Introduction
The project will involve development and finally hoisting of a website for McDouglas Company. Technological advance and enhanced professionalism allows static design and maintenance of websites. McDouglas website will not provide information about the company but will also act as its subsidiary marketing tool. It will provide updated information about the company including the products and services it offers. It must therefore reflect the strengths and opportunities that the company offers to its clients. Additionally, the website will be expected to support flow of information from the clients to the company and vice-versa (Kerzner 36)
Project Objectives
- To build and implement a website that is user centered and portrays positive professional image of McDonald as well as target the intended audiences in a responsive manner to their needs and requirements.
- Develop a thematic scheme highlighting McDonald’s strengths and mission and how the company relates to the public.
- Offer effective and relevant navigation, usability, accessibility and functionality.
- To build a website that provides supportive role to the organization’s processes.
Project Description
The projects includes investigation of key company aspects, design of the website an evaluation of the website’s information architecture, standards of design, and application, management of the websites content, and the ongoing/operational requirements. Additionally it will be important to determine the necessary skills sets and personnel requirements as well as processes and applications need to support its design and successful hoisting (Richard and Edward 213). Basically the project covers development and implementation of a website for Mc Douglas Company. The project includes development and implementation of a website for McDouglas that:
- Offers a comprehensive and interactive internet presence in addition to aesthetic beauty.
- Shows the qualities and strengths associated with Mc Douglas using positive professional design.
- Enhances internal and external collaboration with Mc Douglas stakeholders.
- Supports information communication by Mc Douglas and endeavors to integrate relevant information about the company.
- Addresses the informational needs of McDouglas clients and audiences.
- Provides timely and accurate information about the company in a user friendly manner.
- Augments support for work processes, including the use of applications, e-transactions and automated processes for content management;
- Offers a design that is user centered through intelligent application of technology.
- Meets laid design standards as set by McDouglas.
The major phases that will be important in describing the milestones made by the project are best illustrated by the phases below:
Phase 1 – Project Launch & Planning
It’s been said that if you fail to plan, you plan to fail. We take that saying very seriously and planning is the most important part of your web design project. Exhaustive work is dedicated to planning process to make sure there is full understanding of client needs and goals so as to execute them efficiently and in the most cost effective way possible (Fleming 45). Up to date web design technology are incorporated to ensure perfect design is achieved.
In this phase of the project consultation between the designer and the client is necessary to ensure the website incorporates all the necessary appliances as per the functional requirements of the website (Richard and Edward 267). These include Flash player, ecommerce, and video among others. Additionally, the importance of internal marketing, search engine optimization and best practices are addressed. We also let you know about the importance of
Phase 2 – Analysis & Information Gathering
At all points in the project there is an emphasis on creating a website that performs optimally in search engine rankings – from the initial analysis through to post-launch promotion. Site’s architecture will be constructed so that the content is optimized for peak search engine performance (Fleming 123).
This phase kicks in with project management and
- Competitive analysis
- Site structure architecture
- Project collaboration platform
At this point the project coordinator ensures that all participants are on the same page through a project collaboration system which allows information sharing, tracking of all things that need to be done and complete the project milestones. This ensures that project status at nay given time is easy to know.
Phase 3 – Design & Development
This is the fun part where the design concept is born and you get to see a visual interpretation of what was gleaned from the first two phases. Custom database driven websites are build that are coded in PHP and run on a Content Management System [CMS.] What that means is that you can, when your website is live, edit it to your heart’s content; there will be no need to pay for content updates as you can control when you update your site.
At this stage any content can be migrated to the CMS and all the site’s functionality such as a mailing list, forum, calendar for example, is set up. The aim is to give clients all the information we can on trusted solutions that may further enhance aesthetic appearance and functionality of the website.
Phase 4 – Testing
Continuous testing of a website is mandatory. The website is tested as it is being built but when the site is deemed complete and ready to roll it goes through even more rigorous testing which will also occur after the website immediately goes live.
Phase 5 – Deployment
This is the exciting part where your site goes live and where its statistics can be tracked to make sure that it stays ranked for its keywords in the major search engines. This phase is chock full of internet marketing and Search Engine Optimization strategies to help you make your mark on the Web (Fleming 89)
Workload Projection
The work breakdown structure is attached in Microsoft project Gantt. It gives clear illustrations of the assigned tasks and their assigned human resources as well as a Gantt chart schedule.
References
Fleming, Quentin. Earned Value Project Management. London. Project Management Institute. 2005.
Kerzner, Harold. Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling (8th ed.). New York: Wiley. 2003.
Richard, Thayer and Edward Yourdon. Software Engineering Project Management (2nd Ed. ed.). Wiley-IEEE Computer Society Press. 2000.