Brent's blog

For those of you familiar with a traditional project management process, you’re probably familiar with a typical project life cycle- plan, budget, design, develop, test and release, AKA waterfall. This style of management can typically be found in fixed-bid projects. You may be less familiar with the percentage of projects that utilize this management process, yet fail to stay within the project’s intended time line, budget and scope.

According to the “Chaos Report”, a project management study on software development companies:

…35 percent of software projects started in 2006 can be categorized as successful, meaning they were completed on time, on budget and met user requirements. This is a marked improvement from the first, groundbreaking report in 1994 that labeled only 16.2 percent of projects as successful…

35 percent! Almost two out of every three software development or integration projects are failures. If you are not planning on selling services or merchandise on your site, collecting customer data or statistics, or updating site content via a content management system, you can probably rest assured your project will not be a total failure. However, if you are planning on utilizing any or all of these features into your website, I highly recommend you continue reading.

While there are 4 project life cycles adopted for software and web development, LevelTen primarily works within the Waterfall (also known as Serial) and Iterative cycles. While all project life cycles provide advantages and disadvantages, these two have been widely accepted and adopted by software, IT, and web companies alike.

For those of you familiar with a traditional project management process, you’re probably familiar with a typical project lifecycle- plan, budget, design, develop, test and release. You may be less familiar with the percentage of projects that utilize this management process, yet fail to stay within the project’s intended timeline, budget and scope.

According to the “Chaos Report”, a project management study on software development companies:

LevelTen utilizes a coaching model to organize its internal business processes. The process evolved from a traditional chain-of-command approach seeking a more efficient way to work with independent-minded, creative employees – strategists, researchers, designers, programmers, planners. LevelTen’s model recognizes that true creativity and inspiration can only be encouraged and directed; it can’t be specified, ordered, or demanded.

By the late 1990s the Web craze hit the world like Beatle mania. During the Superbowl, the alcoholic beverage industry was overshadowed by dot-com commercials depicting successful e-commerce startups and the idea that everyone could own a successful web business. Someone needed to fulfill the huge influx of web sites that needed to be created and anyone who owned a computer and could learn HTML and create graphics was suddenly a self proclaimed Web expert.

The idea of a home-based global information system dates back at least as far as 1959 as depicted in Isaac Asimov’s short story “Anniversary”, in which characters look up information on a home computer connected to a “planet wide network of circuits”.

Interestingly enough, it was 1990 before Tim Berners-Lee, “the father of the world wide web”, an independent contractor at CERN, Switzerland, completed all the tools necessary for a working web – the first browser, the first web server, and the first web pages that described the project itself.

As mentioned in my last post, creating a strategy and project plan before beginning the design and build of a website or web application is perhaps the most important step in launching a successful website. Most successful businesses start with a business plan, it is our job as web strategists to translate that plan into the ever evolving web.

So there I was, sitting in room 18ABCD at SXSW 2008 watching a presentation designed more for the Food and Hospitality industry than for an Interactive Conference, thinking, "why the hell did I spend good money to listen to this shit?"when I realized God IS in the details. While the presentation started at a painstakingly slow pace, the speaker began making his points and his objectives where uncovered.

God is in the details. Good design begins with inspiration. Less is more.

Would you construct a 30-story office building without an engineering report, understanding the zoning requirements, soil type, architectural blueprint, or number of businesses in the area that need office space? Of course you wouldn't.

As an account manager with LevelTen, I've been involved with many projects some successful, others not so successful. While a few of the less successful projects were due to execution, a significant portion of the project pitfalls were lack of organization and communication during the initial stages of the project.

The following suggestions are intended to help clients be more productive and assist with completing a project on time and within budget...