Buyer’s Guide: The Stages of a Website Project

1. Kick-off

A project needs to begin, doesn’t it? The kick-off phase includes everything that takes place between the acceptance of the proposal and the first actual workshop.

Here are the typical contents and responsibilities of the kick-off phase:

• Contract negotiations (together)
• Preparing the initial project plan and schedule (us)
• Resourcing the supplier’s project team and holding internal kick-off meetings (us)
• Project kick-off meeting (together)
• Project team introductions
• Project phasing
• Schedule
• Responsibilities
• Communication tools
• Budget and invoicing practices

After the kick-off meeting, all parties should have a clear understanding of what will happen at each stage and who is responsible for what.

2. Definition and planning

This is the single most important phase of a successful website redesign. In this phase, we clarify what will be done, why it will be done, and how it will be done.

• Strategic planning
• Service design
• Design
• Written specification

This phase mainly consists of our own independent work and workshops with the client, where we present our suggestions and deliverables.

Concrete outcomes of this phase include, among others:

• A written specification that verbally describes the planned content modules and integrations
• A plan for content and URL structure
• Content types and classifications, i.e., taxonomies
• A user journey plan
• A measurement plan

The phase progresses in two-week sprints by topic: in each, the outputs are defined, designed, documented, iterated, and approved before moving on to the next area.

All plans are based on the client’s request for proposal

All plans are based on the client’s request for proposal, which makes it easier to identify and document any additional work during the project phase.

3. Technical implementation

Once the definitions, plans and designs have been approved, the project moves into software development.

In this phase, a technical development backlog is created – a queue of tasks. The backlog includes all the views and functionalities planned in the previous phase, as well as tasks such as setting up the site architecture and testing.

The workload for each task is estimated in detail before development begins – again in two-week sprints. Each sprint is planned and carried out by topic area.

Every individual technical task follows this process during the development sprints:

• Technical implementation
• Deployment to the test environment
• Testing
• CR (Code Review) by the responsible developer
• DR (Design Review) by the responsible designer
• Approval
• Ready to be presented to the client
• Client presentation

We present technical outputs to the client every two weeks for content management reasons as well. This allows the client to begin entering content during the technical implementation, not only afterward.

Two-week development sprints continue until all technical tasks have been completed and presented to the client.

4. Final testing

Before the site is handed over to the client for acceptance testing and content entry, we carry out final testing to ensure that everything has been implemented as planned following the sprint-level tests. This phase includes, among other things:

• Functional testing
• Cross-browser testing
• Accessibility testing
• Performance testing
• Integration testing and error handling

Quality assurance in this phase – as well as during technical implementation – involves the use of Code Review, Quality Assurance, Code Linting, and Design Review.

5. Content entry and acceptance testing

It is natural for the client’s acceptance testing to take place during the actual content entry phase, as this is when the client truly begins using the website.

Acceptance testing

The client performs final testing based on the approved written specifications and design documentation from the project.

Acceptance testing is carried out as follows:

• We create a testing environment that mirrors the production environment for the client’s use
• Testers go through pre-agreed test cases as well as conduct exploratory testing and content entry
• Observations are recorded in our acceptance testing spreadsheet
• The recorded observations are reviewed verbally together

All possible findings are fixed before the service is launched. Any issues are handled through the following process:

• Error identification and documentation (client)
• Implementation of the fix (us)
• Code review (us)
• Retesting (us)
• Final approval (client)

Content entry

Even though the management interface of the published service is designed to be as clear and intuitive as possible, we actively support our client during the content entry phase.

Throughout the project, the client’s user groups are trained in content entry. Typically, these groups are divided into at least two: administrators and content editors.

Content entry skills are ensured through:

• Content entry training sessions
• Daily support meetings during content entry
• Retrospectives of the training sessions for two weeks following the start of content entry
• Video and written user guides

6. Launch

The website is launched according to a carefully prepared launch schedule.

The launch phase includes preparation work, the launch itself, and post-launch testing. After this, the project or its subcomponent is considered delivered, and we can move on to the continuous development and maintenance phase.

The launch phase is typically carried out by us and any third parties involved (such as domain name service providers), without requiring the client to be actively involved in the launch procedures.

The published website is an important new entity – but in many ways, it’s only the beginning of our collaboration.

7. Care

The project may be complete – but our collaboration is not.

We aim for long-term partnerships with our clients, based on the shared understanding that a published website is a significant new entity, but also just the beginning of our work together. Our goal is to support our clients in an ongoing, proactive manner – delivering measurable added value over time.

In other words, the client relationship doesn’t end with project delivery; it continues as a long-term, evolving partnership. We invest in active communication, continuous development, and customer satisfaction to ensure that the website continues to support the client’s business in the best possible way.

In our experience, we must act as a proactive development partner, not just react to client requests. That’s why we commit to regularly bringing new development suggestions to the table in our joint planning meetings, looking at things from a variety of perspectives:

• Trends and best practices – the latest technologies, UX/UI design improvements, automation and optimisation
• Legislation and requirements – such as accessibility and data protection
• Content and user experience
• Functionalities and integrations
• Data and analytics

And of course, ongoing care also includes dedicated customer support and service maintenance:

• Proactive monitoring to ensure performance and security
• Rapid fixes in the event of critical errors or urgent changes
• Day-to-day support for site administrators
• WordPress updates (including plugins)

Summary

It may sound simple. But it only is if proper focus is placed on each phase of the website project – also from the perspective of project management.

Best, Isto