• Do we have an in-house web designer and developer who can handle the workload?
• Do we have the resources to manage the project?
• Have we considered how we will run user acceptance testing?

This is the moment you might consider hiring an agency. Don’t stress! There are many reasons companies outsource to an agency, especially when it is one that specializes in designing and building websites. Ultimately, we bring a level of expertise to the project. Let me walk you through what it’s like to work with our team here at WebDevStudios (WDS), and why you would want to choose us for your next project.

Every client and project we work with is different, and because of that, the specific WebDevStudios team members that you work with will be unique to your project’s objectives and will include specialists with various skill sets and knowledge. Each of our team members play a critical role on the project. Today, I’m going to give you a sneak peek into roles and responsibilities to give you a better feel for what to expect when working with our team.

Business Development

You will be initially speaking with a member of our Business Development team. They are responsible for taking your vision of the project, researching it, and converting it into a comprehensive proposal and project plan.
 
 
 
 
 
 

Project Management

A dedicated Account Manager will be assigned to your project that oversees the account, while a Project Manager will be assigned to manage the day-to-day objectives from initiation to completion of the project. They are responsible for managing tasks, scheduling, communication, etc.

Our Project Managers work closely with the Engineers during the project to ensure everything is on track, in scope and on budget. Through our project management tool set, you will have the opportunity to follow the progress of your project. The Project Manager will keep in touch with you at all times during the project; so if you have a question or concern, you always have someone to talk to.

Design

If your project consists of a design phase, you will have a dedicated UI/UX web designer who will focus on creating a prototype for your new site based on the requirements you discussed with Business Development, as well as your target audience. From detailed wire framing to prototyping, you will be involved at every step during the design phase to ensure your needs are met. This is one of the most exciting steps in the project, as our creative team is excellent at taking your vision and creating something visual that considers accessibility and responsiveness to ensure your site looks great on desktop and mobile.

Engineering

There will be various Engineers dedicated to your project. As I mentioned previously, every project is unique and requires particular skill sets. We have a wide range of Engineers on the WebDevStudios team who specialize in different areas of technical abilities specific to WordPress. Below, I break down the different types of developers you might work with on your project.
 
 
 
 

Lead Engineer

Every project has a dedicated Lead Engineer (some projects require more than one) who is responsible for taking project requirements and mapping out a development plan for our Engineering team. They will also review updates, do demos, and work alongside the Project Manager during your project.

Frontend Engineer

Frontend Engineers are responsible for developing elements on the frontend of the website—essentially, everything your users will interact with—usually in the form of either a custom WordPress theme or a child theme from a popular theme framework. Our WebDevStudios team of Frontend Engineers take the beautiful prototype from the designer and turn it into the frontend of your website.

Backend Engineer

Backend Engineers are responsible for building the advanced functionality that typically interacts with the server. They also handle any data migrations from your old site to your new site, create custom plugins and custom post types, and ensure WordPress is created and set up for your new website.

In addition to our project team of experts, we break the project out into various phases that will help to set goals for each phase and move your project through from initiation to completion in a timely efficient way. You can check out more details about our typical project process flow in this blog post about a project life cycle.

We understand that redesigning or building a new website can be difficult, maybe even a little intimidating, but we’ve worked with many clients and have put together a team and process that make it fun and efficient. If you have an upcoming project, we would love to talk to you more about how our WebDevStudios team can help. You can get a hold of us by submitting a contact form or directly by phone at 1-855-932-3380.

Our team can’t wait to work with your team on your next project!

The post What Does Working with the WebDevStudios Team Look Like? appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Even though we work remotely, our WDS family is close-knit. We even stay in touch after hours and on the weekends, sharing food pics and tidbits about life events. So when we add new faces to our team, we get super excited. And we’re especially excited about introducing you to our new teammates. Get to know them now!

Haris Zulfiqar

Haris’ interest in web development was sparked by an interest in learning how online games were created, which then led him to a programming forum. His pursuit of knowledge led him to the creation of several websites just for the fun of it, which eventually led him to earning his first income online. After several years of experience as a freelancer working on WordPress, he created several commercial WordPress themes including Avada, the most popular WordPress theme on ThemeForest, before eventually landing a career as a full-time web developer.

Dave Bonds

Dave discovered WordPress in 2008 and fell in love with web development and open-source software. Prior to that, he created his first website all the way back in 1994 and ended up starting his own computer repair business in 2003. But it was after his discovery of WordPress that he went on to become the first employee at Agent Evolution–a leader in the WordPress real estate space–then became Director of Web Design, and finally CTO and minority owner in the company. It was there that he met and worked with WDS Director of Engineering, Greg Rickaby. Dave has been a fan of the work WebDevStudios has done for years.

Allen McNichols

At eight years old, Allen took apart his first computer and put it back together. It was an IBM Clone 286. In 1997, a call came in from a relative in Washington who had managed to delete her entire hard drive and could not get her computer to boot from the CD-ROM. Over the course of about two hours over the phone, Allen was able to walk her step by step through getting it back up and running with Windows 95 reinstalled. He was only 13. Suffice to say, Allen is destined for a great future by combining his skills for technology and helping others. Prior to joining WDS, Allen worked as phone support with IDX Broker and later filled the role of support technician for Agent Evolution.

Chrispian Burks

Chrispian has done a little bit of everything in IT including running PC support, running an ISP, co-founding the blog network 451 Press as well as communities for writers Lit.Org and WritingForums.com. He started using WordPress back when it was b2/Cafelog, and for all the sites on the 451 Press network (just over 500 of them) and wrote tools to help integrate with phpBB, DirectAdmin and custom provisioning code as well as some small plugins related to advertising and running the network. WordPress has been his go-to content management system ever since. He especially loves how easy it makes building new projects for fun and for clients.

Do you want to join our team?

Working at WDS is a rewarding experience that includes remaining actively involved with the WordPress community, interacting with great clients, and establishing nurturing friendships and lifelong memories. If this is a company culture you would like to be a part of, check out our Careers page and submit an application today.

The post New Faces at WebDevStudios appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Project Managers are typically thought of as overhead to the website project. False. Project Managers are key in organizing the project, communicating between various stakeholders, overseeing the project from initiation to completion, and ensuring budgetary and quality compliance.

Let’s break this down even further. Here’s what our Project Managers accomplish at WDS:

• Initiate and organize the project up front
• Based on the proposal, define a plan and deliverables
• Organize all deliverables into milestones
• Outline a project timeline based on milestones
• Create tasks within the project management tool for the engineering team
• Manage standard outlines of time, delivery, user story and acceptance testing per task

Project Managers are the main point of communication between the customer and development team. They also provide thorough oversight throughout the project life cycle, including:

• Scheduling any necessary meetings with stakeholders, team members, etc.
• Creating agendas for meeting agenda and managing minutes
• Coordinating and staying on top of all milestones and tasks throughout the project life cycle
• Handling communication among team members, such as executives, developers, etc.
• Managing timeline throughout project development

Project Managers are responsible for budgetary compliance and supporting quality control compliance. We achieve this by:

• Managing the client’s budget from initiation to completion
• Planning resources based on budgetary expectations
• Managing change requests that fall outside of project budget and scope
• Scheduling and overseeing the quality assurance process, reviewing the completion of milestones against the defined project scope

Having a strong skill set is important for a Project Manager and key to the success of your website project. At WDS, we have a team of Project Managers who are highly-skilled leaders, communicators, and problem solvers. We are motivated by our team of engineers and clients to achieve success on each unique website project that we manage.

Does your organization have project management? If so, what do you value most about your Project Managers? We invite you to leave a comment below. We’d love to know your thoughts on project management.

The post Why Project Management Is Critical to the Success of Your Website Project appeared first on WebDevStudios.