Often marketing agencies choose to outsource their web development projects because it allows them to offload their more technical work to specialists so that they can concentrate on forwarding strategies for their clients. Clearing up time and energy within your agency can help you strengthen your overall skill set.
While this is a common task, managing a project that is not in development under the roof of the agency can be frustrating and projects may derail if not properly managed. If you are reading this article, chances are you have experienced this frustration and are in need of tools to help you effectively manage an outsourced web development project.
The key to establishing a working relationship with your outsourced web developers is to find a team or freelancer whose work and project management style matches your own. Don’t hire the first outsourced development team you come across. Take time to interview developers and ask for references and work samples. Many developers offer a free project quote, take advantage of these offers to see how your project may work in differing hands.
Once you have chosen an outsourced web development team, you need to establish your working style. This can be done by email or in your initial meetings, but more often than not you need to request open communication and things like status updates. For example, you could request that once one page or element of the website is complete, the development agencies project manager emails with a completion update. This will eliminate some of the mystery of the development stages caused by the outsourcing.
You have provided your client with a timeline and you know from past experience how long a website build may take, as well as, which parts of the website you will need to work on once the project is handed back to the agency. You and your outsourced development team need to discuss the project scope and how long they predict each part of the build will take. If you are on a strict deadline it would be best to establish a deliverables timeline. If you have a lot of photos or products to load in, it may be wise to request that product pages are delivered by the developer first, so you can start on your side of the project to help you reach deadlines more efficiently.
Before the project even begins, the budget for the outsourced development needs to be established and contracted. Different development teams will contract their time in different ways, find a team with a costing structure that works best for your agency. Learn more about how to protect your development budget in this free ebook.
To have a success relationship with your outsourced web development team you cannot be afraid to project manage. Communication, understanding, and timelines are all essential parts of seeing a web development project come to fruition.
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