How to keep your web development projects on schedule

Give your best tip for keeping web development projects on schedule?

To help you best manage your web development projects to keep them on schedule, we asked IT project managers and business leaders this question for their best insights. From offering your team cash rewards for good work to building some flexibility into the schedule, there are several tips to follow in managing your web development projects to ensure they are delivered on schedule.

Here are 10 tips these leaders follow in keeping their web development projects on schedule:

Offer Your Team Cash Rewards for Good Work
Set a Check-in Schedule to Track Overall Progress
Use a Project Management Tool
Take the Initiative in Directing Projects Your Own Way
Create Milestones
Hold All Project Resources and Information in One Place
Have Regular Cross-Discipline Meetings
Align and Assign Roles and Responsibilities for All Involved
Hire Extra Help When Needed
Build Some Flexibility into the Schedule

How to Keep Your Web Development Projects on Schedule

Offer Your Team Cash Rewards for Good Work

Nothing motivates people quite like a monetary reward, so offer your team a bonus if they deliver your website on schedule. You’ll have to stipulate that there be no significant bugs at the time of delivery, in order to keep employees from giving you a subpar product. If everything goes according to plan and the team delivers your website on time and bug-free, then give them that reward, because they’ve earned it.

Marcus Hutsen, Business Development Manager, Patriot Coolers

Set a Check-in Schedule to Track Overall Progress

Set up a routine for check-in’s to keep track of the project’s development. Regular check-in’s allow for following up on current progress, as well as any areas of concern. Problems that occur during the process can be addressed quickly and effectively. This ensures the maximum amount of potential with the least amount of time wasted. It also allows for an assessment on if more time is needed for a project or not based on follow-up reports to keep the workflow as productive as possible to keep the schedule timely.

Gigi Ji, Head of Brand and Business Development, KOKOLU

Use a Project Management Tool

Use a project management tool. We live in the technology age, so why not take advantage of that? Instead of trying to keep track of web development projects via email or virtual meetings, use your favorite project management tool and let technology help you out. For example, Teamwork, Trello, Asana, and Basecamp are all project management tools designed to organize, streamline and unite your team during your development process. Choosing one of these management tools will keep your web development projects on schedule and will set your company up for success and continued growth.

Karim Hachem, VP of eCommerce, Sunshine79

Take the Initiative in Directing Projects Your Own Way

It’s simple to do nothing until you’re told what to do next or how to do it. And yet, in a website development company, it’s crucial that you know how to manage your time and focus effectively. In my opinion, thinking like that can be detrimental to your success. Instead, take charge of your work by initiating conversations, prioritizing tasks, and managing projects in your own way.

Max Whiteside, SEO & Content Lead, Breaking Muscle

Create Milestones

I believe milestones are critical for any software development project. Having a clear understanding of what needs to be accomplished and when it needs to be completed by, will help ensure that your project stays on track and hits the deadlines while also giving you a chance to see your work in progress along the way. To be more specific, I’d recommend milestones for each phase of the project, including planning, design, development, testing, and launch. This will help you identify any potential issues early on so that they can be addressed before they become a problem, avoiding any backlogs or surprises later in the process.

Arkadiusz Terpilowski, Head of Growth & Co-founder, Primetric

Hold All Project Resources and Information in One Place

I think it is simple to lose sight of where you have assigned specific resources while overseeing a project with a large team or to become confused by several communication channels. This is why I believe it is important for the growth of your web development project that you store everything in one place so that all team members have easy access to all files and information. Therefore, there are no justifications if someone cannot locate important information that should be accessible to them.

Steve Pogson, Founder / E-commerce Strategy Lead, FirstPier

Have Regular Cross-Discipline Meetings

One of the most effective ways to keep web development projects on schedule is to build in regular cross-discipline meetings. This ensures that all members of the project team are aware of the progress being made and any potential challenges that might arise, and the solutions adopted to overcome them. By keeping everyone in the loop, you can more effectively address any issues that come up and keep the project moving forward. Having everyone sighted on the progress, challenges and solutions also makes for a smoother interplay between different disciplines involved in the project, as the evolution of the project and its outputs is known to everyone concerned.

Ian Wright, Managing Director, Business Financing

Align and Assign Roles and Responsibilities for All Involved

Web development projects need to be planned properly from onset to end. Once you created your team make sure you created a proper schedule for everyone and aligned their role and responsibility. And make clear the individual’s responsibility, and decide who is going to do the given task. And document their work in spreadsheets or as a document. Lack of alignment in roles in the team affects the mission. So priorly decide who is going to fit for the role of the main developer, designer, and stakeholders. Take a while to align the roles and responsibilities and begin your project with everything aligned.

Lokesh Pant, Head Of Business Development, Bargainairticket

Hire Extra Help When Needed

When there’s a project that needs to be kept on schedule and will impact the rest of the company, we make sure that nothing will stand in its way. Web development projects can impact the sales, marketing and product team and that’s why we make sure we hire the extra help needed to ensure that everything goes as planned and we have the backup we need to stay on schedule. Hiring project-based employees or freelancers who know what they’re doing can work alongside our existing team and ensure the focus is on the project deadline and that everything runs smoothly.

Denise Hemke, Chief Product Officer, Checkr

Build Some Flexibility into the Schedule

Anyone who has worked on a web development project knows that there are always a few unforeseen delays. Whether it’s waiting for a client to provide feedback or dealing with a technical issue, delays are inevitable. That’s why it’s important to build some flexibility into the schedule. By allowing for a few extra days at each stage of the project, you can avoid the result of one delay cascading into others. Of course, it’s also important to keep an eye on the overall timeline and make sure that the project is still on track. By being flexible and adaptable, you can keep your web development projects running smoothly – even when delays occur.

Ludovic Chung-Sao, Lead Engineer & Founder, Zen Soundproof