Building Managing Web Sites Project Management 10232021 1999

Project Management Topics • • • Project Life Cycle Joint Application Development Prototyping Web Sites Project Time/Cost Estimation Mechanics of Managing Projects 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 2

Project Life Cycle Waterfall: An Iterative Approach 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software

Successful Life Cycle Models • Good models: – Have a list of deliverables – Have a schedule of dates (Milestones) – List expectations, roles and responsibilities for all parties (including customers) – Are goal-oriented using simple declarative statements – Are created in cooperation with customer 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 4

Project Deliverables • Web Site (See Phases) • Maintenance Documentation – – Physical site map Maintenance procedures Database documentation Technical Inventory and Documentation • • Indexing Server configuration Database drivers Script engines Third-party/custom objects • Project Agreements/Write-ups 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 5

Water Fall Development Model Phases 1. Investigation – Scope the project. Identify roles. 2. Analysis/Design – Define exact needs, navigation and look. Exercise roles. 3. Implementation – Do it. (and remember to include the customer) 4. Customer Test – Do scenario based testing. 5. Roll Out – Make sure it works 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 6

Step 1 - Investigation • Conduct an initial interview of customer – – – Gather as many of primary stakeholders as possible. Discuss your development process/philosophy. Ask general questions about what they want. Observe differences of opinion among stakeholders. Note “real” movers & “naysayers” or people with hidden agendas. – Focus on primary business goals & identifying principle audiences. – Clearly identify a contact for you to follow-up with. – Don’t go to long on initial meeting. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 7

Step 1 - Investigation • Meet later with smaller groups for follow-up details as necessary. Make sure you understand the following before committing to a project: – Principle business goals of the customer – Who the principle audiences are, and where you can get further information about them (if necessary) – Who you need to work with – Who you will report to – How/when you will be paid – Any corporate logos or graphic standards/limitations 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 8

Step 1 - Investigation • Identify as many current and future business needs as possible during initial investigation – Overcome customer resistance to think “outside the box” – Future needs may impact your architectural decisions • Explicitly identify what you can do for the customer. • Identify others who could fulfill other needs (e. g. , web hosting, graphic design, database development) • Develop a project plan with well-defined phases, each phase with specific deliverables. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 9

Step 1 - Investigation • Create document summarizing your investigation. – FSR (Feasibility Study Report) – CONOPTS (Concept of operations summary) describes the way the system will work. – Contract. Specify payment terms and amounts for each phase. • Provide time for client to review/edit the document. • All parties agree to document and signoff on work to be done 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 10

Step 1 - Investigation Gotchas • You don’t understand the principle business needs. – Typically because you met with the wrong people – You may have been hired to uncover internal disagreements/problems -- success may not be a goal • You and/or your customer does not agree on the principle audiences. – Often leads to disagreement about content and design • Your customer does not understand/agree with your development process/philosophy • You don’t understand the customer’s schedule. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 11

Step 2 - Analysis/Design • Drill down on each area identified in the investigation. • For each area, determine who on the project team will be responsible and who the customer liaison will be. • Define: – Business needs – Audience needs 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 12

Analysis - Business Needs • Processing points (transformations) – Identify the user’s goals when using the site. Categorize the different types of users with roles or actors. For each explore what they want to do and derive ways to do it. – A task is not a goal. Good sites model tasks on goals, not the other way round. • Storage or remembrances (Database? ) – Commerce, or information portals run off databases. This can be the hardest part of any design effort. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 13

Analysis - Audience Profiles • Create text “profiles” of typical clients identifying: – – Relationship to the customer Computer literacy & hardware/software access to Internet Client’s typical needs of the customer Client’s “wish list” needs of the customer • Sources of profile research include: – – Informal discussions with customer’s non-stakeholder staff Correspondence and monitoring phone calls Trade publications Focus groups 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 14

Analysis - Audience Needs • Navigation paradigms – Using audience profiles, determine how a particular type of user would navigate though site. What is their goal? • Presentation Styles – The site’s style must match the audience. • Content Organization (Site Architecture) – What content architecture schemes will help users identify their objectives (alphabetical, chronological, topical, etc. ). – Identify consistent site structures, navigational/search features to assist actors/roles. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 15

Step 2 - Analysis/Design • Analysis is the MOST important part of the phase. • Projects that fail do so because of hurried, incorrect or absent analysis. • Better to deliver a partially completed project with good analysis (hence meeting all of the clients needs, if not their expectations) then an entire system shoddily designed. • Good analysis leads to a site architecture that will be robust, flexible and have good longevity, even if substantial changes are required of the site. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 16

Step 2 - Design • Programmers make poor designers – It is always obvious to programmers how things work – Programmers have a particular mindset that is not typical of everyone else – Once given a design pattern programmers can follow them • Designers make bad programmers – The way information is presented does NOT imply its storage or computability – Lots of stunning sites that are unusable because they have design and no analysis • Both must learn to respect and value the other – Great software comes from a meeting of great analysis mixed with outstanding design – Both designers and programmers are responsible for successfully implementing both the audience and business needs of a site. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 17

Analysis/Design Checklist • Are the all business processes understood and redemonstrated to the customer? • Are the issues revolving around what needs to be remembered resolved, i. e. Is a database needed? • Is there a style and navigation scheme decided on? Has the customer seen it, exercised it and agreed to it? • Have the customer agree what the next step is, when it will happen and by whom. In writing! 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 18

Step 3 - Implementation • Break up the implementation into tasks for each of the team members. • Teams should meet often. • Meet with customers to discuss specific issues or progress points. Keep the meetings SHORT and ON TOPIC. • Do a “build” regularly to insure pieces fit. • Stress test forms by suppling bad or odd values. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 19

Step 4 -- Customer Test • This is not “here you go customer, play with it and tell me what you think. . . ” • Devise written scenarios based on actors/roles identified in the analysis phase and put them through their paces. • Make sure pages are tested with all relevant web browsers. • Do some load testing! • Have the customer look for anomalies. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 20

Step 4 -- Customer Test • Have the customer look for anomalies. • Have a good reporting/tracking mechanism. • If web pages rely on any type of server-side technology, customer test should occur on server and network similar to final. (Security can be used to hide site from outside while allowing testing). • Don’t skip this phase, and provide sufficient time -many future disagreements can be avoided by actively implementing this phase. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 21

Step 5 -- Roll Out • Checklist – Are are the deliverables ready? – Domain name registered? – Have provisions been made for site advertisement? • Direct contact with site actors/roles • Registering with search engines – Scale-ability test. What is your plan if the site experiences a large number of hits suddenly? Review this possibility with the customer. 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 22

Step X - Maintenance • Things outside original scope are deferred to the maintenance phase, avoiding scope creep and never finishing the project. • New features/changes need to be dealt with in a methodical way after the project is completed. These are frequently discovered in the JAD sessions. • Maintenance is a good way to develop a long-term relationship ($$$). 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 23

Iterative Methods for Project Phases • Iterative Model Concerns – Analysis Paralysis • Over-analysis leads to: 1) actually developing the site in analysis phase, or, 2) never ending analysis. . . – Scope Creep • (Feature creep) the addition of extra features as time goes on • Prototyping – Best way to communicate iteratively to customer 10/23/2021 © 1999, Valtara Digital Design/Blitzkrieg Software 24