BUSINESS MANAGEMENT MASTER CLASS SERIES

Internet Web Development Master Class: New Sites

A few years ago the Internet was heralded as a major break-though in marketing

communications. We were told in no uncertain terms that society would change forever

and that every home would be plugged into the web. However, in the cold light of dawn

following the burst of the ‘dot-com’ bubble there was a subtle downshift of expectations.

Now with a billion or so pages comprising the Internet your proposed site will be a very

small fish in a very, very big pond...

Keeping in control

Before undertaking your Internet development project stop, think and plan! Ideally you

should have a strategy, cost justification and project plan in place prior to proceeding.

Aesthetic, technical as well as business requirements should be specified from the

outset to prevent the development from spiralling out of control.

Your Internet presence should be formally managed: just as you would with any other

business or Information Technology project. This does not mean telling a technical team

that you want to get a web site and leaving them to it (unless you like writing blank

cheques). Assign the responsibility for managing the project to someone that primarily

understands your business and your business environment. If they also understand the

technical side of things that would be a bonus.

When putting together a development team remember that what you are developing is

an Information Technology system. Your Internet development team should be subject

to the same development controls that you would reasonably expect from a team

developing your key management reporting systems. How impressed would you be with

a site that crashes repeatedly because no-one could be bothered to do any formal

testing?

Te reverse of this is the excessive application of development controls. One common

error is to try and make the site 100% compatible with every browser type, every

platform and every version of every browser. The reality is that the vast proportion of

Internet users access the Internet using one of three browsers e.g. Internet Explorer,

Netscape and AOL. You may not like the fact but it is none the less reality. If you really

want 100% compatibility you will pay for it in terms of time, money and loss of

functionality.

© Neuro Innovation 2004

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11/10/2005