Web Project Management: Delivering Successful Commercial Web Sites

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1. Xin qian November 16, 2009 12:53 am

   This book is not about project management. In fact, someone versed in the Project Management Institute’s Project Management Body of Knowledge will cringe at some of the statements made in the book (more about that below). It is, however, about delivering successful commercial web sites and it provides the best approach I have ever seen. Here are some of the things that make this not only unique, but the most authoritative book I have read on the subject: (1) It is not an IT centric book that focuses on technical issues. The author brings to the forefront the real critical success factors in the form of four equal sets of requirements: commercial, creative, content and technical. In 2000 I was a member of a multi-million dollar dot com project team for a large international company, and from that experience I totally agree with the author’s view. (2)The author manages to balance the time-to-market pressures that permeate commercial web projects with the by-the-numbers method imposed by IT. As such, this book addresses the development life cycle from inception to production by aligning implementation to development life cycle stages. It manages to accomplish this and still cut the project’s cycle time by removing any fluff. What is fluff? The tons of non-essential paperwork produced by some of the larger consulting companies. What is not missing are the essentials, as evidenced by the repeated emphasis on testing, the attention given to configuration and change management, and the realities of post-implementation support. These are extremely important and are too often overlooked. (3) The project controls that are proposed in this book are exceptional. While the author muddles through stuff like the proper definition of critical path, he shows how to effectively control a project by managing to deliverables. Contrast this with the common mistake of managing to a schedule and you will see the real effectiveness of his methods. So, while he misses the mark on some project management fundamentals, he sure makes up for it in pragmatism. He also makes up for his “transgressions” by laying out a project roadmap that, if followed, will guarantee success. If we project management “purists” lighten up a bit while reading this stuff we might learn a trick or two. The big surprise is the author is not an IT professional – his background is TV producer! Or, perhaps it’s not a surprise at all considering the fact that there is no room for failure or missed production schedules in the TV industry, while the IT profession is notorious for massive schedule and cost overruns. What impressed me greatly is the wide range of technical issues that are addressed: browser compatibility, content formats, scripting languages, etc. For someone without an IT background the author demonstrates a solid grasp of real-life issues and gotchas. Those of us in IT need to carefully read the parts that address creative and content management. We are used to working with technical peers from vendors – working with copywriters and artists requires a wholly different way of interacting and communicating. Moreover, content needs to be treated in an entirely different matter than data, and it also comes with an array of legal issues that we are not trained to think about. What I discovered , despite my previous involvement with a commercial web project, is there are so many factors I had never considered prior to reading this book that most projects are flying blind. As such, this book should be read by every team member, creative, content (artists and copywriters), technical, legal and commercial (marketing)*before* undertaking such a project. This will ensure that the entire team sees the big picture and understands the complex interrelationships, and all issues and factors are addressed. Mr. Friedlein deserves the highest accolades for making what I believe to be the most significant contribution to this field. My only regret is that I am limited to 5 stars.

2. Yasu November 16, 2009 3:11 am

   To date we have had to rely upon general project management works or those coming from software engineering. But we know that web development is different and difficult. There are so many concurrent projects and tasks, such crazy timeframes, so little client knowledge, such stress around scope creep, such demand to capture and reuse successful solutions, and no time to take stock. Perhaps it’s because most web project managers are so overwhelmed by the task they are simply too exhausted by the time the latest site is launched to even celebrate, let alone write a book. This is the book I’ve been waiting for, placing the order on spec a couple of months before publication. It seems that no-one had written anything comprehensive previously – although Jessica Burdman’s Collaborative Web Development is very informative, while covering a broader scope. Friedlein writes with clarity. The book is practical, jargon free, and the words easy to digest. It clearly comes from a practitioner, not an academic or teacher. There is also no Jakob Nielsen pontification. I found the benefits to be as follows: * It enabled me to reflect upon my company’s web development processes and to identify areas of improvement. * It provided reinforcement for my concern that we were not expending sufficient resources in the planning, solution design and specification stages (pre-production). * It enabled expansion of my client’s requirements checklist. * It gave me a new term: “virtuous spiral” – to graphical illustrate our need to do more to maintain, review and evaluate our client’s sites after handover. I particularly enjoyed the extensive case study – the Channel 5 project (although bemused that they ended up with a frames and Flash site). This left me thirsting for more of these reality checks. Ashley Friedlein’s company works on larger web projects than mine. While he has $500,000 jobs – our average is $50,000. Our company is much smaller at 60 knowledge workers. The result is less clarity of roles, need for production staff to be always across multiple teams and the joys of project managers juggling up to 10 projects at a time. The problems relating to organising projects in small web companies are not directly addressed – and I suggest a tome focused on this market could be a great success. Friedlein places a greater deal of emphasis on managing content than I would have expected – although I’m thankful for it. However, in relation to our company practice, he seems to underplay the importance of managing the information architecure and interface design. He places prototyping in the Production phase. In our company this falls within the solution design/specification stages of pre-production. Content is placed in Production where I would make it span both pre-production and production phases, so that as much content as possible is web ready before the build. The book is subtitled “delivering successful commercial web sites”. Emphasis is thus given to the e-commerce environment, while my company is much more concerned with community development and informational sites. By hey the former is where the market is – for now. I believe this is an excellent read that is both relevant to project managers new to the web, and anyone in web development who wants clarity on what needs to be done to better manage projects and organise the production process. What we need in order to build upon this book is a Web Project Managers’ “portal” site. Here we could locate the available resources, exchange our case studies, problems, ideas etc – anyone interested?PS. I am currently reading “90 Days to Launch: internet projects on time and on budget” by Shayne F. Gilbert. IMHO it’s not a stratch on Mr Friedlein’s book.

3. Iowa November 16, 2009 4:40 am

   Amazon Verified Purchase(What’s this?)

   I should have read this book three years ago. Web Project Management presents a solid Web project management method for building commercial web sites. The book reads as if Ashley Friedlein, the author made many of the same mistakes I made. The wisdom encapsulated between the covers of this well written, easy-to-understand volume will serve web site project managers for years to come. The author breaks web site construction into 4 distinct phases: Pre-production, Production, Maintenance and Evaluation. Pre-production is broken into 3 stages: Project Clarification, Solution Definition, and Project Specification. Pre-production ranks as the most important stage; it represents the time when you work out what is to be achieved and plan how you will do it. Production consists of the following stages: Content, Design and Construction, Testing, Launch and Handover. I found the author’s attention to content complications particularly interesting. In my experience, content is the area where web site designers and builders are the weakest, yet plays one of the most critical roles in the users’ return. Maintenance plays a critical role in the updating and evolution of the site, so that it can retain and grow its user base. The final phase, Evaluation, is something of great importance to site builders and clients. Clients are demanding their web sites provide a return on investment. Sites must perform a commercial as well as a branding and marketing function to justify continued investment. If a financial benefit can be established, it is much easier to receive continued funding for existing projects or to undertake new ones. If you are involved-however tangentially-with web site development and support, you owe it to yourself to have a well-worn copy of this book gracing your bookshelves. Friedlein writes from experience – and that experience will save you time, money and quite a few headaches.