Top 10 challenges in web based projects (in 2009)
Vierityspalkki.fi ran an amazing article on the top 10 challenges facing web based projects in 2009, but as it is in Finnish, I though an English summary is definitely in order as the author, Perttu Tolvanen, really hit the nail on the head on many of these! This list is not scientific, but based on Perttu's empiric evidence gather through solid experience in the field of web based services. Having worked in that field for quite some time now I can pretty much further validate all his findings with my own as well. This is just a summary on the issues, not a complete translation. Challenge 1: The expectations of users and customers rise faster than technology can respond People are accustomed to using free services (Facebook, Gmail etc) that have millions put into product development, thus presenting them with an amazing set of features and level of quality. It can be difficult to explain why making a corporate intranet feel like Facebook or a video service have half the features of YouTube can cost a bit more than expected. Challenge 2: Content management systems haven't moved to the Web 2.0 world fast enough Most CMS systems still don't pack enough features for a full-blown social media / Web 2.0 experience out-of-the-box. Challenge 3: A huge pile of features doesn't make up for lack of strategic vision With all the options presented by the Web 2.0 world, it's increasingly difficult to maintain a strong and durable online strategy as you're tempted to push all possible features and services to your project. Challenge 4: Preset schedules (and specs) (This one is obviously a Futurice favorite!) Preset schedules in software and online service development are a sure shot way of providing a disappointing result. In a development process, the team, the product owner and the customers themselves always figure out new things about the problem / need at hand and setting schedules and specs to stone before the budget gibes it a very poor probability of a successful outcome. Challenge 5: Resourcing problems and lack of architectural proficiency Creating online services demands expertise in a versatile set of skills and professionals possessing the level and range of expertise (from technical to business, content, readability etc) needed are very few in Finland. Way too often projects fail or lack overall quality because junior developers are needed to pad resourcing as seniors are whisked away to new projects. Challenge 6: The tough choice between complete overhauls and incremental development Deciding whether you website needs a makeover, some tiny incremental improvements or a complete system overhaul can be an unexpectedly difficult choice! Hacking improvements to a poor platform can result in a very badly performing service, but making a painful and expensive system overhaul could be overkill just as well. Finding a balance and a sweet spot of when to renew the underlying platform demands far more knowledge and vision than one would come to expect. Challenge 7: The lack of service providers for continuous development The development of web based services is still almost always a project-based world. This challenge is already defined in excellent detail by Aki Björklund in his blog post A website is never done. Challenge 8: Underestimating the meaning of launching More often than not, web projects seem to be ran rather secretive inside companies and the customer's personnell might even learn about them from external press releases. Especially if you need to involve your personnell in content creation it is essential to get all key people involved as early as possible, communicating the improvements has to be planned ahead, training sessions have to be arranged and launching the service has to be a bang! Challenge 9: Underestimating the workload of content transfer When doing platform overhauls, a very common mistake is to underestimate the time / effort needed to transfer all the existing content from the old system. Automating the transfer can be far more difficult than expected and manually transferring hundreds - or even thousands of documents is an insane amount of tedious work. It can even be recommendable to make a totally separate project for content transfer, especially in the case of larger systems or systems with a long history. Challenge 10: Compatibility issues with client devices It is becoming increasingly apparent that there is no end in sight in the broadening of the client device spectrum. As netbooks are bridging the gap between computers and mobile devices, the amount of tiny quirks and major differences you need to prepare for can be nothing short of overwhelming. Not to mention the issues that surface with differences in configuration and environment. Conclusion: In the ever growing complication of the online world, far better co-operation between customers and service providers is needed. On one hand, the customer's need for understanding and visibility to the media domain will increase. The experience gathered from failures (and more importantly) success stories in the digital domain have to be taken into use effectively on both sides of the fence. Successful end-to-end delivery of online projects is a special expertise that is worth the expense. --- As mentioned, this was just a summary of an excellent article and as such only scratches the surface of a scratch on the surface. Each of the challenges would pretty much warrant a blog post - or even a full book or a series thereof - to be examined in real detail, but putting this list into words is a great opener. Thanks a lot, Perttu!
