web server software at all They ve seen a designer come in with a directory of HTML files and images created in Dreamweaver and residing on the local hard drive then clicking away through a series of pages that look just like they do on the Web The distinction should be obvious from reading about Internet protocols One function of Web server software is to recognize the dumbed down packets 18 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide traveling the Internet and to translate these messages into instructions to be exe cuted Web server software responds when its IP address is called on It monitors traff
236. p I need to read that said a brother in law a managing partner of a small law firm Our web site hasn t changed in two years Who s managing it we asked Nobody That s the problem said the brother in law Indeed And it didn t take a C programmer to figure it out We recalled our first visit to the site a few years ago A modest site what we call a Web presence with lawyer biographies contact information and little more it was nonetheless impressive to see that the firm was on the Web In those early days of the Web enthusiasts touted its democratizing power Now everyone can be a publisher they proclaimed Organizations of all types sizes and missions came forth to fulfill that promise The sheer quantity of Web con tent is astounding but just being there is no longer enough Managers are asking How does the site further our goals Finance people are asking about return on in vestment Perhaps the only way to launch a new medium like the Web was the all out blitz that ensued As a more mature medium the Web now requires a more disciplined approach and the principles of project management have much to offer Project management has its roots in large scale projects in construction aerospace and the military Now its principles are applied in all sorts of indus tries Project management is a natural ally of business management trends such as reengineering outsourcing teams and
237. plish this goal in various ways GETTING READY TO FLIP THE SWITCH In general the way to proceed is to build your site offline in a way that lets you test it in as realistic an environment as possible Once you have the site working correctly you can post it live on the Web for final testing You should use pass word protection though or not connect the server IP address to your domain name To show how this task is accomplished consider what needs to happen for a Web surfer to connect to a website Figures 11 1 through 11 3 portray the steps to connecting as links in a chain they are not network diagrams Or the host server may point the IP number to a dummy home page When you see an under construction home page you are viewing a dummy page Oa Oa Om Web Internet Domain Host Home Surfer Name umber Server Page Figure 11 1 Normal connectivity between user Web surfer and site home page 1 the Web surfer enters your domain name into the browser 2 the request goes out to the Internet in search of the domain name 3 the domain name is located 4 the domain name is matched to an IP number the real Web address 5 the IP number is matched to the hosting server 6 the hosting server matches the IP number to the right home page If any one of these connections is broken the user will not access your Web page For example if the domain name does not point to your IP number then the user will not be able to get to y
238. po sition to gather users to test your design decisions No matter how skilled and ex perienced a design team you ve assembled user testing always seems to offer new revelations True user testing is a structured observation of real users individually per forming a standardized set of tasks Start by developing a list of tasks that are rep resentative of the functions of your website In stating these tasks use neutral language and emphasize the outcome not the procedure Questions you might ask for the Campus Posters Inc website introduced in Chapter 8 could be as follows Build Out and Production 139 e Determine if any Jimi Hendrix posters are available for purchase e Locate the Shaquille O Neal Slams poster and the Sammy Sosa poster and place one of each in the shopping basket e Go to the shopping basket and remove the Shaquille O Neal poster and change the quantity of the Sammy Sosa poster to two A series of users then come to the usability testing sites and perform identical tasks Request that users think out loud while they perform their tasks How else can you know what s going on in their heads At minimum the project man ager should attend the user testing sessions Depending on the size of the project others on the development team may want to join as well You may also want to videotape the session as documentation to share results in the group and for fu ture reference Testing out the site with actual
239. pprovals are executed inside the company Not only do such communications avoid misunderstandings down the line but they also help in project scheduling One of the most frustrating situations for the outside developer involves overly bureaucratic companies in which people cannot make even the smallest decision without endless meetings committees and layer upon layer of ap provals This means that few individuals are empowered to actually make real decisions and the company must reach a consensus for any decision of signifi cance including the decision to actually sign a website development contract If you start feeling that the decision making process is taking much too long and assuming there are no outstanding invoices it may be time to look for other work opportunities while the client sorts things out internally Check back by phone once every week or two to see how things are going Patient persistence can be effective Here is an example of a compatibility issue If you are a small developer who can work on only one project at a time you may have to walk away from an opportunity to develop for the large bureaucratic company The decision making process may put you into unproductive downtime Not all companies are overly bureaucratic however Don t evaluate potential clients on size alone Early nego tiations provide a sample of what lies ahead If you experience long delays in ac cepting your proposal you can expect the same for
240. processes of the business in some way Website strategies and operations go hand in hand with marketing Once you re up and running maybe even beforehand you ll want to be marketing the site Website domain names are now routinely incorporated into a company s ad vertising campaign Buying banner ads probably works only if you have an es tablished brand and a budget that can buy into the most heavily trafficked sites on the Internet however sites with small niche target audiences may find more reasonable outlets In general a Web ad model that satisfies both advertising purchasers and sellers has yet to evolve Generally speaking the website should be integrated into your full marketing mix Send out press releases for the launch Print the domain name on business cards Encourage employees to use it in their signature lines Plan an event Run a contest Many websites fall under the con trol of marketing Even if yours is not get marketing involved You will want to attempt to get your site listed in directories and identified by search engines You should study how search engines work and what you can do to improve your site s chances of turning up in searches For instance metatags give you the opportunity to index the site with keywords that don t show up on the Web page itself but are identified by some search engines Your marketing people should get the news out about your site to any customers part ners stakeholders industry
241. provide some sort of technical support the size of which will depend on the situation You may need a full department of customer support personnel or you may be able to simply designate an individual to reply to the occasional e mail If this support does not already exist then the issue of how customers will obtain tech nical support will have to be decided early and weighed into the break even equation REQUIREMENTS SPECIFICATION A primary goal of the analysis phase is to identify and describe the application s crucial functions and features what the website needs to be able to do This dis cussion is embodied in a document that specifies the requirements that will be needed which is often known as the requirements specification This essentially sets the task factor of the project For example a particular website to be suc cessful may need to include sections on products personnel store locations and an online catalog that accepts credit card payments In the requirements specifi cation all this would be described to a fine level of detail The requirements spec ification is crucial to the success of the project because it is the starting point for the workplan and cost estimate and later for the design itself Once you set the requirements it becomes much easier to predict chances of ultimate success and to reexamine and perhaps modify the project to increase those chances Imagine that a website is cost estimated at 500 00
242. provides a starting point for discussion At this point the 66 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide development staff usually starts asking questions e g searchable in what ways which help define the project to the level of detail they need After reviewing this feature with those who have requested it technical staff and possibly with potential users the description might be expanded as follows Online Catalog Module e Accessible from main navigation bar active anyplace on the website e Externally hosted on secure server e Contains up to 2 000 products e Product pages contain photos and text descriptions of most products e Searchable by product function word search product number e Shopping cart system lets users browse and flag products for potential purchase e Lets users order products online through submission forms e Automatic e mail notification to users of order received e Credit cards accepted for payment with automatic verification and bank crediting e Administrative functions to allow easy catalog maintenance e g items prices e Total estimated screens 12 as follows Main catalog page containing product categories Search page Search results page with hotlinked results Product detail page Shopping cart page Order information page Payment page Order verification page Order confirmation page Administrative menu Product maintenance page 1
243. questions Your answers should be clear and succinct Imagine your self answering these questions to a senior executive in your company or with a client Because senior executives are busy people with much on their minds and Designing and Prototyping 113 many things to do you only have 90 seconds leaving no time for hemming and hawing You must paint a compelling big picture that hooks their interest 1 What do you want your site to do for users Through analysis and planning you now have a clear idea of who your users or customers are You un derstand what kinds of problems they have and what kinds of solutions your company might offer Websites offer a new channel for communi cation with customers and to deliver products and services some of which may not have been possible previously A single website project is unlikely to do it all so you must focus on the specific results you seek What do you want your site to do for users In the answer to that ques tion are the seeds of your functional design documents 2 How will your site perform that function Chances are your website is not starting on a blank slate Certain technologies are in place Web servers server software and Web development tools You have assembled a team of people who have competencies with certain tools It s likely they can learn others but this process takes time You can go to outside de velopers for certain functions but depending on how much you ve
244. r date will help you assess current project status PERT Charts A powerful planning and scheduling tool a PERT chart is a network of intercon nected boxes each of which represents a task or milestone in the development process Figure 3 1 By identifying which tasks are prerequisites for other tasks you can clearly see the interdependencies of team members The chart reveals de pendencies between tasks and bottlenecks in the workflow that may not other wise be apparent A PERT chart can help you make adjustments to finish the project by the deadline date You can reorganize tasks and interdependencies and see the results on the schedule immediately For example you may originally have scheduled the user manual to be written at the end of the project however a PERT chart may demonstrate that doing so will make the project several weeks overdue You might then decide to break up the user manual production into separate tasks e g outlining writing editing and screen shots which can be done simultaneously with software development The strategy will shorten the overall time frame but increase the need for more personnel earlier Gantt Charts Also a powerful project management tool a Gantt chart is a type of bar graph that depicts how long a task is scheduled to take when it can be started and when it must be finished Figure 3 2 This graphical representation also shows the rela tive magnitude of individual tasks and the complet
245. r if much oppor tunity for design changes occurs during development the initial estimates may be off by a wide margin Hence the need to perform ongoing cost estimates The more complex the site and the more custom programmed features re quired the higher the risk of inaccuracy in the cost estimate both because of the greater overall investment required and the larger number of unknown factors In addition the design must be analyzed at a finer and more highly technical level if a detailed technical design and prototype have been produced Contractor Proposals When an organization hires out for website development the contractor performs the cost estimating So from the perspective of the in house project manager send ing out requests for proposals RFPs constitutes a method of cost estimating 52 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Please note that it is highly unethical to send out RFPs if you are not truly planning to contract out the development For a developer to prepare a decent proposal takes significant time and effort Presenting a false opportunity for the purpose of getting a free cost estimate is stealing these professionals time and energy which is essentially all they have to sell The most experienced and savvy developers will quickly sniff out your ruse after asking a few questions and will simply not re spond Therefore what you receive back from inexperienced developers may be less than r
246. r scripting all site features e testing the site and fixing bugs The Web development process is continual The processes described in Chapter 8 do not cease when the project goes into production The transition is one of em phasis from planning to implementation The feedback loops of an iterative de velopment process continue to raise design issues as the project proceeds and even after going live In fact because a website is in effect always a work in progress requiring maintenance and updating the design of your site will al ways be up for discussion PRODUCTION PLANNING For project managers the planning never stops When building out the site the functional and technical specifications continue to guide the work of the 129 130 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide development team Every production process needs a point person In a website development project many individuals work independently but are nonethe less part of a team effort When the work of some individuals affects that of others with whom they are not in regular contact communications breakdowns pre sent a huge risk On large scale Web projects a production manager or producer may take this responsibility of supervising production That person would re port to the project manager on a regular basis In this book we assume that the project manager is the production lead The client and development team members alike must communi
247. rd HTML suitable for the display of static Web pages Any HTML coding necessary for incorporating in any NCC Web technology will be provided by NCC staff upon delivery of final screens by Twin Oaks At Twin Oaks we appreciate the opportunity to make this proposal We look for ward to working with Winding Trails and the NCC to deliver an attractive func tional and effective Web design 176 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide WEBSITE DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT This Website Development Agreement dated as of 200__ Effective Date is between Jane Developer of Twin Oaks Inc TO with an address at 101 Main St Chicago IL 60006 and the National Cycling Club NCC with an ad dress of 40 Peach Blvd Sheboygan WI 54001 Under this Letter of Agreement TO will provide project management and website design and development services to NCC to develop the Winding Trails Home page and subpages including the Reading Trails Website Ownership and Copyrights Any and all of the materials produced by TO in the course of the project shall belong exclusively to NCC and are considered Works for Hire Confidential Information Information exchanged in the course of this project will be treated as confidential by TO and not divulged to any third party without prior written agreement Representations TO makes the following ongoing representations and warranties A TO has full legal rig
248. re quiring it to start through the process anew Meanwhile the developer is anxiously awaiting payment and wondering whether to continue investing time and resources in the project In house managers and their counterparts in the de velopment firm should both be motivated to work through this conundrum Discounts for Quick Payment The converse of the standard penalty for late payment that is so often ignored discounts for quick payment reward rather than punish Offering a discount for quick payment may get the attention and motivation of a corporate accounting 106 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide department Many otherwise lethargic accounting departments jump through hoops to get the check out if the invoice shows a clear notice that the company is allowed say a 2 discount for payment within 10 days Early Invoicing or the Old Stash the Payment Trick In the event that a more officially sanctioned method is not available a corporate maneuver can minimize the payment delay problem The project manager in structs the developer to submit the invoice for payment at the earliest appropri ate date The project manager then approves the invoice and submits it for approval and payment regardless of whether the deliverable has actually been approved with one qualification the check is to be routed to the project manager rather than automatically mailed to the developer Then the project manager can hold t
249. rer Opera to access the same Web page You can also use FTP through a Web browser The fact that FTP is both an application protocol and a software application is a source of some confusion 16 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide When you use Internet Explorer to visit an FTP site your application Explorer is using the FTP protocol Browsers present a graphical interface for download ing or uploading files but the protocol at work is still FTP Another example of application protocols is SMTP simple mail transfer protocol which is used for e mailing INTERNET FILE FORMATS At the presentation level applications depend on specific file formats so that data can be displayed in a useful way as intended Graphics for example need to be either JPEGs or GIFs to display through a Web browser As you manage the con tent development of your website project you will be working with multimedia content in any number of file formats All Web browsers read a few basic file formats which are sometimes called Web native The format for text is HTML hypertext markup language JavaScript adds features that HTML cannot support independently program matic features such as variables logic branching and math calculations XML is a developing standard for tagging content that offers much greater functionality than HTML For graphics the common compression formats are GIF or JPEG or for sound WAV files Through the use o
250. resources invested and may never get finished at all On the other hand client companies are sometimes guilty of stringing along small develop ers with promises of work to keep their options open and sometimes even to get de facto free consulting services from an eager independent developer Both of these situations raise ethical questions Open communication and integrity al ways produce the best results Dancing with Elephants Although the Web development business is establishing quickly and large well financed operations are emerging the industry is still dominated by small in dependent development shops Project managers working in small website development companies should understand some important concepts involved in working with large corporate clients First large companies can move very slowly Usually the larger the com pany the slower it moves In a small website development shop the environment is completely different decisions can often be made by one or two individuals and implemented almost immediately By contrast a large company may require several levels of approval each of which is harder to obtain than the last The chain of command approvals and buy in decisions can be difficult to under stand even for those within the company much less for a small independent website developer who is waiting for a decision on a project Your in house con tact may have little or no decision making authority or even
251. ress 2 Inside the Covers Direct excerpts from books organized by category Each page will indicate the category but design elements should be the same in this section regardless of category The categories therefore serve as an index browsing function 3 Beyond the Book Links to websites perhaps on our server or off site that expand and update the content of a book Possible partnering with travel sites for regional touring trail books 4 The Editor s Shelves Draft material posted and readers invited to e mail feedback Perhaps forms with JavaScript This material would come and go and would not be archived for longer than a few months Content will usually be in the form of excerpts that will be approximately 500 1 000 words Longer pieces would be broken down into discrete pages that are continued with links We may also want to post full chapters that are PDF files of published books available for download or online reading with Acrobat Reader Each category should have an icon that serves as a visual cue telling readers where they are To a certain extent these four categories should have a distinct look while still remaining consistent among each other Backgrounds are okay but should be subtle Reading Trails will be a mostly text site so readability is a critical factor Each category should have two templates 1 A navigational page which will tout current features Below these new list ings archived article
252. s along from station to sta tion with specialists at each station applying their skills The car stops in front of the windshield installer then moves off to get its headlights installed while the next car arrives to have a windshield installed The team approach is generally better suited to Web and software develop ment With this approach a multidisciplinary team is responsible for taking a product from the beginning to the end of the development cycle When building a car with the team approach the car does not move down an assembly line In stead it stays in one place and a stable team of multiskilled people works to gether to build the car One person installs the windshield then goes on to install the headlights and then perhaps helps another team member maneuver the en gine into the engine compartment A particular development process may incorporate elements of both ap proaches After a team builds a car the car may go to a testing shop Because that 73 74 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide testing shop does nothing but test cars it can be considered a functional area Dif ferent product development and production situations favor different ap proaches including hybrid processes like a team approach that uses some assembly line elements or vice versa WHEN TO USE EACH APPROACH The functional area approach is well suited to a situation in which many similar or identical products need to b
253. s the correct signatures and the invoice finally ar rives in the accounting department in mid February The accounting department holds the invoice for several weeks according to an unwritten policy The devel oper finally receives payment in mid March two months later than planned Small developers usually depend heavily on their individual clients If a corporation withholds or delays payment intentionally or inadvertently it can have a serious and magnified effect on a small developer This impact is some times difficult to appreciate by those within the corporate confines A single de layed payment of sufficient size could cause a small developer problems with staff morale credit and making payroll It may even result in the temporary or permanent layoff of staff Short of such a dire outcome slow payment at the least can brew resentments that are counterproductive to the project under develop ment Unfortunately ensuring that payments to a developer are made in a timely fashion may be a project all its own for the project manager in a large company Many companies routinely hold invoices until the very last moment for payment sometimes even longer for good measure Invoices can easily get lost on the desks of busy executives whose signatures are required for approval or they can get lost in the accounting department while being processed for payment Some times the approval process even gets changed while the invoice is in process
254. s would be listed organized by category 2 A destination page the articles themselves As indicated longer articles would be broken into pages While we are requesting eight templates covering these categories the class of templates navigational or destination will be very similar among categories The graphics icons will serve as the identifiers of category Each book excerpt will end with a thumbnail of the cover of the book and with the image and text title linked to the book s catalog entry in the store Searching Browse We would like a page that lists the content on the site by book category e g under bicycle maintenance all content would be listed whether they are from Beyond the Book or Inside the Cover pieces The NCC site uses the Excite Search engine which could be configured to search our directory only This will be coordinated with in house technology staff I mention it here for whatever guidance you can offer from past experience for design pages that facilitate efficient searching in Excite The Proposal Process 173 NCC Design Guidelines e Background is attached from various Web design guidelines e The site will reside on a Microsoft NT platform running parts of which will use Active Server Pages e The NCC pages follow a template created with a server file call The Winding Trail home page will be in the template as well as other informational pages in About and
255. server has trouble keeping up with the request for database searching or new pages it is a good indication that a more powerful server is needed or the features need to be simplified Another consideration is the data throughput from the site For example a server that is connected to the website through a T3 line can handle a lot more re quests than one running off a cable modem because the pipe that connects the server to the Internet is so much larger It does not do any good to have millions of hits if you can only supply thousands Link Testing The testing of links from your site to other Web pages is called link testing You probably have visited websites with obsolete links on their pages Dead links are annoying and lessen the credibility of the site Fortunately automated tools per form link testing moving from page to page on your site and trying every link they find If they try a link and do not receive a page in the specified amount of time they generate an error message that you can follow up on If your site has only six such links then using an automated tool is not worthwhile because you can test them manually with little trouble however if your site lists hundreds of links it would be very time consuming to test them manually Automated link testing tools are quite useful WHO CAN TEST QA testing for programmatic and layout features is a specialized and unique skill which must be learned You cannot adequately test
256. server or database recognizes the commands and responds accordingly For example consider user registration to a website running on Windows NT After you fill out the fields shown on the Web page and click the Submit button the server looks up your information in the database using ASP commands If the server finds a match in dicating that you are a valid user it lets you in and returns the appropriate screen If the user name and password are not both in the database record the server sends you an error message or displays a registration page All of this functionality is accomplished through ASP Cold Fusion would operate similarly on a UNIX based system Technologies of the Web 21 OTHER SERVER FUNCTIONS Site Search Searching a website is another common function carried out by Web servers A feature now ubiquitous in websites the search function allows users to submit a word or words and then delivers back a list of hotlinked URLs that contain the word To do so the server scans a prebuilt list of words from various pages on the site The server therefore must constantly track data from all of the pages on the site keeping up with any changed page and then index them for searchable words The server works off of its own list which is kept independent of the Web pages themselves for quick direct access Because the server is not scanning all of the Web pages when users submit search terms the server can return the results almost
257. shing with Winding Trails is important but only to a niche of our website audience writers Reading Trails Goal Our goal has been an image thing Websites give surfers a quick read on the per sonality creativity and usefulness of an enterprise Winding Trails serves a niche market Reading Trails is the place where bicycling junkies and newbies alike can read about their sport from some of its most skilled and knowledgeable practitioners They can see what Winding Trails is up to who the players are and what opportu nities there are for themselves It will draw on the common interests of the cycling community presenting practical content drawn from our books in an engaging in formal way As we pour in more content we hope the site will evolve beyond image into a rich and useful information resource for serious cyclists Metaphor Winding Trails is a publisher of books and the proposed main categories of Read ing Trails for the most part expands on the metaphor of the publishing process di rect excerpts from books drafts of manuscript shown before publications updates and expansion of content of the book 172 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Organization Riding Trails content will be organized in the four main areas 1 Writers News items about authors Author websites with annotations Races or other events where authors will be participating Announcements of new projects in prog
258. sible for you to check every piece of content personally and in fact you may not feel qualified to judge it You should however establish a system that ensures that somebody is responsible The Web is full of copy that by all appearances has never been edited Companies take great care in editing and proofreading brochures or press releases yet when it comes to publishing on the Web quality control seems to relax or be nonexistent The nature of Web pages is that editorial changes are easy to implement after publication whereas with print pieces you get only one shot Nonetheless it s best to resist the temptation to worry about that later Print and graphical content should be checked against the specifications you ve com municated and for a general quality review Content development for a website project is accomplished in one of two ways 1 offline content development 2 online content development Offline Content Development In offline content development as the name would indicate you build pages of fline on a workstation rather than on a Web server You would generally use this method in building a basic site of static pages In this process you build pages or content files and when complete they are uploaded copied to the server This Build Out and Production 135 procedure is generally the case for regular HTML pages or fully prepared data base files Master templates or style sheets for the design can ma
259. siness than they can handle too much of a good thing The back office process being advertised is a shipping service Most e commerce transactions of bits eventually come to the point where the vendor ships something physical but this is just one common example of a back office process Many sites strive to establish a one on one customer dialog but it s not automated all the way If you create expectations for a phone call or e mail response to the customer a back office process has to make it happen At the time of the launch you should be benchmarking offline as well as online per formance PLANNING FOR MAINTENANCE Before your site ever goes live you need to consider what will be involved in keeping it functional and current The Internet is littered with sites that have gone stale from neglect Accountability is key here Clearly designate a person who is responsible for maintaining the site and give that person the resources to do so Maintenance is a sort of ongoing project or a series of mini projects and the three project dimensions of time task and resources still apply Few of the stale sites on the Internet were launched with the thought that the work was done and the site would not change So what happened To find the answer ask questions about the three tenets of project manage ment Organizations that are fairly new to the Web may underestimate what s in volved in maintaining the site They go outside the organiz
260. sn t go exactly according to script The process of build ing inspecting and rebuilding is called prototyping The word prototype means Designing and Prototyping 121 many things to many people but it usually refers to the first proof of concept ver sion of the product A starting point for subsequent development the prototype tests your design hypotheses flushes out problems early and reveals the in evitable unanticipated issues sooner rather than later Therefore prototyping is an integral part of the development process For a website a prototype is a first attempt to express or demonstrate the functional design through one of the other design phases Following are a few ex amples of prototypes e The navigational prototype is usually a layout of the navigational structure of the site also called the site skeleton or framework Without imple menting actual features this prototype shows only the overall navigation structure It uses plain links and blank pages or pages with sample data e The technical prototype is a raw demonstration of the features required by functional design It may be a programmatic interface to a data base which shows how you can search a particular database by various parameters The visual prototype could take the form of a simple graphic file not even a real HTML page showing an artist concept of the home page This is often called a treatment or graphic approach What all of th
261. specification the programmer s road map The programmer is conceptualizing the relationships between pieces of data and the functional specification shows how they are intended to work together The technical specification is at once a planning document and a record of the work With these documents the programmer starts develop ing ideas about the code that will best deliver the desired functionality Programmers are known to log long hours Therefore after a good thorough analysis the work that ensues could go at a fast clip Obviously it s impor tant to be sure that the programmers are moving in the right direction Proj ect managers have a couple of methods for doing so 1 Communicating clearly through the functional specification and tech nical specification 2 Monitoring the work by reviewing a technical specification that is con tinually updated A detailed up to date technical specification is a way for the programmers and others on the development team to communicate with one another A fix in one part of the program often causes a bug in another Documentation of the work then becomes useful in debugging Also if new people are brought onto the team the technical specification can be useful in communicating the project status and how it got where it is That said throwing new programmers onto a project al ready underway is probably not going to help your schedule any Remember Brooks Law introduced in Chapter 1
262. spect your partners and act with integrity This Page Intentionally Left Blank Designing and Prototyping Website development is an iterative process Imagine yourself in a valley gazing at the majestic peak of a nearby mountain that represents the successful comple tion of your website project The distance might be only one mile as the crow flies You may envision yourself steadily marching in workmanlike fashion right up to the top however once you start you find that this is impossible the angle is too steep and no trails take such a route Instead the only way to the top is a wind ing trail 10 miles long that has many switchbacks Although the trail steadily rises in elevation sometimes you actually walk downhill Eventually however you reach the top but it takes longer than you thought So goes website development If you could build the site exactly perfectly the first time without any rework or modifications it might only be a month long project but such a path does not exist Multiple options decisions meetings compromises prototyping and reworking changes in methods and production testing and debugging and more all intervene The path you must take is not a straight line but it is the only route You need six months to reach the top much longer than the one month journey it appeared to be Advance planning is crucial however you should realize that you will need to make many decisions about how to reach the
263. stem Throughout this book we have recommended the advantages of a database driven website The content man agement system allows the various people who create edit or adapt content to access it review it and import or export it from the database Managing content is an important aspect of website production which is the subject of the next chapter We raise the issue here because of the option of a tech nology solution which if pursued would be a consideration in developing the technology specification Build Out and Production You can plan plan and plan some more but ultimately a delivery date looms in your future In the design and prototyping process you have developed the plans that are the foundation of the site Build out or production brings together all the elements toward the outcome of a final complete and fully tested website sitting on the client s server and ready to go live It is time to work the plan Your pay off for the planning time will be a more organized smoother production process As much as you plan you will undoubtedly still encounter surprises and obsta cles You will still need to call on your skills in communication coordination and cooperation in order to meet your client s expectations for a high quality project Building out and producing the site encompasses such processes as the following e designing all the pages e gathering reviewing and placing all content e programming o
264. sting the site hosting the site Like other software development projects some form of time and mate rials is typical New software development is notoriously difficult to estimate accurately As a hedge bet estimate a range using worst case and best case sce narios You can also ask the people who are actually doing the work to review your estimates Finally you might add a safety percentage e g 15 percent as a margin of error The nature of software development the unpredictability continual learning and trial and error of invention makes cost qualitatively different from that of other more defined activities such as manufacturing or marketing Initial cost estimates that fall within 15 percent of actual expenses are fairly good This safety factor takes into account unforeseen expenses Most overruns are caused by unforeseen items which is the cause of most overruns Those who insist on clinging to precise estimates are generally schooled in areas where more predictable estimates are possible and who may have little experience with software development and websites or perhaps new product development in general For in house projects presenting the cost estimates as a range both increases your chances of being accurate and effectively communicates the ambiguities of website development Management will see that the cost estimate is simply that an estimate not a price quote If management budgets an amount at the lower
265. stomer Satisfaction Burr Ridge IL McGraw Hill Professional Publishing 1992 Shneiderman Ben Designing the User Interface Strategies for Effective Human Computer Interaction Reading MA Addison Wesley 1998 Siegel David Secrets of Successful Web Sites Project Management on the World Wide Web Indianapolis IN Hayden Books 1997 Smith Preston G and Donald B Reinertsen Developing Products in Half the Time New Rules New Tools 2nd ed New York John Wiley amp Sons 1997 Whitaker Ken Managing Software Maniacs Finding Managing and Rewarding a Win ning Development Team New York John Wiley amp Sons 1994 167 168 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide WEBSITES Browserwatch browserwatch internet com Cyberatlas cyberatlas internet com Domain Name Buyer s Guide www domainnamebuyersguide com Project Management Institute www pmi org Serverwatch com serverwatch internet com useit com Jakob Nielsen s Website www useit com Web Review www webreview com World Wide Web Consortium W3C www w3c org Appendix 2 The Proposal Process TIPS FOR A SUCCESSFUL PROPOSAL AND BID PROCESS The following minimum information should be included in a request for proposal e project overview e analysis of site and anticipated audience needs e functional requirements e technical requirements e scheduling requirements e performance criteria e Consider the fit with your potential par
266. t 16 JPEG 16 Layout testing 149 Light site 24 Link testing 150 Load testing 149 150 160 Maintenance costs of 46 importance of 117 planning for 162 163 Marketing 163 165 McCarthy Jim 1 McConnell Steve 6 Menu tree diagram 114 121 Metatags 164 Motif 123 125 125f 127f Name resolution 14 Navigation of site design considerations for 131 Network 159 Opt in marketing 164 Outsourcing description of 24 in house development vs 85 92 Password protection 157 Passwords 21 22 Payment of developer 105 106 PDF files 27 Personal home page 24 Personnel 29 30 67 68 See also Programmers Team members PERT charts 31 32 33f 34 65 Ping testing 163 Planning phase See Workplan Plug ins 27 Problem solving breaking down project factors 8 crisis management 7 8 schedule change 6 7 tightening loose project 7 Production content development 133 135 136f graphic artist 131 navigation considerations 131 planning considerations 129 130 scheduling 137 138 Production server 132 133f 154 Programmers commitment of 76 description of 29 30 design phase participation 75 81 efficiency of 81 personal problems among 8 productivity of 47 48 81 quality of 47 responsibilities of 80 81 testing by 147 148 Programming characteristics of 136 137 cost estimating difficulties 47 48 description of 39 shortcuts in 40 unit testing 147 Progress measuring of 37 39
267. t can help CSS attempt to address the problem of display by defining how various kinds of content should be displayed in a consistent manner Style sheets are one way to create consistency across the site The CSS can be embedded into a page but its true power is realized as a separate file that can be linked to other pages Then in making one change to the style sheet you can modify the entire site A site can also use embedded CSS on specific pages along with a linked style sheet Of course for consistency s sake you will want to refrain from too much individual design CSS also can help maintain the design integrity of the site after it has been handed over to the client Design specialists can create the style sheets during the development process When the site is handed over developers can train in house personnel on how to use the CSS for new pages Instruction along with documentation in the form of a mini manual or sample HTML is important be cause haphazard use of style sheets can also make a big mess With a bit of hand holding however nondesigners will be able to update the site with new content while retaining the integrity of the design If the project is a database driven site graphic artists can prepare the stan dard template pages that draw information from the database There is no need to await the content in the database It s better to create the templates and set them in place using sample or dummy data so they c
268. ta packets 13 Data site 24 25 description of 102 103 Deadlines 30 31 payment based on completed milestones Debugging 36 104 Dedicated site 25 Contractors See Developers Defects Control over project management 89 90 93 content 145 161 off line development of 134 135 on line development of 135 workplan 63 64 Contract Cookies 21 documenting of 145 146 Corporate culture 93 fixing of 146 148 151 Cost s isolation and replication of 144 145 content 48 in house vs outside development 88 89 92 initial development 45 46 maintenance 46 overview of 43 Cost estimates and estimating accuracy of 51 budget first 49 budgets vs 43 45 cost of 47 48 description of 43 design first 49 52 developers 51 52 97 101 102 dynamic vs static 45 feedback 48 methods of 48 52 purpose of 44 risk associated with 45 safety factor 46 samples 52 54 source of 44 Crises description of 7 8 false 37 management of 8 prioritizing of 146 user interface 161 Deliverables 104 Delivery date 30 31 Design authoring tools 132 changes in 93 94 communication during 119 120 components of 112 consistency of 131 content management considerations 127 128 definition of 111 112 flaws in 145 functional 112 115 116 menu tree diagram 114 121 motif 123 125 125f 127f navigation considerations 131 programmer involvement 75 questions to ask in preparing 113 skeleton fram
269. te 1 Design of Web home page for Winding Trails the publishing arm of the Na tional Cycling Club NCC e Create splash graphic derived from the Winding Trails logo e Design simple template for pages the next level down 2 Development of templates and graphics for Reading Trails Website Winding Trails Home Page For the home page Winding Trails seeks a visual image with four navigation points on the home page The front door of our Web presence the page will welcome users with an image only along with text links to navigational choices and present four options for further exploration 1 About Winding Trails Will link to document s with mission statement brief history bios of staff 2 Publishing with Winding Trails See material on current website as represen tative examples proposal guidelines FAQs about publishing process and similar information 3 NCC Online Store which sells Winding Trails books as well as other products of interest to cyclers 4 Reading Trails Redesign of existing promotional site The home page splash should use our logo integrally and create visual con nections to the graphics of Reading Trails and the online store Winding Trails will be where we pour all our content to generate interest in our publishing program The online store is our place for e commerce Design should give those two navigational choices the appropriate prominence About Winding Trails will be static basics Publi
270. te All sorts of functions can be delivered that otherwise would be economically unfeasible if not impossible For example imagine a music website that categorizes bands by type of music showing a page for each band all of which are identical except for the specifics of that band You might use static pages creating long lists of the bands in each category and individual pages for each band Figure 2 4 This manual approach might work fine for 10 20 maybe even 50 bands But what happens when you re ready to go to the next level Would the process work for a website featuring thousands of bands Not very efficiently Creating maintaining and testing so many individual pages would give you headaches and bust your bud get in no time With a backend database you could grow your band website with ease Your standardized categories of information about each band would consist of records in the database Figure 2 5 When a user picks a particular band the server software queries the database and the appropriate data flow into a master template on the site Your job would be to populate the database and fill in forms would make this task easy Scalability is a key consideration in website design Technologies of the Web 19 Static Web Pages Web Server Prebuilt Web Pages 1 Client asks for Web page from ISP 2 ISP requests page from Web server 3 Server finds correct prebuilt page
271. ter arrangement for the developer is to quote by time and materials 102 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide with estimates for both especially when working with a company for the first time Website development is both a creative process and technical software de velopment The many unknowns around these processes make accurate time es timates difficult and sometimes impossible After quoting the project on a flat fee the developer will have a difficult time coming out ahead when a client starts requesting design changes just before release A client who has to pay incremen tally for those changes becomes sensitized to the costs involved in changing the specifications This awareness can be helpful in setting a precedent for future work as long as the client doesn t perceive that it is being nickeled and dimed for little things at the end of the project No matter what the arrangement it s a good practice for contractors to always track their hours Ideally even in a new relationship clients will trust developers enough to work on a time and material basis Both client and developer should want a qual ity project The developer s obligation is to keep the client informed of production costs along the way Rather than automatically proceeding to work on every change request knowing that the meter is ticking the developer can discuss the cost ramification of new changes and explore alternatives if appropr
272. ternally you move it to the production server so it is ac cessible to the public outside the firewall In this case you ll need to move the site database applications and all to a new server hook up the IP number and domain name and retest the site on the new server through the live Web archi tecture The situation depends on how the site is hosted and the complexity of the Going Live and Beyond 155 site itself including version control and features such as e commerce database access and security considerations If you don t mind that others might see your site in development while it is a work in progress then going live is a nonissue You simply have your ISP host point the domain name to your home page and build your site online When you re ready to advertise it simply tell your audience it exists This situation is analogous to building a retail store while letting people enter and browse during construction You may not mind if you are opening a small newspaper stand however if you are opening a larger more complex store with more riding on it say a large department store then letting people in to browse before your store is completed would not work out very well You want everything set up working and staffed by sales personnel before the first customer is let in the door In the Web world this means getting your whole site up and running and tested live and online before letting Web surfers access it You can accom
273. the technical abil ity to scan and digitize images and manipulate them as necessary The artist needs to be able to work in a visual style that is consistent with the website goals and in collaboration with the UI designer presenting options from which to choose This person must also be able to conform his or her personal style to the needs of the site Programmer Software Engineer The programmer is responsible for designing any software architecture and writ ing the code at the heart of the application This may occur in many situations in Web development from database driven applications to interactive Java applets to backend server processing The programmer s skills should correspond to the project needs For example a basic Web presence site may require little if any ac tual programming so a programmer may not even be needed On the other hand a more complex site with the features described previously may require the ef forts of several programmers working in different areas of specialty The Web Development Team 81 If programming is needed on a particular site it will achieve the highest pri ority in the Web development process The site usually cannot go live without the executable code working as desired Imagine the Weather Channel site without functional programming The whole site would break down Included in pro gramming are related tasks as needed such as database management server maintenance and security consid
274. ther resource to accomplish the same task more easily e Their network does not support or allow the feature because of band width or security considerations e The feature may be on the right track but does not go far enough e The description of the feature on the survey was misleading Only by talking with a potential user in depth can you learn the real reason Other wise you could easily make incorrect assumptions and either include something extraneous in the requirements or omit something essential Individual interviews offer other benefits as well By interviewing people in depth you can learn many details about the intended users and their envi ronments that help you see things from their perspective and enable better deci sion making during the development process Individual interviews can also be a good way to identify potential user advocates and enthusiasts for participation in the project or to provide future marketing testimonials A member of the tar get audience who is easy to communicate with can be invaluable during devel opment when prototypes and interim versions of the site are user tested or to Analysis and the Project Plan 61 help make other useful contacts in the industry These people often simply appreciate the opportunity to become more involved in developing a website application ANALYZING THE COMPETITION In addition to getting feedback from stakeholders and other interested parties it is essentia
275. they develop For example our project developing an e commerce website for an associa tion publisher was slow getting started because of a resource problem The plan for the site required a full feature set including an online catalog of books and promotional items with cross referencing ability user surveys a guest book cus tomer reviews and multiple searching options The project was adequately funded and scheduled accordingly As development began however it became apparent that not enough people were working in content development This limiting factor set a slower top speed for product development lengthening the schedule requirements in other project areas Next the effect of the lengthened schedule lowered the project s priority in the eyes of the external programming team compounding the scheduling problem as the work took a backseat to more active projects As development drifted on at this slow pace the site was at risk of stalling entirely With little to show in the way of progress and the deadline ap proaching the project managers feared that their funding might be withdrawn Saving the project called for drastic measures First the project manager trimmed the task by narrowing the feature set to the minimum necessary Next a new content lead came to the project and staff was brought over from other projects to quickly populate the backend database with content The project manager rescheduled the due date with the extern
276. thing more than an example of what an estimate might look like Marketing or promotional costs which may easily equal or ex ceed development costs are not addressed The estimate assumes that the people are fully skilled not on a learning curve and that necessary equipment and soft ware development tools are in place Basic Web Presence Site The estimate in Table 4 1 is based on the following conditions e The website consists of a home page with six subpages e The site will have a banner navigation buttons on the left and a couple of graphics or photos per page along with some text and a table or two Table 4 1 Sample cost estimate simple Web presence Estimating Costs 53 Days Overhead 50 Total Personnel Artist Page Author 5 40 4 800 Content Editor 5 40 4 800 Tester 2 25 1 200 Services Site hosting with e mail 1 200 1 year Domain registration 100 Subtotal 10 900 Safety factor 15 1 635 Total 12 535 e Fully loaded labor costs include a Web page author or artist to design and build the pages a content person to write copy and provide editorial oversight and an external ISP server on which to host the site Database Driven Informational Site The estimate in Table 4 2 is for a website that delivers substantial content using a backend database An example of such a site is a real estate listing service offer ing such functions as e login and registration e search by various cr
277. tion divided between technical and nontechnical areas of expertise trainable If so they will be able to help each other and smooth out the variations as the workload ebbs and flows among different specialties Figure 6 3 When team memters can work on various aspects of the site they develop a more well rounded perspective and better communication with their col leagues Together these two benefits translate into advantages that can raise overall team performance to a higher level The result is relatively shorter devel opment time and better quality Another benefit of having people work in areas outside their specialties is that it maintains their interest level by letting them work on new tasks and de velop new skills Not only do they remain mentally tuned in to the project but they also develop a wider repertoire of skills For example during a temporary lull in the testing phase a software tester may need to assist in data preparation This overlap is beneficial In performing data preparation the tester may learn valuable information about this area specif ically and the site in general which will ultimately help in testing and benefit the team as a whole In addition the overlap necessitates interaction between the tester and the data preparation staff ideally promoting communication between the two Finally cross functionality gives the tester the opportunity to support another party on the team increasing the bonding among
278. tionnaire to gather baseline data on the participants before the discussion This questionnaire should solicit not only their vital information i e name organization address but also their personal histories and prerequisites For example if you were running a focus group of librarians and teachers for an educational site you might want to know each participant s subject area specialty number of years experience Web and research knowledge and other pertinent information This data is essential in in terpreting the results of the discussion Finally it is often helpful to have some sort of prototype site or design concept to demonstrate Individual Interviews Interviewing individuals in depth is an invaluable means of gaining a more com plete understanding of users needs and wants Often issues that are raised or identified through a survey or focus group cannot be explored in that context be cause of a lack of time An individual interview lets you gain a fuller under standing of a particular issue For example a feature thought to be a big draw to the website may receive a lukewarm response on the survey In this case you might find it worthwhile to interview one or two of the individuals in depth to learn why the feature is not more appealing A group of in depth interviews might uncover a consensus from among such possible reasons as the following e The feature may simply not fit their needs e They may already use ano
279. tner in the client contractor relationship e Describe in detail and comprehensively what you want in a site using plain lan guage and no technical smokescreens e Be as brief as possible while still covering all the major points and write with clarity e Write an RFP that reads like a good business plan presenting expected outcomes willingness to invest and technology resources e Align the effort required to respond to the RFP to the size and scope of the project e Get at least a ballpark estimate of the budget and timeline before responding to an RFP e Get whatever other information is reasonable from the other party before re sponding to an RFP or evaluating a response e Know when to walk away Don t e Be overly restrictive in RFP requirements Present bleeding edge features as requirements e Assume that big companies will work only with big development houses or small companies with small houses e Ask for free consulting from a developer 169 170 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide e Bein any way unethical or dishonest in using RFPs such as writing specs that only one supplier can fulfill but sending them to others for the sake of appearances e Send RFPs to an overly large pool sending a few recommended vendors is suf ficient and actually as many as a client can reasonably handle if vendors pursue informed and substantive replies Factors to consider in evaluating propos
280. to be moved over to the production server and tested before the site can go live A good approach would be to use password protection until final testing and debugging on the production server is completed e A new Java based game is being added to a Web page on an already live inter nally hosted website In this situation the Java game can be placed on a copy of the target page on the live server The file for the page with the game on it should be renamed and placed on the server in the same di rectory so any path or linking information remains valid to the current home page The page with the game on it can be tested and debugged in place on the live server without affecting the current page that users are accessing Once the game page is debugged and final you can simply re vert to the home page file name overwriting the current page and the new Java game home page will be live e You have an existing website and are switching over to a new ISP In this case the domain name IP address connection is the only real issue To handle it start by copying the old site over to the new server without touching the existing live website Next get the IP number of your new site estab lished and test the new site using the new IP number instead of the do main name When the new site is ready to your satisfaction ask your ISP to have the domain name switched over to point at the new IP number Many development projects involve a transition to a
281. together and often are considered as one but are actually separate protocols IP is the most fundamental protocol It runs on all the computers of a network as well as routers which connect two or more networks together allowing these multiple machines and networks to function as one logical network IP is so generic and un demanding that just about any network technology that might turn up in a net work can handle it IP is used to make routing decisions Using hierarchical addresses it finds a route for a packet and gets it to the other end These addresses are represented as a series of numbers separated by dots e g 192 12 69 248 or 200 3 6 2 Every computer on the Internet can be represented by an IP address A technology called subnetting allows a single IP address to denote multiple physi cal networks effectively adding a third level to a two level hierarchical address IP is a connection less best effort service it carries no guarantee to deliver your packet That s where TCP comes in TCP breaks up a message into packets which are then routed through IP and reassembles them at the other end A data packet contains headers with TCP and IP codes which allow these functions to occur It resends what gets lost and it puts things back in the correct order TCP opens a connection to the specified computer tells it what you want and controls the transmission of the file Servers will have well known sockets or assigned por
282. top of your server technology as well as your backend response to the customer activity You may want to review your hosting options perhaps moving to a dedicated server with your ISP or bring the server in house Whatever ensues your project man agement skill will come into play Appendix 1 Recommended Resources BOOKS Burdman Jessica Collaborative Web Development Strategies and Best Practices for Web Teams Reading MA Addison Wesley 1999 DeMarco Tom and Timothy Lister Peopleware Productive Projects and Teams 2nd ed New York Dorset House Publishing 1999 Humphrey Watt S Managing Technical People Innovation Teamwork amp the Software Process WEI Series in Software Engineering Reading MA Addison Wesley 1997 Lewis James How to Build and Manage a Winning Project Team New York AMACOM American Management Association 1993 Maguire Steve Debugging the Development Process Redmond WA Microsoft Press 1994 McCarthy Jim Dynamics of Software Development Redmond WA Microsoft Press 1995 McConnell Steve Rapid Development Redmond WA Microsoft Press 1995 Nielsen Jakob Designing Web Usability The Practice of Simplicity Indianapolis IN New Riders Press 2000 Rosenfield Lou and Peter Morville Information Architecture for the World Wide Web Sebastopol CA O Reilly amp Associates 1998 Rosenthal Stephen R Effective Product Design and Development How to Cut Lead Time and Increase Cu
283. ts for specific functions like FTP or the Web DOMAIN NAME SERVERS IP addresses effectively identify computers on the Internet and enable routing The numerical IP addresses work fine for computers but are not so friendly to humans we like names Domain name server DNS is the naming system of the Internet Domain names like IP addresses are hierarchical The names are 14 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Top Level Domains Commercial com Education edu Government gov Network net Organization org amazon com duke edu whitehouse gov att net aarp org ford com arizona edu treasury gov worldcom net aha org ibm com harvard edu irs gov verizon net now org examples Figure 2 2 Top level domains processed from right to left The top level domain is to the far right Figure 2 2 common examples of which are com edu gov org net Figure 2 3 shows how a client s request for a domain name is matched to IP addresses through the use of name servers The process will therefore always travel through a root name server In this case a gov server finds and sends an IP address for the domain whitehouse gov the request is then routed through the domain name system of servers to find the IP address for the www server in the whitehouse gov domain To keep up with the increasing demand for domain names it is likely that new top levels will emerge When you type a
284. tures are in tended to be integrated into the site Designing and Prototyping 123 Untitled Document Microsoft Internet Explorer Hle Edit View Favorites Tools Help Links El Best of the Web 1Channel Guide co oe ala a Be Back Forward Stop Refresh Home Search Favorites History Mail Print Address E Diassembiysitetanimals2 htm Go School Assemblies Guide amp Animal Acts Arnie s Ant Farm Betty s Buffalo Carl s Cattle Donald s Ducks Evelyn s Eagles Fanny Farmer s Falcons Questions about the acts Want to get your act listed Suggestions Comments Feedback School Assemblies Guide address phone or email us EJ My Computer Figure 8 5 Example of skeleton framework Category page School Assembly Guide page lt www schoolassemblyguide com gt Reprinted with permission of American Eagle Inc Phase 3 Home Page and Motif With the skeleton framework in place the graphic artist has enough information to sketch out a visual design approach or motif for the site The work generally begins in a graphics program such as Photoshop Drawing from the creative brief and samples of the client s existing images the artist works up a few alternative designs and approaches for client review Based on feedback from the client the artist revises the home page design until client approval is gained Once ap proved the motif can be applied to the rest of the pages in the sit
285. tware testing or documenting design changes Other tasks such as Java programming or Web server maintenance are not so easily learned in a short time Nonetheless a certain amount of in house Web expertise is a real asset in today s business environment The work experience gained by partici pating in the development of a website even an intranet site is often applicable to other tasks within a company and could be of great use in the future Again the question of resource allocation arises What aren t the organization s people doing during the time they re developing the website What skills are critical to the firm s success The glamour of website development may seduce staff away from more mundane yet mission critical tasks When working with an experienced outside developer the client company gets the benefit of that vendor s experience and knowledge gained on other proj ects potentially similar ones The value of this experience is a prime motivation in using an outside developer and why it can be much less expensive in the long run to do so If a project has a high risk factor and must be completed on time the best bet is probably an external developer with a proven track record of produc ing such websites rather than trying to do the work internally and learning along the way An external developer is a specialist and can often do the work much faster and with fewer errors than in house personnel This efficiency greatly
286. uding customers and suppliers Each team member needs to understand his or her role and support the roles of the other members as well as understand the constraints under which team members operate All team members must operate to seek global optima and targets Empowerment Decision making should be driven to the lowest possible level commensurate with risk Resources should be allocated to levels consistent with risk assessment authority respon sibility and the ability of people The team should be given the authority responsibility and resources to manage its product and its risk commensurate with the team s capabili ties The authority of team members needs to be defined and understood by the individ ual team members The team should accept responsibility and be held accountable for the results of its efforts Management practices within the teams and their organizations must be team oriented rather than structurally functionally or individually oriented Seamless Management Tools A framework should be established that relates products and processes at all levels to demonstrate dependencies and interrelationships A management system should be es tablished that relates requirements planning resource allocation execution and program tracking over the product s life cycle This integrated or dedicated approach helps ensure that teams have all available information thereby enhancing team decision making at all 184 Developing Eff
287. uding milestone dates and definitions in the work plan permits them to be examined discussed and modified if necessary and pro vides proof of the clear thinking that has gone into developing the workplan Task When creating the workplan the first step is to try to define the task in as much detail as possible This means reviewing and expanding the details in the re quirements specification Identifying the task at this level of detail provides the basis for laying out the other factors For example the initial requirements speci fication may contain a target browser version along with its overall capabilities a list of perhaps two dozen main features along with one or two sentences de scribing each feature These descriptions need to be expanded and detailed so that programmers content producers and data preparation staff can begin esti mating the time and equipment needs to accomplish the task For example a fea ture on the initial requirements specification might appear as follows Online Catalog An easily browsable catalog of our products e Accessible from anyplace on the website e Contains up to 2 000 products e Searchable e Order products online e Easy to update While this is a perfectly valid feature it is not sufficiently detailed for a programmer to develop a valid time estimate It lacks information about the fea tures such as how many screens security technology hosting plans and so forth Nevertheless it
288. und in each area to understand the issues involved Otherwise he or she will find it difficult to make intelligent decisions and will thereby lose the respect of the team mem bers No one likes to be led by someone who is perceived to be incompetent The team leader sets the schedule manages resources and defines the tasks to be ac complished however effectiveness depends on the voluntary support of the other team members so the team leader must cultivate good personal relation ships with each team member In addition to the necessary technical knowledge one of the most important requirements for an effective team leader is good in terpersonal skills User Interface Designer The main responsibility of the user interface UI designer is to plan out the site navigation and any user interface controls for features The interrelationship and flow of all of the screens controls buttons and choices in a logical intuitive man ner are all the responsibility of the UI designer Using a variety of tools such as screen drawings text descriptions and flowcharts the UI designer describes the 80 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide user interface so that other team members can understand it The UI designer un derstands the constraint of the resources and time and designs accordingly The UI designer should be schooled in the appropriate communications design depending on the application including instructional desi
289. users is always interesting and usually in formative You will see a surprise or two and experience insights on matters that hadn t occurred to you You may well find yourself saying Aha Of course For example you may find that because of an overly creative visual design users can not find the home page button on your navigation bar Or perhaps users want to search based on a criteria that you hadn t considered Clearly you need some de sign revisions Usability testing should not be confused with software testing or quality assurance which is the subject of the next chapter This Page Intentionally Left Blank 10 Quality Assurance Testing Quality assurance QA testing is the process of locating isolating and describ ing software defects commonly known as bugs so they can be fixed by program mers or the data preparation staff QA testing usually starts sometime during the latter part of the development process QA testing is usually going full speed when the site is posted and close to going live In a sense testing is never really finished because it is performed as long as the site is live and being updated and maintained however testing activity generally tapers off once the site goes live and is in use In some websites QA testing directly impacts the quality of the site It is the final quality control gate through which the site must pass before it is finished The more users are expected and the more complex
290. ustries play out in the area of content which generally comes from the client anyway As an example the sort of experience you might look for is devel opment of an e commerce site running on a UNIX server with an Oracle database and Cold Fusion as the development tool Second beware of exceedingly low cost estimates Although developers who want your business will attempt to quote a competitive price some un scrupulous developers have been known to quote extremely low prices simply to get the job believing that once the website is sufficiently underway they can ask for more money as it proceeds This scenario does not lend itself to high quality site development nor does it encourage a good working relationship with that vendor in the long run One old method of selection when cost is truly the most important factor is to get three bids and pick the middle bid The reasoning behind this approach is that the lowest bid is a lowball or low quality bid the highest is the one with the most built in profit and by default the middle bid is probably best This arbitrary approach is little more than a human tendency to gravitate toward the middle 98 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide Though much better than automatically picking the lowest bid its assumptions are probably false With all the complexities and choices involved in website de velopment variations are just as likely to be caused by different approaches as by
291. velop a website in house make the most of it Time and Schedules Internal company pressures may slow down the development process relative to using an external developer working outside the corporate environment Even when fully staffed a company must juggle many priorities The website may be the ball that gets dropped The choice between external and internal development often boils down to expediency Sometimes an external developer can offer the in house manager a great deal of flexibility letting a manager speed up and slow down the project at will depending on contractual arrangements If the work is being done on an hourly basis the manager can request as much or as little work done as needed An ex ternal developer can typically get projects started and stopped if necessary faster and can often change directions faster during the project as well however in house managers sometimes make the mistaken assumption that working with an outside company will somehow relieve them of all project management re sponsibilities After all isn t that why the developer was hired Outside devel opers can require just as much management supervision as internal staff if not more and the notion of a truly turnkey website developer is somewhat unre alistic Usually the many internal decisions discussions and judgment calls pre clude giving an outside developer complete autonomy 92 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager
292. ver may be one and the same and you may have been developing the site blind by using a dummy home page or not attaching the domain name however you may be using an offline development server instead with the intent of posting it on the production server for public use when the site is finally done Why would you choose to do so Fol lowing are some scenarios where it would make sense 1 You have a large complex website that needs to be built and tested truly offline not in any way connected to the Web 2 You already have a website in operation and you are building new fea tures for it Obviously you do not want to build and debug new features on a site that is in active use 158 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide 3 You have hired outside developers to build the site They are working on their own server with the intent of moving the site to your server when completed These three cases combined with the various kinds of websites and technology in use can generate many different situations Regarding going live or adding new features and the procedures for doing so far too many situations exist to exam ine each one however let s consider some common situations e A large database driven e commerce site going live for the first time and being developed out of house In this situation the site is being developed ona de velopment server the outside developer s server Therefore it needs
293. volved Without such an agreement both parties put themselves at significant risk proportional to the amount of time and effort that will be invested A developer working without a contract is like a tightrope walker working without a net When expected payments are delayed by bureaucratic tardiness or withheld on minor pretenses the developer is left without legal recourse A client who asks for work to be performed without a contract risks not only investing significant time and energy without a guarantee of product delivery but also litigation if dis agreement arises For projects of smaller scope and shorter duration usually done as a simple work for hire at an hourly rate a basic letter of agreement often suffices Such a letter generally includes a description of the work to be performed intended de livery dates hourly rate compensation and so on This can even be a single page document signed by both parties For larger jobs a software development contract may be necessary a subject that is too large to be treated fully in this chapter Development contracts come in many different styles but all attempt to detail the working relationship between the two parties They describe which party is responsible for what elements of the development including the following e payments e deliverables with schedules e rights of ownership e warranties and indemnities e hosting arrangements e maintenance support and training issues e
294. ways speed it up Adding people to a project that has fallen behind schedule can cause it to fall even further behind if the wrong resources are added or are added at the wrong time When more 4 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide highly skilled and specialized resources are needed they should be added early or not at all For example adding programmers early in the project can speed it up but adding them toward the end may well delay the project even further Frederick Brooks in his software project management classic The Mythical Man Month wrote Adding manpower to a late software project makes it later The maxim expresses such a fundamental truth that it has come to be known as Brooks Law The project s fixed variable and thereby its limiting factor is often re sources When no more money or people can be thrown at a project the time schedule and task functional requirements variables are where adjustments must be applied When a project with fixed resources runs into difficulty you must simplify the design or extend the deadline or a combination of both SEEING IT IN THREE DIMENSIONS In the heat of a project all three factors time task and resources are ever changing constantly interacting variables The job of the project manager is to constantly balance these three factors Figure 1 2 Suppose management trans fers a key team member to another project restricts access to equipment
295. wledgeable coders may want to get in and tweak the scripting generated by these programs and many other programs support that activity as well Most Web authoring tools now offer a WYSIWYG what you see is what you get interface We won t present a detailed description here because the programs are always changing and new tools are sure to emerge as well Programs vary in power features and user sophistication and you should choose one that fits your project and capabilities For beginners some pro grams work much like word processors Midrange products such as FrontPage HoTMetaL and WebEditor serve users who are not experienced in graphic design or HTML At the expert level programs like Macromedia s Dream weaver or Adobe s GoLive are loaded with tools for graphic designers or there s HomeSite a code based editor You might also look at tools that are designed for collaborative Web development in teams like NetObjects Authoring Server Among the features on which to compare editors are the following e Ease of creating effects through JavaScript or Dynamic HTML e Tools for creating pages from backend databases e Automatic navigation bar and link updating when moving files e Guidance on features that won t work in earlier browser versions e Methods used to upload files on remote servers KEEP UP ON TECHNOLOGY We believe that technical knowledge is critical for a successful website project manager This chapter is in no w
296. y DoD and its contractors to plan and implement a solution to the user needs This process balances cost system capability manufacturing processes test processes and support processes as identified in DoD Instruction 5000 2 The IPPD process is an integrated team effort within DoD and contractor organi zations and with each other DoD crafts the basic acquisition strategy almost always 182 Developing Effective Websites A Project Manager s Guide with industry assistance Contractors usually play a significant role in development de sign and manufacturing with DoD in a management role Both participate in each other s major activities through team membership and the implementation and use of tools and technology IPPD KEY TENETS To implement IPPD effectively it is important to understand the interrelated tenets in herent in IPPD These key tenets as follows were outlined by the Secretary of Defense mandate on IPPD and are consistent with those found in industry Customer Focus The primary objective of IPPD is to identify and satisfy the customer s needs better faster and cheaper The customer s needs should determine the nature of the product and its as sociated processes Concurrent Development of Products and Processes Processes should be developed concurrently with the products they support It is critical that the processes used to manage develop manufacture verify test deploy operate support train pe
297. y and fix defects they find before turning it over One motivation is to let it be known that you will be monitoring the quality of the modules during testing Integration Testing When the various modules are combined and the features are all running to gether it is said to be integrated and testing of the full program is called integra tion testing Although all of the modules may seem to work perfectly in isolation they often exhibit defects when combined as a system Reasons include unex pected inputs and outputs between modules incompatible variables and just about anything else that can go wrong Professional software testers are experi enced in finding such flaws and integration testing is usually performed in force by nonprogrammers By not knowing how the site is constructed they are more likely to operate the software in a way programmers had not anticipated and so uncover errors programmers would not uncover Website features should be tested in an ongoing manner while still in de velopment Testing the site this way allows the project manager to realistically monitor the site s progress by building testing time right into implementation For example if QA testing does not start until after the whole site is supposedly finished you would have no idea how many defects are actually lurking out there in the code and how long it will take to fix them In addition there is a good chance the defects will be repeated in var
298. y on various browsers and screen resolutions can only be achieved through QA testing Taking the time to find the defects and fix them at this point is usually better than rushing to post the site live risking an unfavorable response and the headache of frustrated users calling or e mailing with their problems or worse yet simply abandoning the site forever QA testing marks the end of the product development cycle because a site should pass final QA testing in order to be of sufficient quality to be posted QA testing usually starts up in force sometime during the later development phase and continues as part of the maintenance and support phase even after the site goes live Typically as discussed earlier testing and debugging consumes about one third of the development effort in one form or another which can cause great consternation among those funding the project if it is not planned for Even if you ve planned testing almost always takes longer than anticipated Getting started on testing early is one of the secrets of successful website development SOFTWARE S DISTINCTIVE QA QA testing is one of the major differences between website or software develop ment and the development of other media such as print and video Little in the way of print or video production compares with software QA testing A video program may be reviewed several if not many times but it is a linear medium so it has only a single path to inspect Software h
299. y to achieve one of the es sential elements of success the bonding among development staff People de pend on each other for mutual success and feel compelled to support each other in the effort The team can take on a wide variety of tasks and team members can apply their individual strengths and cover for each others weaknesses In this way a team begins to identify with the successful completion of a project and the team identity depends on such a success The Web Development Team 77 TEAM DYNAMICS Each individual has a unique personality and identity to be respected as well as skills to be utilized Creating teams is a delicate process Although it is difficult to predict in advance which individuals will work well together it is helpful if team members have some input into the composition of their group On the other hand it may not always be possible for the project manager to handpick team members One important consideration in team composition is a variety of personality types which helps balance the team dynamics One or two dominant personali ties are fine but not too many A team without an empathetic social person may have trouble developing a sense of camaraderie and cohesiveness A thorough hard worker encourages others to stay on task Genuine cohesive mutually supportive teams do not form instantly It takes time for individuals to come together and start performing as a team Both the psychological issues and t

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