This year we have been active in the industry for a decade, which means that we have been involved in hundreds of web projects. During these years we have learned a lot, including how to avoid failed web projects.

An important part of this is to ensure what a client should know before ordering. This blog post will therefore address the five most common mistakes that are usually made and lead to more expensive and delayed web projects.

Incorrect preliminary study

Many claim that the lack of preliminary work is a reason for failed web projects. But we rather believe that it is incorrect preparatory work that leads to failed web projects.

It is common for the client to prepare a requirements specification themselves, however, it is more difficult to prepare a correct requirements specification than one might think. Knowledge is required in both requirements management and web projects to include all important functional and non-functional requirements.

In addition to a correctly written requirements specification, a technical solution proposal is also important. The solution proposal should be prepared in a systematic way where different web technologies are compared and evaluated based on sustainability, flexibility and cost-effectiveness. A schedule and budget can then be estimated, otherwise the estimate risks becoming empty guesswork.

Lack of commitment

It is common for companies to order web projects and then only have a few reconciliations before completion and launch. This often leads to the project having to be reworked, being delayed and more expensive than expected.

A web project depends on regular reconciliations to ensure a good delivery because a requirements specification cannot possibly include every detail of the intended web solution. Through workshops and continuous reconciliation meetings, details and possible misunderstandings must be discussed and then corrected.

Therefore, as a client, you must reserve time for unexpected problems and decisions. During the project, time should also be set aside to test the web solution in several different rounds. Of course, this should also be done by suppliers during the course of the project. But for you as a client to feel confident that the development of the web solution will meet your expectations, great commitment is required.

We have written a post about how much commitment is required from a client of a web project, you can read it here.

Margins in the time schedule

If a supplier quotes two months of work for the development of your intended web solution, this does not mean that the web solution will be ready two months after the start of the project. You should always expect long lead times during the project, which can depend on many different factors. Common reasons for lead times occurring are that documentation is needed from third-party system suppliers, corrections after testing or possible technical problems.

In web projects, there are many different risks that can lead to potential delays, so there should always be good margins during the course of the project. As a rule of thumb, the number of working hours should be doubled to produce a reasonable schedule. This means that if the web project requires 320 working hours, a deadline should be set 640 working hours after the project start, which corresponds to 80 working days (3.8 months).It is important to ensure that there are good time margins between the completion of the web project for launch and the actual launch day. This way, you have plenty of time to evaluate the web solution and plan for launch. This way, you can avoid activities that are dependent on the launch of the web solution having to be postponed, such as marketing campaigns or personnel who will work with the web solution.

In addition, you should always expect that the requirements specification will change during the course of the project. This is because the functionality and appearance of a web solution can be difficult to determine from the start. Any changes will also affect the project’s budget and schedule, however, major changes can be avoided through proper preparatory work.

Are you interested in reading about how to avoid failed web projects? Read our blog post here.

Maintenance costs

It is common for companies to be surprised that a web solution requires higher maintenance costs than expected. Many only include hosting costs and think that this is the only ongoing cost after the project is completed. But the truth is that all web solutions need continuous maintenance, this can include everything from bug fixes, updates and possible further development.

The fact is that web technology always needs to be updated and bugs will always occur, even in well-written source code. At this stage, it is important to review your support agreement with the supplier.

Usually, a website requires maintenance costs of a couple of thousand per month, while a web system can cost several thousand per month. In order for the budget estimate to be as accurate as possible, these costs should be included in the budget calculation when ordering a web project.

Device adaptation

It is common for clients to expect that the intended web solution will work flawlessly on all mobile devices, however, you should never expect this. This is because there is no supplier who promises or can live up to a web solution that works optimally on all devices.

Usually the supplier does not mention which devices, browsers and operating systems a web solution will support, but you should not count on all of them. This is because it is an incredibly time-consuming task to test on so many devices, as we are talking about at least hundreds of different ones. Not even a simulation program such as Browserstack supports all of these devices.

Our recommendation is to always start from the most popular devices, browsers and operating systems. Through a simple Google search you can see which ones are most popular, and then discuss with your supplier which devices should be supported.

Don’t be discouraged if your web solution doesn’t support many devices, your web solution will look good and work well on more than these. However, this cannot be guaranteed and that is why the management agreement is extra important, since errors such as device adaptation can be discovered after launch and corrected afterwards.

 

Do you have questions and concerns about how you can avoid these mistakes? Contact us, and we will help you further!