Introduction
Website Remodel aims at improving a website’s user interactions, majorly by re-examining the current navigation, set-ups, content, and technology in place. This website redesign will help improve the end-user interactions with the web content, hence acting as a powerful tool for sales of the company product and services. A successful business organization should consider re-modeling its website for it to remain afloat and overcome competitive forces (Dokuchaev, Khamzin & Solovyova, 2020). The businesses that have been reluctant to stay updated with the emerging customer demands have been out-competed in the industry, even by small business firms.
Project Goals & Objectives
The current Clayton Public Schools Printing and Mailing Services website must be revamped with the user in mind. The department’s website will be redesigned to promote the department, its services, and its workers. A new and quick online printing request form will be created to collect online orders. In the other case, the website will have a customer feedback form to aid the department in resolving issues and improving efficiency. The creation of the online printing request form will help to increase the number of customers. The company expects, in the future, to receive several orders from various customers. This will enable the firm to generate more revenue in the process of earning profit. When more orders are placed, the company expects to make significant growth in its sales volume.
For the improvement of the company’s nature of operations in terms of efficiency and customer delivery, the online feedback system will be incorporated by the firm. Customer feedback is vital for every firm that intends to meet customer needs (Cardoso, 2019). Customer satisfaction should be the utmost goal of every business venture. It is believed that a satisfied customer will always come back with another customer to make purchases. This, therefore, is among some of the reasons that the company is capitalizing on an online feedback system. This platform is very vital because it enables more interactions with customers. Direct interaction with customers helps in improving the products and services that meet the needs of the customers (Akhmetshin et al., 2019). The online feedback system encourages customers to share their perceptions, likes, dislikes, recommendations, and comments, among others, about the services they receive. It is believed that the customer is the main reason why printing services at the company exist.
Objectives
The printing services department’s present website needs are user-centered redesign, size reduction, architectural revamp, updated and intuitive navigation structure, accessibility compliance, and a cohesive content strategy. This project attempts to meet all of these requirements and provide a print shop website that is, first and foremost, a tool for student, parent, staff, and community achievement. However, the organization has specific objectives that it aims to achieve as shown below:
- To have a Printing and Mailing Services department to create a vision for their new website that would promote its services and its employees.
- To redesign the site’s architecture and navigation to make it easier to locate and use.
- To redesign the home page that focuses on consumers’ tasks.
- To create a content plan to help you enhance the information on your site, both old and fresh.
- To gather online orders by creating a new and quick online printing request form.
- To create a page with a customer feedback form to get input from customers and assist the department in solving problems and becoming more effective.
- To make the site content and functionality completely integrated on a single CMS, phase out dependent infrastructure.
Project requirements
The firm intends to use expert judgment that knows the system requirement in terms of resources. In other cases, the firm may opt to use an alternative analysis that entails weighing a variety of choices for allocating resources. The use of alternative analysis will involve several measures, including altering the amount and kind of resources being utilized.
Project management software, such as Microsoft Project, usually includes features that help the team estimate resource needs and constraints, as well as determine the best assignment mix for the project. The Microsoft Project has made it possible for the firm to incorporate several unique features into its system that pose great benefits both on the resources needed and the expected challenges that go with it (Banica, Radulescu & Hagiu, 2017). This software will offer significant value to web remodeling since several features key to the design will be captured. When it comes to resource allocation, several firms find it difficult to know with surety the system requirement; hence end up either underspending or overspending on the same.
Project management software helps the firm to reduce the cost of doing business since lots of guesswork on resources will be eliminated. Further to that, the software will help the firm in publishing the estimated data to assist in figuring out how many resources will be required. The data from other people’s initiatives will be collected, analyzed, and used in the web design process. This offers an important, valid, and reliable source of information crucial to the web remodel process. The bottom-up estimation can be used in breaking down complicated operations into smaller chunks and determining resource allocations for each one. Bottom-up estimating is a method used in project management to guide in forecasting the costs or time taken by the projects and parts of a project. The term bottom-up forecasting guides the underlying concept of costs, time, or resources needed to be estimated at a granular level (Ju, Lee, Koo, & Kim, 2018). In this case, it entails the forecasting for work packages while there could be preferences on activities that are the lowest and most detailed level of a work breakdown structure (WBS).
Change Management
Several factors emanating from changes in technology, an increase of new competitors, changes in laws, regulations, or other cases, and the baseline economic trends are affecting business operations. It is for this reason that firms must arise and cope with the changes; otherwise, those that fail to do so could fail to grow or close down completely. More than 50 % of all organizational new approach fails. This implies why it is so vital to have technical know-how in planning, coordination, and carrying out change managers and firm leaders (Mark & Lurie, 2018). Organizational change is mostly the broad measures a firm undertakes to alter or adapt a consequential part of its organization. The organizational change can be on the firm’s culture, inner operations, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate order, or another integral facet. Change management is the procedure of steering organizational transformation to culmination, from the earliest phases of conception and preparation, through execution and, finally, to resolution (Molina-Ríos & Pedreira-Souto, 2020). For the change management process, it undergoes the following five processes:
The first thing is to assemble an adaptable organization; at the initial stage, the utmost concern for the manager is assisting other managers in aiding employees to recognize and understand the need for change. This is then followed by the creation of a long-term vision and a detailed strategy for implementing it. Once the firm is in agreement to adopt changes in its plan, it will entail strategic goals and measures for achieving them (Marques & Bernardino, 2019). The key performance indicators will be added to the plan with a baseline for how things will appear. The project stakeholders and team will assist in executing change and supervising while the project scope will set the boundaries for the project.
The third process is correcting the change that must be applied. After the plan has been adopted, the organization will start implementation. This will be done carefully with the main aim of achieving its goals. There are a number of obstacles that the firm should expect, part of which can be managed through proper communication (Puška et al., 2020). The fourth process is to enforce changes in the way your company works and thinks. Enforcing change in a firm is important for firm change in relation to procedures, workflows, traditions, and strategies (Thesing, Feldmann, & Burchardt, 2021). Embedding changes within the organization’s tradition and practices reduce the change. The last process is to observe and analyze progress and results. By constant observation, analyzing progress, and monitoring the results, the firm can make significant progress.
Project Scope Description & Project Deliverables
During the project, the team’s overall strategy is to develop a website using a four-step process. The first step was to identify the goals of the department. After doing this, we will start to prioritize the most critical tasks for the department. The second step is to think about the user experience. There is a focus on creating an excellent experience for the department’s current and new customers in this area. The third step is to implement an audit of the website’s message. This step will help identify and fix any issues that might affect the website’s performance (Ylhäinen, 2021). The website’s design has many components, such as graphic design, navigation, and interface design.
The project’s primary output will be a revamped website that is more controllable, useful, and consistent with accessibility regulations. The Printing and Mailing Services wants to update its website to promote services and personnel. The organization will build a new and quick online printing request form to collect online orders. Furthermore, a website with customer feedback forms to aid in resolving issues and increasing efficiency will be established.
Acceptance
School Messenger will ask the customer to sign off on the models by approving a Deliverable Acceptance form once each model has been put into production and is free of operational errors. As the last step, the Printing and Mailing services department will have to sign off on all project deliverables via the Customer Letter of Acceptance after the website design is completed for the client. It is the responsibility of the project stakeholder’s executive sponsors to examine and approve all project deliverables. The project stakeholders should take full ownership and governance of the organization (Pace, 2019). Their role is significant in ensuring a successful implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of successful website design. The customer appending the acceptance form is a commitment on their side of any liability or consideration that may arise from the same. The project’s success criteria are so vital for the entire organization affecting both the firm and all concerned stakeholders.
Project management
The team will work together inside a project management platform and procedure to achieve specified objectives during the project. To complete website projects ranging from new site development to redesigns and migrations. The success of the organization’s website remodel is not the task left to one individual. The success of the firm calls for collective teamwork by bringing on board all the key players together, from the top management to lower staff (Starns, 2019). Each has to play his or her role in ensuring that the utmost goal of the organization is being realized. Website remodeling is an involving task that involves lots of testing and trials to ensure that the system is working and meeting the needs of the organization. This is the most compelling task for any organization, and the commitment of every team member must be fully realized.
Project Assumptions, Constraints, And Risk
The success of any project is faced with several assumptions, constraints, and risk elements. Below are some of the assumptions, constraints, and risks that drag the project:
Time constraint; even though most of the project’s preparation work has been completed for many months, there is still a lot of work to do to publish an updated website by May 2, 2022.
Project team; there is great faith in the project team, but there is a cognizant that the members of the team have other commitments that may take precedence at times.
Internal stakeholders buy-in; to properly construct a user-centered website, there will be a balance of what is believed to be vital for the website with user behavior and requirements, allowing the latter to take priority over the former when the two collide.
User testing timing; getting people to engage in user testing may be challenging.
It’s time-consuming and costly to create a large website (Vu, Proctor, & Hung, 2021). At times, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily struggle of creating the site and lose sight of the team’s initial goals, leaving everyone unsure whether the actions you’re making are in line with the long-term goals.
Goals And Plans of Action
Below are some of the guiding questions that are so crucial in coming up with the goals and the plan of action for the website remodel.
- What is the purpose of the organizations?
- How can the creation of this website help at achieving the organization’s goal?
- What are the site’s top two or three objectives?
- Who are the site’s primary users?
- Is there anything you want the viewers to take away from your site after they’ve visited it?
- What web-based tactics do you have in mind to help you reach your objectives?
- What metrics will you use to determine the effectiveness of your website?
- How will you ensure that the final site is properly maintained?
Develop a WBS
The work breakdown structure is a crucial step in building and upgrading the CCPS Printing Services department’s existing website. It aids in defining the needs for a new website. The project’s primary outcome will be a redesigned website that is more manageable, usable, and compliant with accessibility standards. The Printing and Mailing Services department wishes to revamp its website to advertise the department, its services, and its employees. This will go a long way in ensuring that there is improved communication with the set clients. Advertising is key to reaching a great pool of potential customers who could not have been known through other means (Shivakumar, Shivakumar & Ramachandran, 2018). We’ve created a new and efficient online printing request form to gather online orders. A website with a consumer feedback form is also available to assist the department in addressing difficulties and increasing efficiency.
Work breakdown structure planning will help to simplify manufacturing, save money, and boost delivery speed. A web project team may be more precise in their delivery by defining tasks and preparing consecutive phases. Planning ahead of time for a web project will lessen the likelihood of costly changes and miscommunications. Using a work breakdown structure can help individuals understand what needs to be done to make a project, program, or initiative go well. This tool can help you understand what needs to be done to make a project, program, or initiative go well (Thomas, 2017). The benefits of having WBS are it helps coordinate website design & layout, develop website content, and test website functionality.
Lastly, how to close the web project is essential. Once the project deliverables have been completed, it may be tempting to congratulate the team and move on to the next project that requires your attention. However, a proper project closing procedure may help the team avoid missed opportunities to resolve critical aspects that might lead to confusion among clients, continued changes, and even liability problems (Manhas, 2017). This, therefore, calls for the project manager to ensure that he calls for a meeting to relieve and release the project’s team that their service has come to an end. The project manager will pay them all their wages and salaries as they fall due and thank them for their effort in delivering the project. The stakeholders will also be called for a meeting after the completion of the project for the handover of the project.
The work breakdown activities.
The AON diagram is a great tool to visualize the network logic of a complete project schedule. The arrows link the nodes to each other. Using these arrows, it is possible to see how the activities are connected. All tasks are connected from start to finish and can be displayed instead of the diagram above. Activity on the Critical Path is a necessity of proper scheduling in project management and assures the project’s eventual success (Gomez et al., 2021). The precedence diagramming approach is used in project management.
Activity schedule
Proposed Project Start & End Date
Staff time is the most expensive component of this project’s budget. Following a meeting with the team and School Messenger Developers, there was a review of everything recommended for the redesign. The review indicated that there was a large amount of work being realized, and the estimated time to create and finish the web design job was 80 (eighty) hours. The hourly rate amounted to $100, thereby leading to an estimated total cost will be $8,000.00. The website remodel is an involving and expensive task that is meant to consume a lot of the organization’s resources. This, therefore, will make the firm allocate a substantial amount of resources for the successful implementation of the website.
Website Features And Expenses
Software is essential to decide whether to utilize open-source software, such as Word Press, or commercial software, such as CMS Hub. This is estimated to cost the firm around $7300.00 for the purchase and the installation. In some other cases, many website designers and CMS offer free templates that you can modify with a drag-and-drop editor and can cost an estimated $200.00. The extensions allow for functionality that comes with most platforms out of the box (Ylhäinen, 2021). One may wish to add functionality to your site by downloading or purchasing extensions at $200.00; there could be other expenses associated with the maintenance of the website, whereby when calculating how much it costs to run a website, categorizing your spending into monthly, yearly, and one-time fees might be beneficial and can cost an estimated $300.00.
Project Management Issues
Several issues are being realized for the successful installation and implementation of a complete and functional website. The management, therefore, needs to be fully cognizant of a number of them, and appropriate measures are put in place to avoid future surprises that may arise. Below are some of the issues the organization should expect as outlined by an expert judgment, and the manager should put them into consideration:
- What is the estimated cost of the website?
- Which dates and milestones will be reached along the way in terms of the site’s manufacturing schedule?
- What are the roles and duties of each member of the development team?
- How many web pages will be on the site? Under these conditions, what number of people can be accommodated?
- In terms of technical or functional specifications, what is required?
- Upon launching the site, who will be in charge of providing continuous maintenance and support?
The key success factor will be a fully functional website remodel capable of being used by the customer. The management should ensure that the system is fully functional with enabling features to ensure efficient feedback from the customers. The website should be easily accessible to potential customers to place new orders online for printing services. The website also should be capable of giving good returns on investment to the stakeholders by earning high revenues on mailing and printing services (Manhas, 2017). A successful website remodel should be capable of paying all the expenses and other related costs associated with it and yet realize a profit for the organization.
With 30-70% project duration not materialized, it, therefore, indicates that some work is still in progress. By taking that all the work has not been completed by 70% therefore, the table below shows such a schedule variance.
Status report of schedule variance
Conclusion
The team of management should therefore develop several measures to detect and address the immerging issues and problems during and after system execution. The various causes of delays associated with the website remodel should be fully investigated by a team of experts, and a similar report is given to the management for redress. Any delay associated with; informing stakeholders, Website Remodel, introducing new website design, new online printing request form, new feedback form, soft launch of the new site, other ideas for the website, project charter, scope, and success criteria review, providing instruction to those in charge of creating the material, rewriting the contributors’ style guide for the web, involving team members in the process of creating content, and user testing should be dealt with.
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