If a project is a building containing strategically placed blocks, then the project brief is one of the first building blocks you need.
A Project Brief in Web Development A project brief is the ‘homework’ that marketers should do before pitching their idea to any web developer. It is the outline of the whole project that contains the timeline of your project, the milestones of the tasks, breakdown of the tasks and anything that aide in a better understanding of the project for the web developer who is hearing about it for the first time.
In simple words, it literally keeps the web developer and the marketers/clients on the ‘same page’, which is crucial for any project’s success.
The questions such as what is the project’s objective? Who is the targeted audience? What is the scope of the project? How the milestones designed and what are the proposed deadlines? What’s the proposed budget? Your project brief to a website developer should include all of this.
A project brief also tells the web development team the loopholes in the project and the areas in which the marketer needs more understanding because it could be the first website development project for the marketer.
A project brief sets the responsibilities early on.
Coming to the question…
"I am a marketer, how do I write a website development project brief for a web developer?"
Marketers can note the following points to write a web development project brief because the website is one of their biggest marketing assets for promotions.
As a marketer, you wouldn’t need a website for yourself always. You get web development projects from your clients and you don’t have dedicated web developers in your team and we completely understand that. The following tips will help you get a brief about the project from your clients and share it with the web development team.
The object of your new website could be improving online presence, increase direct sales, generate leads, provide information through blogs or a combination of all. Clearly defining the objective of the website sets the foundation for further discussions and steps.
The subject of the budget is important but tricky. You can tell the approximate budget using which the developer can anticipate the desired result.
Project’s time-frame and milestones deadlines are important for knowing how many sources the agency can deploy to achieve the tasks at the desired time.
It is important to decide the person who will be in constant touch with the team to give feedback or approve their work.
Website services here include building a website from scratch, migrating the existing website from one server or CMS to another, error removing from the website and maintaining the current website among others.
Line out the near future plans for the website functionality-wise and services-wise. Knowing the expansion plan scope of the website impact some decisions at an early stage.
Segregating pages and their structures at this stage tells how many resources can accomplish the tasks in the desired time frame. Service pages mostly have similar design and functionality. So, tell the developers how many different types of pages your website needs and how many total pages it needs.
Knowing the target audience helps the web development team to set the tone of the website. They can choose whether the website should have a friendly tone, formal tone, professional tone or any other.
Share the images you want to use on the website pages or if you have the design files or mockup ready, share it with the development team. Design files really help visualize the client’s idea. It could be a wireframe, mock-up, collection of assets or anything that works as a blueprint for the website.
If not the design files, then any chats with clients where the brief was discussed or any call recording that gives clarity of thought would do the work.
Share the reference website or any competitor’s website, if any.
Cover the dos and don’ts for the team that were not covered in any of the previous sections but will be useful or the development team.
"It is better to be prepared than to get ready"
Will Smith
And, the above questions will prepare you for your meeting with the web development team.