As any project manager will tell you, when you work with a group of individuals there are always project barriers or obstacles involved. It can be very difficult to work with a diverse group of people and give them the right leadership to work together as a cohesive team. Although it is easy to learn the theory of doing this, putting it into practise in real life is often somewhat harder.
This can seem particularly true for any project manager who finds themselves working with a website team where there is a requirement to coordinate between the workloads of the creative designers who work in a very visual manner, the technical expertise of the programmers and developers and the expertise of the digital marketing team which will ultimately help drive traffic to the website . In order to be an effective website project manager you need to be able to understand the different personalities, knowledge bases and styles that your team have in order to manage these effectively to get the required results from your project.
Managing a diverse website team
In order to be an effective project manager on a website design and development project you may need to draw on all the experience you have from a range of different project types. This experience might have been gained working with teams in other industries. For many project managers working with a website team can prove something of a steep learning curve so there is definitely benefit from using the accumulated knowledge of a range of different project managers from a number of different industries and hiring a freelance web designer can prevent problems from happening.
This is where taking a project management course that covers a project management Body of Knowledge such as that from the APM or PMI can help. There will not necessarily be a “one size fits all” approach to getting over the challenges that you might face but you will learn about different approaches and methods that you can apply to your particular project. It can be a good idea to use a mixture of best practises supported with new knowledge.
A balancing act
The type of projects that a website project manager may find themselves facing may well be tough ones that could involve:
- developing new web interfaces in order to boost revenue
- create better accessibility on a website for people with sight or hearing impairment
- drive more website traffic to increase a company’s online sales.
These are not small undertakings and there are a number of ways in which they can be approached. Knowing how to analyse the project that is in front of them and then create an effective plan in order to reach a successful outcome is a major job and one which any website project manager will need to approach carefully.
The type of people that they have on their team will come into play when considering which approach to take as well so there will be a significant level of planning involved in order to get the best results possible from the available resources and overcome any project barriers. This no easy task and can often leave a project manager treading a very fine line in order to find the right balance. However, with the right project management skills and leadership qualities, it is possible to find that balance.
