When businesses realize they need a strong digital presence, they hire web developers to create it. In the web development process, there is one important role that fits in like the missing piece of the puzzle — the project manager.
If you choose a web development company over a freelancer, you will most likely be offered a project manager’s services. This is especially common with dedicated development teams who work solely on your project for a long time. However, there is often no common understanding among new customers as to why they need a PM.
We decided to shed a light on this topic and discuss the role of project manager in web development.
What does a web project manager do?
A project manager is the person on the web development team who controls the process, coordinates the team members’ actions, and ensures the timely project delivery.
Here are just a few things a PM is responsible for:
- providing smooth communication between the customer and the developers
- prioritizing the project requirements and tasks
- allocating the resources
- estimating the time
- reporting on progress
- tracking the work hours
- creating a favorable atmosphere in the team
- making sure the customer’s expectations are met
- making sure the deadlines are met
- making sure the budgets are met
- troubleshooting various issues
- helping with development, testing, and deployment when needed
- maintaining the documentation
- making decisions
- managing risks
- and much more
What are the qualities of a good project manager?
A good project manager needs great skills in business management, leadership, communication, problem-solving, and planning. If the team is from a country where English is not a native language, a PM should speak it very well anyway in order to bring the customer’s message across to the team and make sure every task is completed correctly.
A project manager also needs to be a tech-savvy person who understands the ins and outs of the web development project. If you work with a project manager who fits this description, you won’t have to worry about your web development project.
Why you need a project manager for web development
Some customers deny the importance of a project manager in pursuit of savings on work hours. Let’s sum up a few reasons why a working with a project manager in web development is extremely beneficial:
- You have the person in charge of your project who takes care of making sure it is implemented correctly along with all organizational issues.
- Developers do not spend their hours on the administrative routine, which increases the time they have for creative decisions and effective work.
- It’s also cost-effective to not charge developers for hours they spend on non-development related tasks.
- There is always a person who can solve a problem on the project, while you can keep calm and continue with your business.
- A PM knows the strengths and weaknesses of every team member, which is helpful for the optimal task allocation, as well as for motivating everyone perfectly.
The role of project manager in every stage of website development
A project manager should be involved throughout the whole web development cycle. Let’s take a closer look at what a project manager can be useful for at every stage of your website development.
Negotiation
This is the stage when a web development agency discovers your needs and expectations about the web development project and provides you with a rough estimate of the time and costs. At this stage, a PM studies your goals, budget, and deadlines, and recommends the most viable cooperation model (fixed price, time and material, etc.) A PM also comes up with ideas as to the best technological solutions and the best functionality for your case. Finally, this person participates in shaping your future web development team.
Discovery
At the discovery stage of web development, a team creates a roadmap for the project, shapes the website’s architecture and UX, and gives you a more detailed estimate. The project’s backlog, or a list of the needed features, is developed according to the Scrum methodology. Of course, a PM has plenty of work to do at the discovery stage — planning the tasks, breaking the development time into sprints (time-framed periods, usually two-week long, to perform a specific part of the project), and more. Plans, charts, calendars, and schedules are a PM’s best friends here.
Development
When everything is finally ready, developers can start their work in iterations according to the plan, and the PM is fully engaged in the supervising process. A project manager allocates tasks, organizes team meetings, handles the daily routines, tracks the progress, addresses all upcoming issues, removes any obstacles in the smooth development process, gathers regular feedback from the customer, and much more. A PM makes sure the customer’s concept is understood correctly for every task and the project’s constraints in time and budget are fully met.
Release
Finally, the moment comes for your website to go live, so all users can see it on the web. Your project manager prepares for this moment throughout all the stages. A PM needs to make sure everything is ready by the necessary date and control the smooth deployment. Your project manager is then ready to report to you about all the details of the completed product.
Further maintenance
After the web product has gone live, it may still need good care so it always stays up-to-date, smoothly-working, and protected against the latest threats. That’s why many customers choose further maintenance.
A PM can handle a maintenance project just like a web development one. Communication, task allocation, implementation control, and much more is up to the PM. A project manager also keeps an eye on the site and notifies the customer when there is a security update that needs to be applied.
Hire a team with a professional project manager
As you can see, a project manager’s role in website development is huge — in fact, it largely determines your product’s success. At WishDesk, you can hire a web development team that will include a professional PM with all the needed skills. Just drop us a line and let your well-guided project begin!
