RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL

PROJECT TEAM

ME‣ Strategy Director ‣ Sales & initial vision ‣ High level view throughout project ‣ Ran many projects, now help concentrate on how

BLUELEAF

-£105,210 OF FEES

6 MONTHS LATE

WHAT HAPPENED?

TOPICS FOR TODAY

LEAD TEAM

TOOLSCHECKS PLAN

LEAD

THE WAY THE WEB SHOULD BE®

RESPONSIBILITY‣ Responsible means you have the

ability to choose your response ‣ You are responsible for the team’s output ‣ You must shoulder that fully ‣ Any problems is eventually, your fault

COMMON PROBLEMS‣ You have the wrong person ‣ You have the right person in the wrong seat ‣ You didn’t educate an individual enough ‣ You didn’t educate the team enough ‣ You didn’t follow the process enough

BAD“Why the hell did you do it that way? Isn’t it obvious that’s the wrong way?”

“Just get it fixed ASAP and tell me so I can ship it / test it / shout more”

GOOD“I’m sorry, it’s clear to me the request was easy to interpret a different way”

“I’ll write better requests in the future. For this one, could we do it this way?”

PLAN

THE WAY THE WEB SHOULD BE®

PROJECT JOURNEY

3 40 60 100 120

KICK OFF SPEC SIGNOFF

CLIENT UNHAPPY WITH DESIGNS

DEV ROADBLOCK LAUNCH

THE WAY THE WEB SHOULD BE®

WHOLE JOURNEY

55 60 65 80 90

BA OFF SICK

CLIENT ON HOLIDAY

LEAD DEV HAS FUNERAL

SECURE MORE RESOURCE

HOSTING COMPANY FOLDS

KICK OFF SPEC SIGNOFF

CLIENT UNHAPPY WITH DESIGNS

DEV ROADBLOCK LAUNCH

BUCKET OF PAIN‣ Poor planning fills bucket of pain ‣ Poor detail in specification ‣ Lack of clear scope ‣ All fill the bucket ‣ Bucket pours on project in later stages

TEAM

THE LONE RANGER

LONE RANGER‣ Setting up ‘own way’ of working ‣ If off, everyone dreads looking at the work ‣ Resists change ‣ Chance to change but don’t hang around -

they are very damaging

THE WEAK LINK

THE WEAK LINK‣ Not reliable ‣ Messages / conversations get lost / not

relayed to the right people ‣ Client thinks all is fine ‣ No one realises until it’s too late

THE PERFECTIONIST

THE PERFECTIONIST‣ The enemy of progress ‣ Attitude can really affect team moral ‣ Can create commercial black holes

A CULT OF HIGH STANDARDS‣ Everyone does things the same way ‣ Everyone holds each other accountable ‣ No fear of challenging each other to do better ‣ Adopt a set of well known standards as a base

VALUES‣ Know your team values ‣ All teams are different - know thyself ‣ Hire/fire based on those values

BLUELEAF VALUES‣ Know your team values ‣ All teams are different - know thyself ‣ Hire/fire based on those values

DON’T WAIT!‣ If you’re a small team do this now ‣ So much harder to do it later ‣ Makes it much easier to hire/fire based on fit

TOOLS

TOOLS TO SUCCEED‣ Less important what they are ‣ More important that they exist ‣ And there’s a process to use them well ‣ Don’t make good work hard work

CHECKS

QUALITY IS AN ATTITUDE

GOOD TESTING TAKES TIME

QUALITY ASSURANCE‣ Design QA - Lead designer ‣ Specification QA - Producer / BA ‣ Fresh eyes QA - Outside project ‣ Normo QA - non agency / client person

TESTING DONE WELL‣ Project Managers shouldn’t test ‣ Developers shouldn’t test (end to end) ‣ Shockingly, testers should test ‣ Crowd testing available

BAKE IN QUALITY‣ All code reviewed and approved ‣ All designs reviewed and approved ‣ Automate dev testing via TDD & tools ‣ Never accept “I’ll do it later”

CONCLUSION

CONTACTS‣ rob.smith@blue-leaf.co.uk ‣ @rob_smith ‣ 07736 319 735 ‣ If you want to work with us or join us!