Results

In today’s work-a-day world, most of us have multiple projects or tasks that we are working on simultaneously. Some handle multitasking well, and others struggle with it. That is why, under any circumstance, it is important to prioritize. The same is true of web development. However, corporate web developers have taken it one step further. A recent article in the New Hampshire Business Review discusses the hows and whys of prioritizing features and tasks within a web development cycle.

Any businesses developing a new site or conducting a redesign will end up with a long laundry list of changes, functionality, or new features to be added. Under these circumstances, “the challenge is not brainstorming new opportunities, but rather prioritizing all of the different options you have for upgrading or redesigning your site given your resources.” In order to maximize the usefulness of a website, each potential new feature must be carefully analyzed for its value to the company. Will the time it takes to complete each feature result in a better, more productive or more appealing site? The article suggests considering three specific factors when evaluating each change on your list:

CUSTOMER NEEDS: Customers should always be the first priority, since they determine the success of failure of a business or product. Correspondingly, any new features to a website should address their needs and desires. Thus, the first step in the prioritization process is to conduct research with actual users. This can be done by any number of means, including online surveys, focus groups, responses from promotional material, etc. Some corporations may even want to consider launching a beta website to show customers what the current plan is for the site. Based upon their reactions, a company will know if they are heading in the right direction.

BUSINESS VALUE: This has to do with assessing the bottom line. In this step, it is important to consider the following questions: What are you trying to accomplish internally? Will this feature help you accomplish that? Is this feature cost-effective? How will it increase the usability of the site? The answers to these questions will help to prioritize different features that a company may be considering. For example, suppose a company wants to reach out to new customers through a new product. What feature can be added to the website to promote this product among new users? How do current customers respond to this product? Does it gel with current branding, or will it confuse existing users? This stage is all about analyzing a potential new feature from a business perspective to ensure that money spent on a site will be worth it.

TECHNICAL CONSIDERATIONS: This analysis is best done by the IT team in conjunction with real-world users. After the “customer research” phase, the relative technical cost of these features can be analyzed. However, this must go beyond the monetary cost. Other factors to consider include: the time it will take a tech team to develop these features, the amount of space these features will require on the website itself, what kind of maintenance will be needed, and how users with different levels of technical experience will use the features. This is a crucial consideration for any new site or upgrade.

This type of prioritization makes sense not only from a development standpoint, but also for the bottom line. After all, adding features that don’t meet customer needs, that are unwise from a business perspective, or that are unrealistic in terms of technological resources is a sure way to fail. Successful development teams carefully evaluate new features based on their potential to pay off in terms of user experience and financial success. By following the above protocol, any new website has a much better chance of success.

Thursday, April 3rd, 2008 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

By Michael Gorvin