Project Management in Web Application Development

Project Management

It’s incredible how many web apps go into development in a completely cavalier fashion, without any structure whatsoever. While obviously things don’t have to be one hundred per cent regimented as if it were a military operation, having no objectivity at all is definitely the other end of the pendulum swing, and equally to be avoided. Proper project management is essential in web development just as it is in any other comparable endeavour. Since 2015, I’m the Lead web developer at Caractere Sénégal and I just want to talk briefly about some of the many ways you can kick the organization factor up a few notches in your web development projects without necessarily going overboard.

Do Studies

This is so simple a concept, yet so often overlooked in the area of web application development. If a carpenter has to measure twice and cut once, a web developer should do three or four studies before making the first move. In the age of big (and easily accessible) data, doing this is not hard! Feasibility studies at the technical and logistic level are a must as a bare minimum, as are marketing studies, to make sure that you are actually designing something that people not only need but want. That last distinction is actually super important and worthy of a lot of analysis.

Another common error in this field is the tendency to run up the cost and ending up spending three to make two. This is largely due to overestimating the amount of time it actually takes to really do something right. This can partially be solved simply by paying by task rather than by the hour if circumstances permit it. These types of actions limit a company’s exposure to the dreaded Pareto principle. Corollary to this, it’s important to set hard deadlines, even if they do have to be moved later for whatever valid reason. And, as always, it’s important to never get too bogged down in minuscule details

Delegate And Trust

At the outset of any project of this type, the main idea should be to make sure everybody’s responsibilities are clearly defined and understood by all. When everybody has a well-defined portfolio, they work a lot better. As things are now very rapidly moving to almost one hundred per cent online for these types of projects, it’s even more important to be two hundred per cent clear about everybody’s duties. As a help, there are many free tools and applications available online that can make it easier to structure and manage your projects. This can benefit both the project manager and team members to get a better overview and understanding. Trello, Asana, Basecamp, are free tools that you can use to manage projects for example. I used all of them and they’re very useful but honestly, I prefer Jira. It’s not really a free online line software but for me, it is best suited for web development :).

It’s important to make good decisions regarding who does what before starting in on any project. There’s nothing more frustrating than having to micromanage everybody all the time. This will drain any mere mortal in charge of even a moderate web development project. More importantly, it can cause you to lose focus and sight of the big picture. Once someone has their role clearly understood, you have to trust that you have made the right decision with them, unless there is overwhelming evidence to prove otherwise. Too much micromanagement eats away terribly at the efficiency of your product. Trusting in people’s capabilities is the only way to go ahead smoothly ;).

For further

Ok! If you like to read books, I can recommend two great books to go deep into project management. The first one is The Lazy Project Manager and the second one is Interactive Project Management: Pixels, People, and Process. Have a nice day 😉