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April 10, 2005
Web Redesign 2.0
This year has been even more intense than I anticipated. I've been managing web projects for a couple of years now, but the scope of my current project literally dwarfs any previous ones. I've been using a home grown process for my web development for the past year, even building a system with Movable Type to help me manage them! But it only took a couple of weeks into my current project before I realized that I needed more tools to effectively manage this one. To that end, based off a recommendation from DigitalWeb, I picked up a copy of Web Redesign 2.0.
Process Gaps Revealed
Like most people who have been doing this for a while, I find that when I pick up books about development I know a good amount of what's being said in the book. But I read these books to find out what I don't know, and in the second chapter of this book, I saw a very compete process map of the entire redesign process, and that's where I found the chinks in my own system.
Every damn design company out there flaunts their process that's usually the four D's (Discovery or Define, Design, Develop, Deploy) but the process is actually five steps. I found this out just last year when I redesigned my MT Project system, but it felt great to open this book and see almost the exact same five steps:
- Define
- Develop
- Design
- Build
- Launch
People always overlook that we actually have to produce something! Anyway, the book centers around these steps and gives you many great tools to use at each step (some of which are available online). Any project manager, no matter how long you've been at it, can always appreciate a new tool to better manage the project.
But the most value I got out of this book was filling in the gaps in my larger process. I often overlook review steps, or secondary planning steps (like "Creating a QA Plan" something that seems common sense right?). I've always taken the time to truly define the strategy and design of the website, but tended to skimp when planning the actual project. And now that I'm in the biggest project of my career, I need to take the time to plan every step, every process point, every resource, and this book helped me find and plug the holes in my original process.
Conclusion
This book is great for people like me, who have been doing project management for a few years and are always looking for ways to improve and adapt to the ever-changing environment of web design. But I think it would also be great for any management that has some experience with web but is still fairly new to the whole thing.
