When clients approach us about doing a new website, one of their main concerns is "When can we have it live?" Having been involved in web for 10 years now, it's pretty easy to determine early on which clients will get their site done on deadline and which ones will not.
From the outset, objectives need to be determined on what the site is supposed to do. This includes menu structures, content consideration and site development over the coming years.
Proper development needs to be scoped so both the client and the development team are on the right page.
While development can blow out during a project, most times it is the client who delays the process. There are many different factors of why this happens, but here are some of the most common:
- Too many decision makers involved
- Inability for the client to move forward
- Change in scope
Finally, make sure that you have final content available when its time to input copy into the site.
All too often, clients want to do copy revisions when its time to upload copy. These things should already be ironed out long before. These may appear like minor issues, but very often are the delays that blow out web development!