Historical article . References to tools and versions reflect the time of publication.
It is the ability to offer immediate, scalable solutions. It is a mindset, an attitude with which a project is undertaken.
It means breaking down a project, removing unnecessary time, performing frequent sanity checks and ensuring that excessive time is not spent on things that add no value to the project.
It is about spending quality time on actions that add value to a project and improve it, while removing time and effort from the parts of the process that cause headaches. In this way, your team will achieve the same goals and results in half the time or less.
In this article, I will show you how the agile approach to project management can be applied to website development.
Traditional Website Development Process (a typical website development process around 2000–2007).
Shortly after 2000, several agencies worked hard to figure out how to design websites effectively. They began with the tools and methods used in print, video and radio, adapting them for the Internet.
We adopted solutions such as paper prototypes, wireframes, user personas and use-case-based design, as well as information architecture, design with sitemaps and flowcharts.
The turning point
We recently accepted a project for a school education website that asked us to redesign its site.
When we came to prepare our proposal, we found ourselves in the uncomfortable position of being unable to decide how to approach the project, without understanding why.
After a while, we realised why. The development requirements followed a 2005 mindset.
Wireframes, sitemaps, use-case scenarios and focus groups: the traditional website development process has served us for almost 10 years, and we have developed effective websites using it. But in a fast-paced industry like ours, speed and efficiency are very important.
We now see that these were the tools of the “Wild West”. They still have a place in the web2.0 world, but their use has declined.
What has changed?
Three major changes over the past 5 years have fundamentally changed how we design websites.
First, everyone uses the Internet. And when we say everyone, we mean everyone! Ten years ago, most chief executives had secretaries who printed the emails they needed to answer. Now every CEO has a Blackberry or iPhone.
Second, we have gained a better understanding of how people use websites. Five years ago, we started with our best guesses; now we have best practices. For example, every user visiting a college website knows to look for a link that says “User Login”, and every college knows it is important to have a link called “User Login”. It is hard to imagine, but these were genuinely big questions in usability discussions and testing 10 years ago.
Third, and perhaps most importantly, there has been great progress in content management system (CMS) technologies over the past 5 years. Any talented usability consultant, a profession that also did not exist 10 years ago, can work with a developer to customise anything in a CMS's code so that even older people unfamiliar with computers and the Internet can edit a website.
We are now at a point where 80% of the work required for a website development project in those days is unnecessary.
It is time to set these processes aside and move to the next level.
The Agile Web Development Process is a modern, flexible approach to website development.
In the Agile Web Development process, editors interact with content and navigation within one day. Navigation flows easily and reaches users sooner. It gives us the opportunity to make several small corrections along the way, rather than having to wait a few weeks to make major adjustments.
Flexible processes for a flexible web
Get your team away from answering emails and phone calls. Stop the endless meetings and putting the same issues on the agenda every week.
Gather everyone in an office and lock them in, figuratively speaking. Bring together decision-makers, people responsible for web content and IT specialists, and create a simple recipe for each project's success.
As every part of Agile Web Development runs more smoothly with rapid iterations, less time is also spent on planning, recapping, giving feedback, mood changes, staff reorganisations, training and so on, giving you even greater time savings. Instead of your team attending 4 meetings over 5 months, they need to participate for 3 hours in total over 3 days.
With the Agile Web Development approach, your team will get deeply involved and manage to build the website within two weeks of the project's start, and should receive real feedback from the website's actual users within a month.
You should consider whether you want to make these changes, along with the associated training, by asking yourselves the following key questions:
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- Will this change help us achieve our goals?
- Does this description of the theory fit our company's mindset?
- Is this solution better than the current one?
- What is the worst that could happen if we decided to try it for a week?
- Once the week is over, what criteria should determine whether we continue or return to the old method?