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Develop a project plan for your website

Develop a project plan for your website

Planning is an essential part of creating websites. It is often as important as the website development itself. A good website project plan can help you:

reduce risks and possible problems during development
manage your time and resources better
keep the focus on your project goals and objectives
carry out tasks with greater efficiency
stick to agreed schedule and deadlines
improve communication with web designers and developers
Website development project plan – what to include
Before you start any work on the code of your website, you will need to think about its:

purpose – what do you want your website to accomplish (eg find news customers, generate leads, advertise your business, sell online, etc)
users – who will use the website, how/when will they do it, what devices will they be using to access your site
structure – how you want to organise it, eg how users will navigate through the site and how different pages should be laid out
design – how it will look like and be used, eg elements such as logos, menu selection, etc
content – what information (text, image, media etc) you want to publish on the site and who will develop, populate and maintain it
content management system – how you will add and edit content on your website
domain name – what will be your domain name, ie your URL, and what you need to do to register it
web host – who will host your website and what website hosting options will best suit your needs
development – will you choose an off-the-shelf template to build your site, use an online tool, or commission a web developer
A good website project plan should set out:

a task list – for every step of the website creation process
a schedule – timeline for the completion of tasks, testing and launch
a budget – to cover all stages of the project (ie planning, design and development costs, any bespoke functionality you might need, as well as training, copywriting, etc)
Aim to create clear and detailed specifications during the planning stage. You can break them down into planning, design and development sections in your plan. It may help to include charts to visualise your timeline and milestones.

Website development project documents
You can search online for free or commercial website project plan templates, including task lists, project schedules and budget plans. Other documents that you might find helpful include:

work breakdown structure
feature descriptions
responsibility assignment matrix
risk register and response plan
project iteration and closure reviews

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