While roping in the big clients is certainly not an easy job, I believe it’s still only half the job. The considerable other half of the job is the management bit – communication, deliverables and deadlines. Most people do not see Web Project Management as an important or necessary part of the web services business. But is it? In this blog post, we point out the three most important reasons why project management is not only necessary but critical for business growth.
Let’s start by understanding who a project manager in the web development & design area is and what he does. In simple terms, a project manager is one who makes a designer and a developer’s job as stress free and productive as possible. Here’s why a project manager is so important:
To Streamline Work: The job of a project manager is to assess the work offered, assess the resources and bandwidth, breakdown deliverables, set goals & assign it to the designer or the developer & fix a schedule. In the absence of a project manager, it is difficult to streamline work. Often designers and developers bite more than they can chew and are either unable to deliver work on time or submit shabby work, both of which are unacceptable and can cause the company to lose business. The project manager is the single point of contact for the scope of work.
To Set Budgets & Manage Finances: A project Manager is there to take on a project after having assessed the resources. This includes him allocating budgets to the project, meeting hiring needs, negotiating prices with the client, setting revenue goals & ensuring targets are met. Failure to do so could result in loss of revenue.
To Communicate & Stabilize Requirements: In the design and development industry, client requirements are high, changes are inevitable and deadlines are tight. To juggle these factors, a project manager with sound knowledge of management & client facing experience is a must to make sure things do not go out of hand. Clear communication is of utmost importance.
In a small study by Strategic Director of Orbit Media and author, Andy Crestodina who analyzed complaints by clients regarding design and development, he found most complaints revolving around management. In a bar graph, he plots the 27 complaints into 3 buckets. The chart shows the percentage of complaints for each category. Here are the results:
When put in a word cloud, it’s clear to see what the most complaints were about:
In conclusion, I think it’s quite clear that project management and good project management at that, is critical for business growth. If you thought you could do away with this role, you might want to reconsider for the benefit of your business. Got some thoughts on project management? Share it with us in the comments section below! More on the topic soon to follow 🙂
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