Parsing Tasks for Staff Members

   

The Need
The razor sharp specialization in today’s IT and software domain focuses on the diverse requirements of skill sets in any developmental activity. The concept of dual skill sets was first applied to the tank crews in World War II. This concept ensured that the tank is functional in the event of casualty of one of the crew members. However the need for overlapping skills is more pronounced in a team conceptualizing or managing a website. The complexity of modern web designing brings to fore the issues of developmental prioritization, optimization and efficient time management.

Overlapping Skills
Many technical professionals have some overlap in their skill sets between the positions. Knowing where this overlap occurs can be useful; because this knowledge helps you better deploy technical professionals for maximum effectiveness and productivity.

These overlapping skills can help you get the right skills on a relatively small technical team. For example, if your company uses an outside graphics design firm, then you don’t need to hire a graphics designer. However, having some graphic design skills on your team is still useful. You should be able to locate at HTML programmer or Web designer with a basic to moderate understanding of graphic design in order to help you fill that role on your team when the outside firm has completed their contract.

Do not make the mistake of thinking that these overlapping skills completely eliminate the need for certain positions. Very few Web designers and even fewer HTML programmers have the artistic ability to completely replace a graphic designer, even though they may have a good eye for basic graphic design and may be able to come up with the basic design elements, such as site icons or banners.

Establishing Development Priorities
You need to know what you and your development team will start working on first, what will be second, what pieces can be worked on by different developers at the same, time, and so forth. Your design documentation should give you a good idea of what your priorities are, but developing a complete project plan is easier if you make a simple priority list. For example, an online retailer may have a priority list similar to the following:

1a. Set up basic infrastructure.

1b. Set up basic navigational framework to use during development

1c. Begin programming item detail pages for items with no color or size variations.

2a. Begin working on navigation and basic page elements.

2b. Begin programming shopping card and checkout.

3a. Begin loading item images for top items.

3b. Begin working on item detail pages for items with color or size variations.

4a. (and so forth)

In this list, like numbered items are all completed in parallel, so item 1a and 1b are being accomplished at the same time by different members of your team.

A priority list gives you some obvious advantages from a project management standpoint, but you may have some purely practical reasons for prioritizing. For example, your company may want to take the site live sooner than originally planned. Competitive pressure, finance situations, and many other factors can drive a decision like this. Establishing a good priority list means that the most important pieces of the site have the greatest likelihood of being completed if the site does go live early.

When constructing your priority list, keep an eye on which technical disciplines can work in parallel and create matching priorities. For example, developers have a difficult time testing their pages if the site has no navigation elements. So have your graphic designers immediately crank out some utilitarian elements that the developers can use, and then move on to creating the final graphics and other page elements.

Programmers should initially focus on the minimum tasks required for customers to locate and purchase products, and then move on to portions of the site that enhance the customer’s experience or provide other business benefits. Work on the portions that give you the biggest bang for your buck first. If you have three different classes of items that require programming, finish the largest or bestselling group first, and then work on the others.

Always ask yourself, “If the site went live today, what I would wish had been completed by now?” Then place those items on the top of the priority list.

The Conclusion
A plain website, just a decade back would have required a couple of HTML professionals to design and execute. But today, the exacting design, operational and security standards require a team of hardcore specialist to do the job. Such a professional production activity necessitates application of all the management rationales and prioritization of different tasks assumes paramount importance. The development thus be planned in well thought out steps and lesser issues like the look and feel of the site may be sacrificed in the initial phases. The raison d'être of an e-commerce venture is generating revenue and that should be the motto of any development team.

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