Project management is critical as it is the practice of managing resources, time, and budget to deliver a set of requirements. Project managers effectively make sure there are the necessary resources in place to stay on budget and deliver an agreed upon scope within the agreed upon timeframe. So if you have never worked with a project manager what exactly does that mean? As I tell new clients, bear with me, and I will tell you just how to make the most of your relationship with your project manager.

Before we dive in, however, let’s tackle some common misconceptions.

Misconception #1: Project management is unnecessary.

The biggest misconception I have encountered when it comes to clients who have never worked with a project manager is that they assume project management is an unnecessary expense. Oftentimes clients think they can decrease their budget by asking to eliminate the role of the project manager.

What clients fail to realize is that if you remove the project manager you are removing the monitor of the aforementioned budget. They may think that they will be saving money, but they most likely will be spending a lot more in the end as nobody will be monitoring the spend daily.

Misconception #2: Project managers are just middle people.

Another misconception I have encountered is that project managers either collect information from the development team and relay that to the client or collect information from the client and relays the information to the development team throughout the entire life cycle of the project. Though that can be true, a good project manager is able to take ownership of the information before it is actually raised by either party. They aren’t just a go between; they are a translator, even a mind reader at times.

Now here’s what you should know if you have never worked with a project manager.

Project managers are your biggest allies.

Project managers (PM) are often seen as the naysayers in the project because they often have to tell you the hard truth when timelines and budgets are getting tight. Instead of seeing your PM as the negative Nelly, see them as your biggest ally since that is exactly what they are.

Nobody likes to be told that they are running out of money or time, but wouldn’t you rather have someone tell you your bank account is getting low before you bounce a check? PMs are just looking out for your dollars and cents and care for your budget more than they are given credit for.

Project managers are great listeners.

Project managers may talk a lot on calls as they provide what can seem like endless updates, but project managers are actually great listeners. By listening carefully, PMs are able to identify requirements, risks and dependencies sometimes without clients even being able to identify these themselves. Never feel like you say too much in front of your project manager. There are vital pieces of information in there, I promise.

Project managers believe in your success.

I have never met a client that I did not want to see succeed. Don’t get me wrong. I have met my fair share of folks who don’t quite see the value in a PM, but I never stopped wanting them to be successful nor did I stop managing the project in such a way where that would be the outcome. When you work with a project manager, know that your PM wants you to succeed just as much as you want to. Even better, they have the tools and resources to actually get you there.
 

In conclusion, trust your project manager.

Finally, trust your project manager and have faith in the process. Project managers offer so much more value than status updates and time reports. They truly do want what is best for the project and for you as a client. They will be your biggest ally throughout the life cycle of the project, listen thoughtfully to hear what success looks like for you, and identify potential risks that could get in the way. Project managers, especially the amazing team here at WDS, want you to be successful by carefully managing time, budget, and resources. When you trust your project manager, you can trust that your project will be a success.

Are you ready to work with a project manager to help build your next website and make it a success? Contact us!

The post Never Worked with a Project Manager? Here’s What You Need to Know! appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Administrators of online newsrooms are likely aware at this point that WordPress accounts for about a third of the web. Now with Gutenberg, the current WordPress editor, it is easier than ever to craft content and publish quickly. This is important because we live in a time when the speed at which news is published is faster than ever.

The way that Gutenberg allows editors, journalists, and online newsroom admin to quickly draft stories and see exactly what it’s going to look like within the site helps to streamline the publishing process. Media sites are getting their stories out in front of readers as it breaks and/or when it matters most.

– Lead Engineer, Tom McFarlin

Journalists have studied how to write comprehensive, informative, and sometimes groundbreaking articles. The software that they use to get those articles out there seems far less important, I suspect, to the journalist. That is, unless or until it becomes a hindrance to their ability to deliver the news.

Using both WordPress and the Gutenberg editor for an online newsroom is a great solution since it allows journalists to do what they do best—write and format their articles. With its ease-of-use, journalists can interact with Gutenberg enough to add the necessary elements of their article, but their content is always at the forefront.

Article Components

Let’s do an exercise. View a breaking news article from today and examine the various components you see on the page. Perhaps there is the headline, the byline, an image, the article body containing quotes, and tweet embeds. This article was likely curated and published on WordPress!

Perhaps a few years ago, the ability to embed a tweet quicker than you could blink would seem like a luxury. In this day and age, it is a necessity. Social media has become an integral part of the fabric of breaking news. The ability to add embeds quickly and see how they will render on the frontend of your media site is important, and Gutenberg allows journalists to focus on getting the news out there rapidly.

Of course, there may be some custom elements to the article as well, like a featured podcast. No problem! With experienced developers like we have here at WDS, adding these custom elements to the Gutenberg experience becomes a breeze. Your online newsroom also may need to use some other internal tools to manage images or charts. Those can be seamlessly integrated into your article with custom blocks built using Gutenberg and WordPress.

Gutenberg Experience

Aside from the ease of adding the different components of an article, the WordPress Gutenberg editor really elevates the online newsroom experience for journalists. Instead of wondering what their article will look like on the frontend, we can tailor the editor to match as closely to the frontend as possible. Internally, I love to remind the team that we need to give editors and journalists the opportunity to do what they do best—just write their articles. But instead of making them craft their content in an outdated software, Gutenberg allows them to write their articles while severely enhancing the experience. In a sense, it brings their articles to life before they ever hit publish.

Article Syndication

Remember the news I get on my watch? Once the content has been created, we understand the importance of article syndication so that the article appears in appropriate feeds, etc. The publishing process certainly has to be tailored to the particular news organization or publication. One thing I personally admire about my colleagues at WDS is their ability to collaborate with anyone. Our team is great at working alongside the internal team operating online newsrooms to ensure this happens. In other words, our team loves helping online newsrooms bombard readers with the latest news.

Put simply, there is no way of avoiding news these days, but there is certainly a lot that goes into getting the news in front of readers, and we at WDS love being a part of that process. Would you like our team to build you a WordPress-powered online newsroom designed to help you break news when it’s important? Contact us. We’d love to talk about it.

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I imagine that someone at some point said your business is only as good as your leads are. If you aren’t capturing leads on your website, then you need to start. Capturing leads on your site and stopping there might not be the best way for you to manage your potential customers, though. By integrating Salesforce with WordPress, you can keep WordPress as your CMS, where you simply manage content, and Salesforce as your CRM, where you manage your customer relationships. It might sound to you that it is counter intuitive to integrate these two powerhouses of software just to manage them separately, but by the end of this blog post, you will see why and how it’s not counter intuitive at all.

Salesforce

First, let’s dive into the basics of Salesforce. As a former nonprofit fundraising professional, I used Salesforce as my donor database where we would track not just active donors and donations but also donor prospects. Salesforce was completely customized to my needs and the needs of the agency I worked for. I was able to run queries using the criteria of my choosing to my heart’s content, customize donor profiles, etc. You get the point.

Put simply, Salesforce is a customer relationship management platform that allows you to track all aspects of your relationship with your customer. Because Salesforce is one of the experts in this industry, it is important to let them handle storing your leads. This way, your leads exist in the same ecosystems and context as all of your other customers.

Having said that, you simply must capture those leads as they come in from your website. These days, it is few and far between to find a business that does not have a website. But from my personal experience, it is much more common to come across a website that does not ask for and capture your information. All those prospects are slipping through your proverbial fingers, if you are not collecting their information on your site and then subsequently doing something about it.

Salesforce + WordPress

So, now that I have you convinced that you absolutely have to integrate Salesforce with your WordPress site, just exactly how do you go about doing that? If you can believe it, there is not just one clear answer.

The reason for that is because both Salesforce and WordPress allow you to choose the integration method that works best for your needs and budget. These options vary from solutions like a simple HTML form generated from Salesforce that you embed on your WordPress site, to WordPress plugins, to very complex customized integration that allows your website to communicate with Salesforce and vice versa.

Pardot

The most common integration for our WebDevStudios clients is Pardot, a Salesforce product. Pardot is specifically designed to generate leads and nurture those relationships. There is even a Salesforce Pardot plugin for WordPress. The description boasts, “With a single login, your self-hosted WordPress installation will be securely connected with Pardot. With the selection of your campaign, you’ll be able to track visitors and work with forms and dynamic content without touching a single line of code. You can use the widget to place a form or dynamic content anywhere a sidebar appears, or embed them in a page or post using a shortcode or the Pardot button on the Visual Editor’s toolbar”.

Although Pardot is the most common integration I have seen, we love customizing for our clients’ specific needs at WebDevStudios, whether that is with Pardot or a much more customized experience that we design especially for your needs. No matter what the integration looks like, however, one thing is for sure: your life will be a whole lot easier when you have integrated Salesforce with your WordPress site.

Do you need an experienced team to integrate your Salesforce, or other CRM, with your WordPress site? Contact us!

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When is agile project management appropriate?

Agile and scrum, specifically, a subcategory of agile, are known as the fail fast methods, often working to deliver a minimal viable product (MVP). This method is appropriate for projects when there is a set of clear requirements, but the how and end result are up for discussion. Agile allows you to build something in a sprint, lasting from a few days to a couple of weeks often; and at the end, produce a feature. Then, after reviewing, the team with the client can discuss if changes are necessary.

Agile is a popular project management methodology because it puts the product in front of the stakeholder a lot sooner. Perfection is not the goal, meeting the requirements is. Then, the team can iterate on that. Below are the benefits.

Priorities

Agile project management allows for the ability to change direction from sprint to sprint. Tasks are all managed in a backlog until they are ready for development. Only when all parties agree upon what tasks will be worked on in a sprint, does development on those tasks begin. The priority of tasks in the backlog can change constantly. This is great for clients that know they might want to reduce the priority of or limit certain work orders at any given time in the project.

Grooming sessions of the backlog and future sprints take place throughout the life cycle of the project to ensure that the tasks are always in priority order and the team is clear on what should be worked on next. This also indicates to the client that the next priority tasks need to have fully fleshed out requirements and user stories.

Requirements

A sprint only begins when all tasks have complete requirements, no unanswered questions, user stories, and acceptance criteria. This is another benefit of agile. Development doesn’t need to slow down and tasks do not become blocked because all of the necessary information is available to the team before they begin working. This also creates great structure for clients. They know in order for the team to begin work they need to provide the necessary details in the task.

For example, a task with the requirement of ‘develop a carousel module’ is considered insufficient. This task still requires a user story. This would read something like:

As a site admin, I can add a carousel to the homepage of my website that can contain up to four slides where I can change the background color or add an image. I can add titles, subtitles and buttons to the slide. I can move this module anywhere on the homepage.

A user story like this outlines clearly what the client needs and expects. The product delivered will make sure that this user story is satisfied then.

Definition of ‘done’

Sometimes at the end of a project, there is some discussion over whether a feature is complete. Agile eliminates the gray areas. Not only are the clear requirements and user stories for each individual task discussed, but the collective team, including client stakeholders, determine what the definition of ‘done’ means. It benefits everyone to know that when something is marked as complete; all parties have a clear understanding of what that means.

An example of ‘done’ could mean that the feature has been code reviewed by the project team and confirmed that it meets the acceptance criteria and satisfies the user story. Or an alternative could be that the feature has been code reviewed by the project team, reviewed on the staging server by the product owner and merged to production.

In the example of the carousel, if we went with the latter definition of ‘done,’ that would mean the internal project team reviewed the code and it was approved. This was then passed over to the client to review on their staging server for testing. They would need to confirm that they can, in fact, add the module to the homepage, change the background image and color, add titles, subtitles and buttons to each of the four slides.

Once confirmed, this feature is ready to be merged to production. Once it makes its way to production, then, and only then, can this feature be marked as done. If the feature does not get merged in, this task is incomplete by the definition of done that the team has set at the onset of the project. No arguments will ensue because this is something that has already been agreed upon.

It seems like an oxymoron that a methodology could be both structured and flexible, but agile is just that. It is structured enough to make sure what is delivered meets requirements and is properly marked as complete, but flexible enough that scope can change. This is why both project managers and clients alike use, love, and benefit from agile project management.

If you want to skip the marathon and sprint with us to take advantage of the benefits of agile project management, contact us today!

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Missing Data

Oftentimes, our clients wish to migrate the data from their current site to their new site. At the beginning of the life cycle of the project, we conduct a data discovery phase. We examine the data on your current site and complete a data mapping document which is handed off to our clients for final review and approval. Sometimes, it is not desired that all data be brought over. Other times, it is, but the data mapping document should outline explicitly what will be brought over.

Then, development kicks off and data is often not something that comes to our clients’ minds when we are demoing the brand new frontend of their site site. Once the site is handed off for QA review, the initial elation of actually having the site subsides, and the realization that a few key pieces of content are missing hits. Is it possible that something is missing in our scripts? Yes, that’s what the QA process is for—to identify any issues. More often than not, however, the data was not included in the data mapping document originally.

To avoid this typical website project problem, we encourage our clients to closely review the data mapping document before signing off. As a slightly less technical individual, I understand how daunting of a task it is to review that. So, I encourage our clients to ask questions, as many as you need, to fully understand what exactly you are agreeing to have migrated.

Image Issues

Another issue that comes up frequently is image sizing. When you review mock-ups, you are looking at a static image. Although we all like mobile responsive sites, it can be confusing when content management comes up.

Images don’t just shrink or expand based on the size of a screen; they respond and scale accordingly. Oftentimes, the images that our clients are using on their current sites do not match the recommended sizes for the modules we have built for their new site.

As this is an issue that frequently comes up, we recommend asking as many questions around this subject matter as early as the design phase of the project. This way you have ample time to prepare the appropriate graphics.

We have a few tips, though, to help you handle this challenge.

• Keep your graphics center-focused. Here’s why: graphics that have text or important details that run to the edges of the image can be problematic. As the image responds to the size of the screen, the edges will cut off. This is our number-one issue reported by clients. By selecting a graphic where the key content is towards the center, you will ensure that on all screens the graphic looks stellar.
• Let your site handle the call-to-actions. We create text fields and buttons for information that you are trying to convey. If you add text to a graphic, it can interfere with the elements of the block, as the site responds to different screen sizes. Let your images be just that, an image.

QA Phase

Another issue that often comes up during website projects, is around the QA phase. This is the first time our clients really get their hands on their sites. There’s that excitement again! But this can quickly turn into a potential issue if the QA phase is not used to report bugs and issues, but rather, used to create new requests and suggest nice-to-haves.

I like to think of a website projects as building a house. You wouldn’t think about installing a shiny new chandelier without first checking that the electrical outlets work properly. Similarly, it is surely fun to think about impressive future features, and we encourage you documenting those requests, but it is important to use the QA phase to thoroughly test your site specifically for the purpose of uncovering any bugs or issues.

Redirects

So now you are at the point where your site is about to launch. Everybody has been working towards this exciting, yet nerve-wracking, moment in your project. Then another issue may creep up, maybe a few links on the old site have been forgotten about, which will result in pages displaying a 404 error on your new site.

This issue is totally avoidable, if redirects are discussed early on. We can assist in setting up 301 redirects for those pesky old links. Remember, you know your current site better than we do, and it is helpful when you raise this topic and point those out to us.

I can pretty much guarantee that you will ride the roller coaster from the moment you begin discovery for your website till the site is live. Will website project problems come up? Yes, they will. That’s the nature of the beast, but these tips will help you feel the rush of the ride instead of any sinking feelings.

Looking for a partner to ride the roller coaster with you for your upcoming website project? Contact us!

The post Website Project Problems You Might Encounter appeared first on WebDevStudios.

From design agencies to IT agencies, to other development agencies, we have worked with them all. As a Project Manager, I see the risk increase with every additional vendor brought into a client project. Whether our client brings a design agency’s design to us to build their website, or they work with another web developer on another part of their site, it is important for us to work with everyone collaboratively and with a positive attitude. In doing so, we can minimize the project risks and make our client feel like we are a true partner to them, working toward a common goal: the success of their website project. Here’s how we do it.

We begin with communication.

When we begin a website project partnership where there are other vendors involved, it is important to first establish the mode of communication. Will everyone communicate via Jira or perhaps have a shared Slack channel? Once the method is agreed upon, it is crucial that everyone adheres to that. Open lines of communication are key to making sure everyone is aligned on goals and statuses of tasks and timelines throughout the life cycle of the project.

We identify the decision makers.

It is also important at the start of a website project partnership to determine who are the key decision makers. Some clients will give their other partners decision making power, while others will want to have the final say. During the beginning phases of the project, this should be discussed and determined who will be able to make decisions when necessary. This will alleviate any confusion during the active phase of the project when decisions may need to be made quickly.

Even if our clients’ other partners are not decision makers, it is crucial to learn early on who can provide answers to questions and when. Additionally, not all agencies have project managers so determining who is in charge of their timelines and how they impact us and our clients is helpful.

We remain flexible.

We consider ourselves experts at WordPress website development, but that doesn’t mean we are the only ones out there. We enjoy having the opportunity to collaborate with other agencies on projects. We are currently working on an enterprise level website project partnership that has us collaborating with our friends at Big Bite and Human Made, just to name a few.

By acknowledging that we are all working towards a common goal of helping our clients and delivering the best possible product, it sets aside any potential friction. We know that other agencies have a different way of doing things sometimes, so it is important to talk through processes with one another and come to a mutual agreement on how best to move forward. And it is important to note that sometimes that means that we need to do things a bit differently for the sake of the project and the relationship.

We work as a team.

Instead of feeling like there are too many cooks in the kitchen, we embrace the opportunity to work with other partners. By clearly identifying a communication method, points of contact and decision makers and agreeing upon processes, we can minimize the risk significantly before the project even kicks off! It’s great being a player on teams where the goal is to create something truly amazing for our clients. That is true success.

Looking for an agency to be a part of your website project partnership? Contact us!

The post 4 Tips for Successful Website Project Partnerships appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Project managers are essential to the life cycle of projects. They ensure that the projects stay on time and on budget from the moment the team kicks off development of a website through the end of the support phase.

Just like a carpenter cannot build without a hammer, we are not able to manage projects without our project management tools. They allow us to track tasks, timelines and budgets and communicate with our team and our clients. Here’s what we have in our tool box at WebDevStudios.

Communication

Communication is key to any project. Project managers are responsible for communicating timelines, requirements and deliverables to both the team and our clients. We communicate with our clients using Confluence, part of the Atlassian suite.

We are able to effectively share and collaborate on status updates, call agendas and meeting notes. We also use Zoom for conference calls with or without the camera on, based on our clients’ preference.

Internally, project managers communicate with their teams throughout the day, every day. This constant communication results in clarity and direction throughout the life cycle of the project. As a remote company, this could prove to be a challenge, but we never miss a beat by using Slack for our internal communications. We are able to communicate in the designated project channels, department channels, and, of course, direct messages. And, naturally, we have a few channels that are just for fun!

Task Management

To manage tasks, we use Jira, also part of the Atlassian suite. Jira allows us to map out projects on the road map by breaking milestones out into sprints, epics, tasks and more. We are able to easily track the progress of the project. Our clients can, too, at any given time, since they have access to the system. Tasks are assigned to engineers and sometimes even our clients, like when there is a client deliverable, we have a question, or they need to review something.
 

Budget and Timelines

In order to make sure we are adherent to budgets and timelines, we use Forecast and Harvest. Forecast is a system that allows us to, you guessed it, forecast a project’s life cycle by assigning hours per project per engineer. We are then able to make sure that we have enough resources to fulfill the work in the appropriate time frame.

Harvest is our time tracking system used to make sure we are budgetary compliant. We all log time against projects and even tasks so that we know how much time we are spending where. Project managers check time daily to make sure we are not going over budget and to see if we need to adjust timelines and schedules accordingly.

As a Project Manager, I live by our tools since our clients’ satisfaction is our goal and our tools ensure that. Without Jira, Confluence, Slack, Zoom, Harvest and Forecast, my tool box would surely be incomplete. So the next time we invite you to join our tool set, accept knowing that this will help us build an awesome website for you.

Contact us when you’re ready for a website that is delivered on time, on budget, and managed by a great project manager!

Do you know a great project manager? We’re hiring!

The post Project Management Tools We Use and Love appeared first on WebDevStudios.

Starting with the Pace Foods website was as natural of a choice as their thick and chunky salsa. Our approach was simple: develop a few custom modules and utilize the out-of-the-box modules to rebuild the site. For us, Beaver Builder was the solution.

Why was Beaver Builder the right choice for this project?

Since the overall goal for CSC was to standardize their web development, “Beaver Builder seemed like the perfect tool to help them deploy sites uniformly and quickly,” explains Director of Business Development, Jodie Riccelli.

Utilizing Beaver Builder ensured that across their many brands, they would start to see commonalities in the overall feel since they would be using similar modules. It also meant a streamlined approach for training and the subsequent execution of changes and maintenance on the sites.

Budget-friendly, Custom Modules, and Easy to Manage

When we first looked at the Pace Foods site as a potential rebuild, we knew we wanted to add some modern elements. With that in mind, we knew we wanted to propose a few changes, but, as with all of our clients, we needed to be respectful and mindful of the budget we were working with.

Since Beaver Builder has great core functionality, we were able to include additional custom modules and make those modern updates to the site while not exceeding the budget outlined by the client. Incorporating some custom modules gave Pace Foods some added functionality that they were expecting.

“Our brilliant engineering team created some custom Beaver Builder modules that align with the needs of CSC. The custom modules in conjunction with the ease of Beaver Builder was the foundation for the new site,” Jodie adds. For example, Pace Foods answers customer FAQs using a custom module we built, even prompting the user to let them know if that information was useful.

Sometimes when a website is rebuilt, there is a drastic noticeable change in how the website works in the backend, which isn’t always the desired outcome. How a website is managed is oftentimes as important to the client as the frontend user experience. For Pace Foods, the goal was to provide a website where their team could manage the site with ease. WDS accomplished this goal for them.

Is Beaver Builder right for you?

Beaver Builder may just be the right tool for you and your consumer packaged goods website, too, if you are looking for something to help build an easy-to-use and budget-friendly website. Although there are some limitations, especially if you are looking to incorporate custom or pre-existing functionality, we are always here to help you overcome those challenges.

So let’s get this fiesta started! Contact us today to learn more about how WDS and Beaver Builder can benefit your website.

The post Pace Foods Plus Beaver Builder Equals One Hot Website appeared first on WebDevStudios.

As a Project Manager, I cringe at the thought of scope creep! However, as a former WebDevStudios client, I know I am guilty of it. I’ve learned I am not the exception to the rule on both accounts. So, here are a few things I’ve learned about scope creep and how you can manage it.

What is scope creep?

After a website project has started, and the scope of the project grows beyond the original plan, that is considered scope creep. This can happen for a number of different reasons. If a project’s requirements are not well defined and outlined at the start, new requirements are likely going to come up throughout the life cycle of the project. Similarly, a lack of transparency and poor communication during the project can result in additional work impacting the original scope.

A surprising reason for scope creep…

I have found that there is another reason why scope creep happens: excitement. Nothing can prepare our clients for the way their new website looks and how it functions. There is a big difference between the mock-up they approve during the design phase of the project, and the functioning site they see on our status calls. At the beginning of a project, it can be difficult for a client to imagine how things will turn out. Once they start seeing demos, they start to see the potential. With this potential, comes new requests and expectations—thus, scope creep.

Scope creep management

And there’s the rub. As a Project Manager, you don’t want to crush your clients’ dreams, but you have to manage timelines, budgets and expectations. Our goal, then, is to minimize the risk of scope creep throughout the website project. This starts even before the discovery phase. By sharing with our clients sites in our portfolio, they are able to envision what their site could also do. This empowers them to ask for certain functionality before the scope has been established. During our extensive discovery process, we are able to flesh out what the requirements are.

Accepting the reality of scope creep

Finally, it is as important to have a plan to deal with scope creep when it happens (since it is inevitable, like the common cold) as it is to have plans in place to minimize the risk in the first place. We cannot accommodate every new request or change that comes up during every website project for every client. What we can do is explain their options through change requests and appreciate where the client is coming from—a place of excitement.

What methods or strategies do you use to manage scope creep? Tell us your tips in the comments below.

The post Why Scope Creep Happens appeared first on WebDevStudios.

We obtain assets early.

First, we ask for all assets, third-party integrations, hosting information, etc. early on in the project life cycle. If we wait till we get to the point in development when we actually need them and there is a hiccup, it inevitably would set us back. By simply asking upfront, we eliminate those disruptions. Even if our clients don’t have this information at the start, it gets the ball rolling sooner and we still receive the details we need before we are behind schedule.

We set milestones.

We break out development into a bunch of mini due dates called milestone completion dates. If we miss a milestone completion date for some reason, we know we need to adjust what we are doing for the following milestones to ensure we meet the ultimate deliverable date. Additionally, we track our progress of completing our milestones and share that with our clients throughout development to be fully transparent.

In the same vein, if something changes for our clients and they need to bump the timeline out, it is critical that this is communicated to us as soon as possible. This ensures that we will be able to reallocate resources to accommodate the new timeline. Open and frequent communication with our clients is essential and key to the success of the timeline.

Sometimes our clients do not have a hard deadline, which is okay. It is still important, though, that we have a timeline that both WDS and the client adhere to. It can be a challenge when there is no pressure on the client’s end for the website project to be complete. In order to be successful in following the timeline, we need buy-in from the client. Oftentimes, clients have waited quite a while to get a new website. Perhaps they didn’t have the financial resources previously, or perhaps they didn’t have the personnel bandwidth. Whatever the reason may be, it can be tough for the client to then shift into fifth gear. By building excitement and sharing progress with the client, they are able to buy into the timeline.

We plan ahead.

Finally, it is always wise to add a little cushion. If a client must have their site by a certain date, we create a timeline where we will be completing the project a few days prior to that date. This way if we hit a bump in the road, as can happen, we have some wiggle room.

Luckily, our due dates aren’t quite as elusive as my neighbor’s (she wound up delivering her baby a month early!). Once we create a timeline, we are able to stick to it by partnering with our clients to follow these guidelines, ensuring that their website launches on time.

The post Guide to Completing Website Projects on Time appeared first on WebDevStudios.