Know your limits, plan accordingly

A lot of different factors determine the scope and extent of your project. Your budget. Time. Manpower. Dedication.

• Can you afford to outsource the whole project or will an in-house team manage and develop certain parts?
• Will your budget allow for additional measures? For offline advertising, business collateral, etc?
  
• How much time will be allotted to certain processes?
  
• How will the resulting data be measured? By whom? How often?
  
• Who will be responsible for ongoing maintenance?

The better the strategy, the better the outcome. Following a simple outline helps you identify weak points at a very early stage and gives you a competitive edge necessary to keep your project from failing:

• 1) Strategic Analysis and Planning:
  What do we want to achieve? Who are we targeting?
• 2) Budget & Requirements Definition:
  What do we need to achieve it? Is new software, hardware or personnel required? How much will it cost?
• 3) Responsibilities Allocation and Assignment:
  Who will do what? Do we have enough manpower? Do we need to look for outside providers?
• 4) Content Acquisition and Review:
  Do we have all the data required? Do we need to do more research or aggregate more data (more or better content, images, etc)? Do we have the right to use everything (Copyright?)?
• 5) Project Draft and Review:
  Draft of overall design and structure: A Mockup. Things do look different in a browser window. Last chance to make changes.
• 6) Project Development:
  Implementation of design and code.
• 7) Backend Organization:
  Get everything in order: Business Cards, Flyers, Collateral. Everything should complement and contain your new design, the new URL, the new headline.
• 8) Last Test and Last Preparations:
  Do test every aspect meticulously before you go live. Make sure everything is working. Prepare blogs, press releases, arrange for media coverage (if applicable).
• 9) Launch and Promotion (and more promotion):
  Do it. And promote, promote, promote. Links, Blogs, Articles, Search Engines.
• 10) Monitoring, Measuring and Maintenance:
  Don't forget the most important part: Constant Care. Measure everything; you might need it one day. Add new content regularly. Keep improving. Keep your visitors happy.