The Menu
The Ingredients
The Preparation
The Presentation
The Clean Up
The Worksheet

This Web Site Project Worksheet is designed to help those about to undergo a web site development or re-development. Despite what we are led to believe by Marketers (you don't still believe the Marketing Department, do you?), there's a great deal more thought and planning necessary than picking a free host. A web site represents something -- a person, a company, an organization, a philosophy, something. And whatever it is, like a nation's citizens, it should be well represented.

The following list of questions and exercises should be used for a web site overall, and in the case of complex sites, for each section or area of the site.

While it's traditional when discussing building a web site to use the metaphor of constructing a house, I find more people have constructed dinners than dining rooms. So please bear with me.

Before beginning to cook, we need to know what we are preparing. The following questions should help us get some initial perspective.

In 25 words or less, identify the target audience and the meaningful benefit to that audience the site or section offers.

Most sites fail because they lack a well-defined focus and benefit to their target audience. A cook needs to know who they are cooking for and why? Is it comfort food for a sick child or a formal reception for an embassy? Does the diner have any allergies? Having a concise, well-defined focus also allows us to avoid the other great pitfalls of web site development — dissipating the impact by trying to make the site all things to all people and losing the benefit in the stew of technology.

How will the site be maintained?

It doesn't do any good to plan a main course of Cheese Soufflé when the "cook" thinks Top Raman in a microwave is haute cuisine. So if the secretary who still uses the MicroSoft Office Assistant Paper Clip is expected to maintain the web site in her spare time, maitnenance can't be too complex. Fortunately, there are now some wonderful CMS (Content Management System) programs available, both as Open source projects and commercially within anyone's budget — just remember customizing a back-end program does cost money. Maintenance usually requires 50% of the annual web site budget, either in the backend or the staff.

" You can have it fast. You can have cheap. Or you can have it right. But you can only have two out of three." — Rapid Application Development
Which two and what order of importance?

McDonald's or Cordon Bleu? Made from scratch or delivered by special messenger? Too often web developers get incredible features lists, an impossible deadline and a miserly budget because "we can reuse the stuff we did for our brochure" (Does Julia Child make filet mignon out of leftover ground choice?). Setting realistic priorities produces better decisions and results.

What's the primary purpose of the site or section — Alternative Distribution, Build Traffic, or Build Product Demand?

If the primary purpose of a meal is nutrition, then Rigó Jancsi won't satisfy no matter how much you love chocolate. On the other hand, if you're trying to build a four-star baking career, baked apples with Karo syrup could destroy your reputation. While it may be desirable to have a site meet more than one purpose, there can be only one primary purpose and it should receive at least 90% of the development efforts.

How is a successful project defined and measured?

Was the meal a success if everyone asks for seconds? What if only four out of five clean their plate? What makes a project a success? Is it handling 10,000 split-shipment orders during the Christmas rush and accurately tracking the order status online for customers? Or is it getting "slash-dotted?" Or is it being able to update site information instantly? By clearly defining what would make the project a success and how that will be measured, development can proceed towards that objective without ambiguity.

What's the actual project budget?

No point in planning paté foie gras with truffles, champagne and caviar for 300 if the budget is $10 per head. However, it may be possible to splurge on caviar (not everyone is going to want to eat it) if you save money on the appetizers. If the project requires e-commerce, assume that's 25-30% of your budget right there. And don't forget maintenance will probably eat another 45-50% of the total budget. And make certain the developers know the actual budget range. Sometimes as little as another $100 can make a big difference.

Where will the content come from?

Will the herbs come from the garden or be canned from the grocers? Sites have a voracious appetite for content — text, graphics, data, possible multimedia and more. Some content is expensive to produce while other content, like a discussion forum, can generate its own material. It may be possible to buy content or generate it in-house, however, marketing materials and press releases should not be considered core content any more than the free chips and salsa at Mexican restaurant should be considered a meal. And if your really don't want to work on the computer to write your text or create your own graphics, be honest and budget for assistance. Stale content like stale bread doesn't help your image.

Is there any content that must be avoided during development?

No matter how well prepared, if someone is allergic to broccoli, it can ruin the entire meal. Are there things the developers need to avoid? An accountant may find red on the financials page unsettling to say the least.

Select up to seven adjectives to describe the final site.

Adjectives set the mood. If a meal is called casual, fun, festive, we don't think of six courses ending with Stilton, walnuts and port in the library. Hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill with potato salad washed down with a cold beer might come to mind. Providing a minimum of four, but no more than seven adjectives, to describe the spirit of the final site gives the developers a much clearer picture of what we want. Something dynamic, hot, jazzy, vivacious, exciting will be totally different than a design that's sophisticated, European, rich, luxurious, and strong.

Who'll produce the content and how will it be approved?

Somebody has to do the cooking and somebody has to say the seasonings are just right. It might be the same person, but in many professional kitchens someone else approves the final dishes. Who will prepare the site content? How will that content be approved? Who is the final decision maker and how many steps are necessary before the content reaches the final arbiter? If too many people have a vote and a voice, content can be stalled until it isn't fresh or watered down to an offensive blandness. Too many cooks spoil the broth. And too much corporate web content ends up as web Muzak.

What hardware and software is necessary and available for production?

As any camper will admit, what you can cook depends upon what equipment you have available. Where will the site be hosted? What are the limitations or services available from the hosting server or back-end or CMS programs? The site developers should be able to help make decisions on trade-offs, alternatives and design changes to meet the site needs.

What is the long-term plan?

Are there appetizers and cocktails to be served while the rest of the meal is cooking? It may be possible, desirable or even necessary to plan on releasing parts of a web site over a period of time. Periodic site updates offer some promotional advantages as well as breaking up the financial hits. On the other hand, a site with a surfeit of information and activities can create a terrific first impression and might be worth a wait. Or perhaps there's more information or features that simply aren't available by the initial release.

What's the release deadline?

"It takes nine months to make a baby, no matter how many women you assign to the task." — Brooks, The Mythical Man Month. If the turkey takes three and half hours to cook, turning the heat up will only ruin the bird. Deadlines have a way of extending and the more cooks in the kitchen, the longer the cooking seems to take. If the deadline is firm, then the developers should be able to set what can realistically be prepared by that date and postpone other features. Press releases, sales pitches and other promotions should begin only after the site is up and tested.

How will the site be tested?

As every cook knows, before serving a dish to a guest, it should be prepared and served to family or close friends to perfect the recipe. Web sites should also be tested before being served up to the target audience. How much time will be allowed for testing? How will the site be tested? Who will make up the test team? Everything from usability to content to browser compatibility to functionality must be tested thoroughly and in a realistic manner.Ideally, at least 25% of the development time should be spent testing before release.

How will the site be promoted?

The table's set, the candles lit, the napkins pressed and folded, and the soufflé is just about ready to serve, but no one mailed the invitations. A web site will need a promotional plan and someone must execute it — at the right time. Who will submit the site to the search engines? Who will prepare the press materials? Will any collateral materials such as stationary or business cards need to be changed? Will promotional announcements be sent to the target market and if so, how? (Spam should be avoided at all cost.) Does advertising, including online banner ads, need to be developed? Who will develop them? The site developers? They need to include this in their development schedule because they may be frantically working on any bugs found by the testers when the banners are needed. Someone will also have to provide "customer service" by at least responding promptly to any and all emails received.

Where will the site materials be backed up and archived?

Someone has to wash the dishes and put away the cookbooks. Once the initial site has been presented, the site materials, site architecture and the various content sources need to be backed up and archived. Documentation for the development, design and programming needs to be checked, updated and stored in an accessible format and location. Nothing's worse than having a system failure or hacker attack and discover no one has a back up of the most important file on the site.

Who own what rights to which material?

Can the chefs publish the recipes in their own cookbooks? Can they reuse them in their own restaurants? What about in a promotional article in Gourmet Magazine? Be certain everyone understands who owns what rights to what material. Can the developers use the site in their own promotions? Can you hire an outside designer to make changes to the graphics and content? Do you hold the copyrights or do the designers? What happens if you sell the site? (Be absolutely certain that your domain names are registered in your name and not your hosting service's or web designer's. You want to be able to take that with you if you must change hosting service or web developers.)

This should all be spelled and exchanged in signed agreements or contracts. And don't let your lawyers scare you into losing potential publicity by overzealously guarding all materials. The shelf life of content or coding is short on the Internet. Is it worth losing mention and click-through on seven major Internet sites of the day to guard the slick JavaScript expanding and contracting navigation tree code when it will be all over the place in (or obsolete) six months? Every professional writer has been asked "How do you protect your ideas?" and explained that you can't really protect ideas. The secret to being a professional is not having one great idea and guarding it closely, but having lots of good ideas and letting people know you have lots of good ideas.

Well, I hope this helps people planning a web site to improve the experience and their satisfaction with the results. My final suggestion is that if in doubt, keep it simple. A loaf of fresh artisan bread, some exquisite cheese complemented by the perfect fruit and accompanied by the just the right wine is far more impressive than a soggy soufflé, a dry, overcooked Beef Wellington, and lukewarm, runny garlic potato puree.

Bon appetit!

The Worksheet — Click here for a simplified form of the worksheet for easy development.

All photographs, graphics, images and text
© copyright, 2000 by Carolyn E. Cooper