About Us - Criteria for Success
Is it possible to define a fixed set of criteria that will definitely make a project a success?
We don’t think so. Most website and multimedia developments are complex undertakings with many external factors that can affect their final outcome. We do believe, however, that there are certain conditions that that can greatly enhance the success of a project.
Effective Communication and Understanding
Communication is vitally important on all projects. The more open the line of communication between the client and the developer the more quickly and effectively important questions can be answered. If it is not possible to get prompt access to the client’s key decision-making personnel, the project will fall behind schedule because it will take too long for decisions to be made. Similarly, if it is difficult to contact the key development personnel, misunderstandings and errors can take too long to rectify which slows down the progress of the project.
Communication must be effective. Each party must aim to ensure that the other has fully understood what is being communicated. Communication by phone or in person needs to be followed up by written minutes detailing the main action points of the communication and any decisions that have been taken. This process will help to identify any areas of misunderstanding before they are translated into costly changes to the project.
Commitment
Rarely does a project get so fully specified at the outset that the developer can disappear and then return with the finished solution. It is imperative that the client realises the amount of commitment that they too are going to have to make to the project.
As the project progresses there will be a number of key sign-off points that will require time commitment from the client. This will include analysing the progress of the development and ensuring it meets the specified requirements before giving written agreement that the phase has been delivered correctly.
This process should be taken extremely seriously, as subsequent phases will build on aspects that have been signed off. Any indecision about aspects of the project that have been signed off could involve very time-consuming changes that will have been compounded by being further developed. A situation such as this could cause the project to fall behind schedule and run over budget.
Trust
There must be mutual trust between the client and the developer. Even the tightest specification and the most comprehensive contract cannot stipulate every minute detail. We would not exploit this to our advantage and would not expect the client to do so either. "Scope creep" by either side is unacceptable and will undermine other aspects of the working relationship, eventually leading to delays, deadlock or outright failure.
Organisation
The pro-active organisation of personnel and resources during a project is critical to it remaining on schedule. Effective use of staff and resources can dramatically improve a developer’s efficiency and thus the time and cost it takes to complete a project. A high level of organisation and good project management can facilitate quick responses to problems as a project unfolds and allow developers to be much more flexible in the way they deal with these issues.
Good organisation at the client’s end of the relationship ensures all assets are available when they are required, decisions are made promptly and instructions are conveyed meaningfully. All this will dramatically improve the time it takes to complete a project and can affect the quality of the finished solution.
Required skills
It is important that you are confident that the developer has the necessary skills to deliver your project. A project can be ineffective, late or over budget when a developer tries to use only the skills at its disposal rather than the skills the project actually requires. Such skills include not only those of designers and programmers but also project managers, copy writers, marketing personnel and so on.
Experience
The developer you use for your project must have relevant experience. A project (for example, a website) that has been developed by an inexperienced agency may appear to have all the required functionality and aesthetic charm but may not work as expected when in its target environment. For instance, an inexperienced developer may not have considered the pitfalls of developing a more complex project for higher numbers of simultaneous users. This could lead to your project being suspended while problems that manifested themselves only when the project went live are resolved.
All projects are different and, generally speaking, it is both impossible and unnecessary to find a developer with experience in developing a project that is exactly the same as yours. A better indicator is an ability to deliver in environments where the target audience is approximately equivalent to that of your project and the project is of a similar size.